There There: Irony 2 key examples

In his first chapter in Part I, Dene Oxendene sits for an interview with a panel of judges for a cultural arts grant to tell stories of Urban Indians. Dene seems nervous but determined, enraged but sure of himself, as he describes the problems inherent in telling "the Native story." He feels certain that he will bring "that same energy" to his project. The interview seems to be going well, until he turns the subject to money, and his confidence suddenly deflates:

What we’ve seen is full of the kinds of stereotypes that are the reason no one is interested in the Native story in general, it’s too sad, so sad it can’t even be entertaining [...] , and there is real passion there, and rage, and that’s part of what I’m bringing to the project, because I feel that way too, I will bring that same energy to it, I mean if it gets approved and everything, and I can raise more money, it won’t take that much really, maybe even just this grant [...]

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In his chapter early in Part II, Dene Oxendene interviews Calvin Johnson for his cultural history project. The two discuss Calvin's Native identity. Calvin does not know much about his history and feels that he is just from Oakland. This leads to an instance of irony at the end of this passage:

My dad never talked about being Native [...] to the point that we don’t even know what tribe we are on his side. Our mom has Native blood on her Mexican side too, but she doesn’t know too much about that either. Yeah and my dad wasn’t home hardly ever, then one day he was really gone. He left us. So I don’t know, I feel bad sometimes even saying I’m Native. Mostly I just feel like I’m from Oakland.

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