Dutchman

Still on the train, Lula and Clay are discussing their plans to attend the party. Lula plans to take Clay back to her apartment to talk about his manhood, which they’ve “been talking about all this time” (25), before having sex. Lula says that Clay will tell her he loves her, “especially if you think it’ll keep me alive” (27), and he says that she’s morbid. 

Clay notices the surge of people boarding the train, and Lula asks whether they frighten him “‘[c]ause you’re an escaped nigger” (29) who “crawled through the wire and made tracks to my side” (29). Clay disagrees with Lula’s suggestion that plantations had wire, claiming that plantations “were big whitewashed places like heaven” where everyone was “just strummin’ and hummin’ all day,” and “that’s how the blues was born” (30).

Lula takes that line as a cue to start dancing and implores Clay to join her, saying, “Let’s do the nasty. Rub bellies” (30); Clay is embarrassed and does not join in. Lula gets annoyed and starts attacking Clay for being an educated black man who doesn’t fit black stereotypes, calling him a “middle-class black bastard” (31) and a “liver-lipped white man” (31).