However, it is these excerpts and mini-stories which allows Duneier to facilitate his argument against the forbearing stereotypes. In the beginning of the book, one story he recounts is how Slim befriends an older white man names Bart. At first, Slim simply gives the man rides home, after all, it would be typically wrong for a black and white man to be friends with the prevalent beliefs in race relations. Or is it? This is one of the questions “Mitch” observes as he recounts the story. We see that over time, Slim and Bart actually develop a sort of unspoken friendship, something that could be seen between them. Bart eventually dies, and one can see that Slim did feel a bit of pain for his death. In another one of his observances, Mitch recounts a story about how he notices that over time, he always finds the same people gathering together in the cafe. This seemed to interest him, so he studied it further. He found that it wasn’t because these black-working men had no home to go to, no job to work at, or anybody to care about. But rather they felt a sort of homeliness and family-style atmosphere in the cafeteria. As Mitch interviews a police officer he finds that many people are happier going to a place where they have people to talk to you and relate with. Here another stereotype can be debunked. Surely a common thought would be that these black men attend the cafeteria because they are looking for a cheap meal, or because they have no place to go, when that actually isn’t the case at all. In fact, Mitch finds that they all have jobs, they all have homes and they all have at least someone to care about, even if that person is someone they met in the caf. The reason they choose to attend the cafeteria is because it gives them a feeling of family and normality, something every person needs to have. Mitch goes on to debunk many other stereotypes throughout this book, however, there is one in particular, which seems...
