Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -… [2139]

“Shit.” Mora made the word long and nasty. “Shiiit. First time I saw her, I knew she was a man. Just didn’t know she was the only man here.” — , Octavia E. Butler - Earthseed, Book 1 -…, 2139

Note

Mora’s sneer turns on a single word — ‘the only man here’ — that flips mid-sentence from slur to backhanded compliment, indicting the men around him rather than the woman he’s mocking. Butler lets a bigot discredit himself in nine words of dialect.