Quote 1
"He ordered you. Dammit, white folk are always giving orders, it's a habit with them. Why didn't you make an excuse? Couldn't you say they had sickness – smallpox – or picked another cabin? Why that Trueblood shack? My God, boy! You're black and living in the South – did you forget how to lie?" (6.24)
Dr. Bledsoe is amazed that the narrator hasn't learned how to lie to white folks while seeming to follow their orders. He's finally exposing the truth behind the façade of black obedience – a truth that the naïve narrator hasn't learned yet.
Quote 2
"Tell anyone you like," he said. "I don't care. I wouldn't raise my little finger to stop you because I don't owe anyone a thing, son. Who, Negroes? Negroes don't control this school or much of anything else – haven't you learned even that? No sir, they don't control this school, nor white folk either. True they support it, but I control it. It's big and black and I say 'Yes, suh' as loudly as any burrhead when it's convenient, but I'm still the king down here. I don't care how much it appears otherwise. Power doesn't have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. Let the Negroes snicker and the crackers laugh! Those are the facts, son. The only ones I even pretend to please are big white folks, and even those I control more than they control me. This is a power set-up, son, and I'm at the controls. You think about that. When you buck against me, you're bucking against power, rich white folk's power, the nation's power – which means government power!" (6.73)
Dr. Bledsoe is openly indicating that his power is supported by "rich white folk's power," and that he must constantly maintain a façade of servility and humility in front of whites. As for his definition of power as "confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying," what does that mean?