You know the colored college just south of Tallahassee- Melvin Griggs Technical School? They’ve just opened courses to high-achieving high school students. I thought of you right off the bat [...] Main thing is, it’s perfect for a young man like you. You’re the type of student they came up with this for [...] Imagine a textbook with nothing to cross out.

Mr. Hill is a dedicated teacher at Elwood’s segregated Black high school who endeavors to help his students critically examine the educational materials passed down by the state, which he characterizes as racist and misleading. Because Mr. Hill recognizes Elwood as a dedicated and promising student who would benefit from additional educational opportunities and resources, he encourages him to enroll in free courses for advanced high school students at a nearby HBCU or “Historically Black College and University.” Further, he prompts Elwood to “imagine a textbook with nothing to cross out.” Here, he compares the educational resources available at the Melvin Griggs Technical School to those of their high school and suggests that, at the HBCU, he will be able to learn the truth about American history through books and resources that are free of the racist bias that he sees in the high school textbooks that they have received second-hand from a white high school.  

I ain’t take more than my portion! White man teach me never to ask for more crumbs than he wants to give. Nope, I paid. My daddy paid. My Monty paid. Paid protecting others from paying. Percy paid when he came back. Army don’t protect you here, Percy. Why? Your portion is pain.

When Elwood is arrested on false charges of serving as an accomplice in a crime that he played no part in, his grandmother, Hattie, attempts to explain the situation to the police sergeant. However, the sergeant ignores her, dismissing her evidence that Elwood was accepted into a college program and was merely hitch-hiking to the college when he was arrested. She grows increasingly morose as she accepts that there is nothing that she can do to prevent Elwood from being sent to Nickel Academy, which derails his plans for college and will undoubtedly change the rest of his life. In this speech, delivered more to herself than to Elwood, Hattie notes the ways in which racism has marred the lives of those in her family. Her words suggest that she has learned, through bitter, painful lessons, to keep her head down in order to survive in a violently racist society. Further, she adds that she and other members of her family, including her father, husband, and son, have all “paid” the price of being Black in America—the pride being their pain, their blood, and sometimes, their lives. 

You don’t know what makes him tick. You won’t know what makes anybody tick. I used to think out there is out there, and once you’re in here, you’re in here. But now that I been out and I been brought back, I know. In here and out there are the same, but in here no one has to act fake anymore.

In a pivotal scene in the film, Turner accuses Elwood of being naive about the harsh realities of life in America. Earlier, Elwood was brutally punished by Spencer, the school superintendent, for trying to intervene when he saw two students bullying a smaller student. Here, Turner argues that Elwood misinterpreted the situation, as the students were just playing “rough” with one another. Elwood, Turner claims, doesn’t know what makes people “tick,” despite his desire to help others. Reflecting on Nickel Academy more broadly, Turner adds that the outside world is, ultimately, the “same” as the school, as racism, violence, and corruption can be found, he believes, in all areas of American society. Surprisingly, he suggests that Nickel Academy is simply more honest than the outside world, as “no one has to act fake” at the reform school. For Turner, then, there is little reason to try and escape from Nickel, as the whole country operates on the same logic as Nickel, even if others “act fake” by feigning to care about fairness, justice, and the law. Turner offers a clear-sighted, though pessimistic, account of life in the Jim Crow era.  

“If everyone looks the other way, then everybody’s in on it. If I look the other way, I’m as implicated as the rest. It’s not how it’s supposed to be."  

 

“Don’t nobody care about s’posed to. The fix has always been in—game’s rigged.”  

 

“That’s what I’m telling you. It’s not like the old days. We can stand up for ourselves.”  

Despite their close friendship, Turner and Elwood have very different perspectives as a result of their different backgrounds and ideals. While Elwood was raised in a loving and stable home by his grandmother, there was little stability in Turner’s home life, and Turner has a relatively pessimistic outlook on American society. Here, Elwood explains his ill-fated attempt to defend another student from bullies, noting that he would be “implicated” in the violence at Nickel Academy if he were to “look the other way” as many other students do. Elwood believes that it is morally wrong to ignore injustice, rejecting Turner’s insistence that he must avoid trouble in order to survive at Nickel.  

Turner, however, suggests that Elwood is merely naive. When Elwood says that things at Nickel are not how they’re “supposed to be,” Turner retorts that nobody cares about how things should be. Turner is more practical and is focused on the reality of how things are rather than how he feels that they ought to be. Elwood, however, remains unconvinced, arguing that they no longer live in “the old days” when Black people could not “stand up” for themselves. His perspective has been shaped by the ideals and values of the Civil Rights Movement, and he has faith in the progress that figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. have called for.  

The law’s one thing [...] I saw the college kids in Tampa with their nice shirts and ties sitting at the Woolworth’s. I had to work, but they were out protesting. And it happened, they opened that counter. But I didn’t have the money to eat there either way. Gotta change the economics of all this, too.

Turner and Elwood discuss their different worldviews while they perform housework for Mrs. Hardee, the wife of the director of Nickel Academy. Mrs. Hardee treats Turner and Elwood in a friendly manner, and Turner jokes that he would like to be adopted by her, but Elwood sticks to his principles and argues that the unpaid work they are doing on her house is illegal. Turner, however, dismisses “the law” and tells Elwood about an experience he had while working in Tampa. Black college students, he recounts, conducted a “sit-in” protest, refusing to leave the lunch counter of the segregated department store until they were served. Ultimately, Turner notes, the protest was successful and the store workers “opened that counter,” serving the Black college students despite long-standing segregation at the institution. Nevertheless, Turner argues that the protest made little change, as he still “didn’t have the money to eat there either way.” Here, Turner suggests that the protests, which seek to change the laws, make little difference to those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. Instead, he argues that economic inequality must be addressed for progress to be meaningful.  

Take a Study Break