Race Read Free

right. (Pause) No, he left
Greenstein. (Pause) Dunno yet. I need: the arrest report. Notes of the first responding officer. The testimony of . . . whoever you can get to on the hotel staff. Well—when will you be back . . . (Pause) Can you blow them off? No, no I need you to do it . . . (Pause; nods) The chambermaid . . . The report, they file a report, the chambermaid. (Pause) Well, where are you . . . ? (Pause) Well, when does it land? Alright. Soon as you can. (Hangs up)
    SUSAN : So: do we take the case?
    JACK : Well, that’s the question.
    SUSAN : Why would we not?
    JACK : ’Cause Nicky Greenstein is not stupid. He is one smart Jew.
    HENRY : He could of bought the girl off, he did not.
    SUSAN : Greenstein would have advised him to buy the girl off?
    JACK : As he walked in the door.
    SUSAN : How do you know he could have bought her off?
    HENRY : Because his purse is basically unlimited.
    SUSAN : What if she wanted something else?
    HENRY : What would that be?
    SUSAN : . . . “contrition.”
    HENRY : How is that usually expressed? . . .
    JACK : He could not or would not have bought the girl off. And he wouldn’t plead. Which is why Greenstein fired him.
    SUSAN : The lawyer fired the client?
    JACK : You bet.
    SUSAN : How do you know?
    JACK : Because he had a loser .
    HENRY (On phone) : Mister Greenstein please. Hank Brown . . . ?
    JACK : . . . alright: what do the blacks think?
    SUSAN : You think black people are stupid?
    JACK : I think all people are stupid. I don’t think blacks are exempt . . .
    HENRY (To phone) : Thank you. (Shakes his head; hangs up)
    JACK : And I think, you get caught and you want a pass , confess to something else, embarrassing or criminal.
    HENRY : To wit?
    JACK : I dunno. He . . . the girl’s half his age, he . . . well, he’s fucking her . . .

    HENRY : He’s married?
    JACK : Well, yes.
    SUSAN : Why did Greenstein fire him?
    JACK : He’s married to another woman, he’s fucking the black girl...
    HENRY : Alright, that’s the American Way. We understand that, but “the white man ripped my dress off,” now it’s Simon Legree and Topsy.
    JACK : Well. Here’s two questions. One, what does it cost us if we lose? What is the second one?
    SUSAN : What does it cost us if we win?
    JACK : Good for you.
    (Pause.)
    SUSAN : What’s his “Racial History?”
    (Pause.)
    JACK : “Racial History?”
    SUSAN : Yes.
    JACK : What’s the guy’s racial history? To the extent we can we’re going to make it up ’cause otherwise in this office we, speaking for the group, do not give a fuck.
    SUSAN : We don’t?
    JACK : Here’s what it is is, I ran out of whatever it was I need to give a fuck. Other than as it may affect the interests of our client. Which is to say, of my pocketbook. ’Cause. That’s what we, I miss my guess, do for a living. I tried being poor. I didn’t like it. Did you like it? . . .
    HENRY : I didn’t like it either.
    JACK : I gotta talk to Greenstein.
    SUSAN : What do you think happened?
    JACK : What do I think happened?
    SUSAN : In the room.
    JACK : In the hotel room?
    SUSAN : Yeah.
    JACK : How would I know?

    HENRY : What do you think happened?
    JACK : I’ll tell you what I think. I think that women . Just like men . In the main, being self-interested, will exploit every advantage they may have. Chief among theirs, youth and beauty. Just as will men, who possess the advantages of being old and rich.
    SUSAN : And white.
    JACK : You bet. (Picks up newspaper, reads) “He ripped off my new sequined dress. He threw me down upon the bed. And raped me.” (Picks up another newspaper, reads) “Room all askew . . . ” This motherfucker—looks to me like instigating a race riot. H
    ENRY : But note : the order. Putting, to her mind, graver offenses first. “He ripped my dress.”
    SUSAN : She’s a poor girl. She loved the dress. It meant respectability.
    JACK :