Question 1

[Jimmy]

During his early days at Brown University, Cedric believes that white people are in a way superior to other races. He believes that hey have an unfair advantage mostly due to the fact hat he himself faced many economic struggles prior to attending Brown. Because of this, he thinks he must work harder than they do in order to catch up to them. Yet because of this need to catch up, he also makes the choice to take easy classes at first in order to avoid looking like a failure to all of them. He describes this advantage as, “some mysterious encoded knowledge” (190). In a way this makes it seem as if though he thinks they are superior just by genetics. Right from the start, Cedric knows that he is not one of them, yet he wants their lifestyle and their success while still being able to maintain his African American culture. He does also in a way, find their behavior kind of weird and disrespectful. He is completely surprised when the white men hug each other as a sign of affection and he is angered by Rob’s messy ways in the dorm and especially when they use homosexuality as a way to make humor. Cedric’s main belief is that he wants to have everything that they have in terms of what is material, but he does not want to assimilate in to their ways and culture, at least not towards his first days at Brown.