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The White Man
Hattie and Willie’s three young boys are excited about the white man’s arrival. Yet, having been born on Mars (where there are only black people), the boys do not understand the deep-rooted racism that existed on Earth. Although the boys aren’t allowed to go see the white man with the rest of the town, that doesn’t curb their curiosity and they spend the entire day trying to understand what white people are like.
Hattie and Willie’s Children Quotes in The Other Foot
The The Other Foot quotes below are all either spoken by Hattie and Willie’s Children or refer to Hattie and Willie’s Children. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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The Other Foot Quotes
Well, the white people live on Earth, which is where we all come from, twenty years ago. We just up and walked away and came to Mars and set down and built towns and here we are. Now we’re Martians instead of Earth people. And no white men’ve come up here in all that time. That’s the story.
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Willie plunged out of the house. “You children come inside, I’m locking you up. You ain’t seeing no white man, you ain’t talking about them, you ain’t doing nothing.”
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Hattie and Willie’s Children Character Timeline in The Other Foot
The timeline below shows where the character Hattie and Willie’s Children appears in The Other Foot. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Other Foot
Hattie Johnson’s children have heard the news as well. Hattie’s “three little Negro boys” jump up and down...
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The children beg Hattie to tell them stories about white men. Frowning, Hattie says that “it’s been...
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...hills” look like they’re baking in the harsh sun. After a long pause, she tells her boys that white people have white hands. Her boys are incredulous. When she tells them that...
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Hattie stares at the sky with worry. She tells the boys to go inside, but they object, claiming that they simply have to watch what is...
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Hattie tells her boys that white people live on Earth, which is where “we all come from.” Twenty years...
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Excitedly, the boys ask why the white men didn’t come up to Mars, too. Hattie answers that right...
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In the yard, Hattie’s boys chatter about the white man, saying that he is white like milk, chalk, and flowers....
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At home, Willie sits in the car while Hattie lets the boys out of the house. The children run out to their father asking if he saw...
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