The Brother from Another Planet

Fly:
(about Harlem) I'd rather be a cockroach on a baseboard up here than the Emperor of Mississippi.

Card Trickster:
I have another magic trick for you. Wanna see me make all the white people disappear?

Subway Public Address Announcer:
Fifty-Ninth Street, Columbus Circle; 125th Street next. This an Uptown A Express going to 207. Change for the AA local across the platform, the D, or the upper level, change for the number 1 Broadway trains.

Card Trickster:
See, what'd I tell ya?

Subway Public Address Announcer:
Uptown A, 125th street, next.

Man In Black:
[sitting at the bar] Beer.

Odell:
What kind?

Man In Black:
Draft.

Man In Black:
On the rocks.

Sam:
[talking about The Brother] What am I supposed to do?

Fly:
You the city, Sam. Figure out where to put him.

Sam:
Men's shelter.

Smokey:
Too smelly.

Sam:
Okay. The Hilton. You got the tab?

Smokey:
What they pay you for?

Sam:
I just make phone calls. You want him out, you could call the cops.

Fly:
Cops? Oh, man.

Smokey:
He knew the death seat when he sat down on it.

Sam:
It's not like I got to drum up more business for the city, you know?

Man In Black:
[putting money on the bar after the Men in Black drink their two beers] Keep the change, sport.

Odell:
[crossing arms, looking exasperated] That's two dollars, man.

Man In Black:
[putting more money on the bar] We'll be back.

Basketball Player:
Funny-lookin' motherf***er, but he can shoot, can't he?

Bernice:
What you want for dinner?

Odell:
You mean, what do I *want*, or what do I want that you can *cook*?

Bernice:
Well, in that case, where are you taking me?

Odell:
Yeah, what do you want to have?

Bernice:
You mean, what do I *want*, or what do I want that you can *afford*?

Mama:
[checking pots on stove] Boy didn't marry her for her cooking...

Randy Sue Carter:
[from next room] He didn't marry me, period.

Man In Black:
Badges?

Man In Black:
What badges?

Man In Black:
We don't have no badges.

Smokey:
[Men in Black have just left] White folks get stranger all the time.

Phil:
I mean, I didn't want to be *like* Ernie Banks. I wanted to *be* Ernie Banks.

Ed:
Mr. Cub...

Phil:
And it never really dawned on me that he was Black.

Ed:
Wrist hitter...

Phil:
I was, you know, seven years old. And he was just... Ernie Banks. He was my hero.

Ed:
All in the wrists...

Phil:
There weren't any Black people in my town. At least I don't think there were.

Ed:
Mr. Cub...

Virgil:
Children witherin' away up here, brother, worshippin' the idol of capital, lustin' after the false salvation of here and now. Black brother and sister perishin' up here, mon, waiting for scrap from oppressor table. Oppressor got us for *house pet*; do him tricks to get reward. Oppressor need a slave; him find it here. Oppressor need a harlot; him find it here. Oppressor don't need here at all; him wipe it away from the map.

Virgil:
Nighttime is promise, brother. You make deals in the night. Pay all you've got for what you can't see and when sun come up. Illuminate: we been cheated again.