Summary

Chapter 8 depicts the genesis of Ike’s and Buddy Lee’s detective endeavors. They visit the newspaper Isiah wrote for, The Rainbow Review. En route, their conversation is characterized by racial tension. Ike tells Buddy Lee, “I never said you was [racist]. You just another white boy that don’t have to worry about people like me and the shit we go through…When you or some other white boy says ‘your kind’ it’s like I’m some fucking animal that you trying to put in a cage” (47). At the newspaper’s office, they talk with Amelia, a co-worker of Isiah, who is lesbian. She discerns Ike’s and Buddy Lee’s discomfort and says, “You both think our sexuality is something that has to be explained. It isn’t. It’s just who we are” (47). Ike talks to Amelia in...