Here are some quotes from Brothers and Sisters:

• "They have a right to look angry, the way the police hassle them every damn minute, she thought. If this weren't broad daylight, damn cops would probably drag those boys off somewhere and beat the hell out of them. Beat them like they did Rodney" (14). The novel takes place shortly after the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles, and Esther is still upset about the way that the cops treat black young men.
• "When she heard the not guilty verdict in April and saw those four grinning white faces on her television screen, she'd wanted to smash them and anyone who looked like them" (15). Esther feels angry that the white police officers were not held liable for the Rodney King beatings, and she exists in a world in which she sees racism around her.
• "Work always soothed Esther. Her efficient fingers flipped through the bills. As she counted rapidly and accurately, she felt herself calming down" (15). Esther thrives on professional achievement, and it generally is a world in which she feels competent and in control, though she later realizes that the racism and sexism in her workplace is pervasive.
• "Esther could see the warmth in Mallory's eyes, could feel the sticky Valley Girl sweetness radiating from her. She looked her in the face and saw an easy childhood: all smiles and lemonade and green lights" (16). Esther at first resents Mallory and her easy childhood. In contrast, Esther had a hardscrabble childhood on the South Side of Chicago. However, she grows to develop a closer relationship with Mallory over time.
• "The first time a piece of her carefully monitored blackness slipped out in front of Mallory, she was startled, she so seldom dropped her guard. But gradually, when she was with Mallory, the South Side, that carefully hidden neighborhood of righteous anger and gut-belly laughter, that place of southern cooking and Baptist churches, that place of sorrow and dreams, would no longer stay put" (110). Over time, Esther comes to feel more comfortable with Mallory, and she is able to show more of herself and her South Side Chicago roots to her friend.
• "Tyrone pretended to pick up the telephone and assumed an accent straight out of the annals of Amos and Andy. 'This here the Homeboy Savings and Loan? I ain't got no savings, but I'se calling 'bout da loan part. I got me a little bi'ness, and I needs me some money'" (232). Esther is in a relationship with Tyrone, though he is very different than she is. She is financially very responsible and owns her house, and Tyrone does not have credit. He feels insecure as a result, and, in this quote, he betrays that he feels like a stereotypical black man.