donât begrudge.
We hop forward to grab them. âThanks.â Fast grab, quick retreat. Handful of napkins and we are out the door.
âBye, Jimmy.â I use my sweetest, drippiest voice.
âYeah, bye, Jimmy,â Patrice echoes in kind. It appears he barely hears us. Half laughing, we retreat to the street, perching on the bench against the window, while Emmalee lingers by the counter, licking her cone.
CHAPTER 19
L ETâS GO BACK TO THE OFFICE,â I SAY, once Emmalee finally leaves Jimmy to his job and weâve wiped our fingers clean.
âI donât wanna work,â says Patrice.
âItâs important,â I tell her.
âI know,â she says, âbut we never get to do anything fun anymore.â
âWe just had ice cream.â
Patrice rolls her eyes. âBut we spent two hours working in order to get it.â
âSchoolâs starting so soon,â I say. âWeâre not going to be able to go there as much.â
âYeah, weâll just be all cooped up indoors someplace else.â
âNot the same.â
âYeah-huh. Plus we have PE class tonight. What, do you want us to be all Panthers, all the time?â Patrice knows perfectly well thatâs what I want.
Emmalee butts in. âOkay, letâs go to the park, but while weâre there Iâll quiz you on the platform. Good enough?â
Patrice shrugs. I put my hands on my hips. âFine.â
We accept Emmaleeâs compromise by spending the afternoon in the park, working on memorizing the Black Panther Partyâs Ten-Point Platform and Program. When we become full members, we have to be able to recite it at will, so we figure we should get a jump on it.
âWhat we want. What we believe,â Emmalee prompts. âNumber one?â
ââWe want freedom,ââ I quote. ââWe want power to determine the destiny of our Black Community.ââ
ââWe believe that black people will not be free until we are able to determine our destiny,ââ Patrice says.
âGood. Number two?â
ââWe want full employment for our people.ââ I like this point especially, because it means Mama would always have a job. The second half is trickier, but I take a deep breath and do my best to say it. ââWe believe that the federal government is responsible and obligated to give every man employment or a guaranteed income. We believe that if the white American businessman will not give full employment, then the means of production should be taken from the businessmen and placed in the community so that the people of the communitycan organize and employ all of its people and give a high standard of living.ââ
âYou got it, word for word,â Emmalee says, sounding impressed.
I smile. We already talked about this one, what it means. I remember, because I want it most. A âhigh standard of livingâ means always having food and shelter and a warm coat in the winter. The whole paragraph together means that instead of having a bunch of rich white bosses who hire and fire people and make all the money, big businesses should be owned by the people and everyone should share the profits. Raheem says this would be hard to make work in America, but the Panthers want us to try anyway.
âNumber three?â Emmalee says.
Patrice pipes in. ââWe want an end to the robbery by the white man of our Black Community.â But I forget the second half. . . .â
âItâs long,â Emmalee says. âIt says America owes black people money because of slavery. Letâs do number four.â She already has the platform memorized, âcause things like that come easy to her.
ââWe want decent housing, fit for shelter of human beings.ââ That means good apartment buildings like the one Patrice lives in, or a real house like Samâs. Not like the
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