Brothers and Keepers, short responses

1.
Sometimes we occupy one of the lawyer-client tables, but today a guard chases us away. Robby’s had trouble with him before. I commit the guard’s name to memory just in case. My personal shit list for close watching or revenge or whatever use it would serve if something suspicious happens to my brother. I consider making a fuss. After all, I’m a professional writer. Don’t I have just as much right as a lawyer or social worker to the convenience of a table where I can set own the tools of my trade, where my brother and I can put a little distance between ourselves and the babble of twenty or thirty simultaneous conversations? (p. 192)

The prison guard only sees the color of the visitor and the color of the inmate. Since “9 out of 10” (p. 213) people in his prison are black, he is conditioned to see that the black man is contrary to societal order. The guard shows Robby, once again, his absolute power by denying Robby and John a big secluded table. He knows he is i...