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They go to land-grant colleges, normal schools, and learn how to do the white man's work with refinement: home economics to prepare his food; teacher education to instruct black children in obedience; music to soothe the weary master and entertain his blunted soul. Here they learn the rest of the lesson begun in those soft houses with porch swings and pots of bleeding heart: how to behave. The careful development of thrift, patience, high morals, and good manners. In short, how to get rid of the funkiness. The dreadful funkiness of passion, the funkiness of nature, the funkiness of the wide range of human emotions.
她們上贈地學院和師范學校，學習如何盡善盡美地替內人干活：上家政課學習如何為他們做飯；學教育學來教育黑孩子順從聽話；學習音樂好安撫勞累的主人和他那顆遲鈍的心靈。其余課程的學習都在房前掛著吊椅、擺荇荷包牡丹的房子里進行：循規蹈矩、小心滿憤地培養勤儉、耐心、有道德、有禮貌等品德。總之，要學會拋棄純真簡樸的本色，可怕的純真情感。自然大方，以及一切人類感情都該拋棄。
Wherever it erupts, this Funk, they wipe it away; where it crusts, they dissolve it; wherever it drips, flowers, or clings, they find it and fight it until it dies. They fight this battle all the way to the grave. The laugh that is a little too loud; the enunciation a little too round; the gesture a little too generous. They hold their behind in for fear of a sway too free; when they wear lipstick, they never cover the entire mouth for fear of lips too thick, and they worry, worry, worry about the edges of their hair.
無論這種簡樸的本色從哪里冒頭，她們都會把它掃除一淸；在哪兒積累成習就在哪兒把它消滅；在哪兒生根開花就在哪兒發現鏟除。她們生命不息，戰斗不止。笑聲過于響亮，發音不夠清晰，舉止不夠文雅都需糾正，她們緊縮臀部生怕扭動太大；抹口紅時生怕嘴唇顯得太厚實而不把整個嘴唇涂紅；一天到晚沒完沒了地擔心，生怕頭發沒有梳理整齊。
They never seem to have boyfriends, but they always marry. Certain men watch them, without seeming to, and know that if such a girl is in his house, he will sleep on sheets boiled white, hung out to dry on juniper bushes, and pressed flat with a heavy iron. There will be pretty paper flowers decorating the picture of his mother, a large Bible in the front room.
她們好像從來不交男朋友，但最終總是成家。有一類男人總在瞧她們，但不讓人察覺。他們知道如果家里有這么個女人，他睡的床單一定會洗得干干凈凈，晾曬在松樹叢上，然后熨燙得平平整整。他母親遺像的四周一定有漂亮的紙花裝點，客廳里一定會擺放若一本厚厚的《圣經》。
