TEWWG pg 39

Text: "He's liable teh do it too, Hicks. Ah hopes so anyhow. Us colored folks is too envious of one' nother....Us keeps our own selves down."

Considering the time period this is a very different thing for a colored man to say. Most colored men would think that they cant move up is society because the white men are holding them down. But for this man to realize or say that they are holding themselves down is a very different and probably the first time a colored man has expressed this.