Previous
Sarah-Jane (SJ) Friedman
Blake is a white student at Braselton Preparatory Academy, and one of Jared and Manny’s good friends. Unlike Jared, whose racism is often subtle (even if still hurtful), Blake takes things extremely far, as evidenced by the fact that he wears a Ku Klux Klan outfit as a Halloween costume. This makes both Justyce and Manny uncomfortable, but neither of them speak up because they don’t want to be accused of being too “sensitive.” When Blake gets to the Halloween party, though, he encounters members of a local gang called the Black Jihad, who punch him in the face. Nonetheless, he doesn’t seem to learn his lesson from this encounter, as made painfully clear when he throws a party later in the year and asks Justyce and Manny to help him have sex with a certain black girl, telling them he thinks he would have a chance with her if she saw that he’s friends with two black guys. Worse, he calls them the n-word, and when Justyce calls him out on this, he acts like it’s no big deal, trying to make it seem like Justyce is overreacting. This upsets Justyce so much that he attacks Blake. In the aftermath of Manny’s death, Blake tells the media that Justyce attacked him, thereby presenting an unfavorable image of Justyce that aligns with Officer Tison’s untrue claim that he shot Justyce and Manny because they were threatening him.
Blake Benson Quotes in Dear Martin
The Dear Martin quotes below are all either spoken by Blake Benson or refer to Blake Benson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
November 1
Quotes
Me: Well, either way it went, I was sayin somethin’, you know? Staying woulda been a statement of solidarity with these guys I grew up with—and who look like me. Leaving was a different statement, and the fact that I chose to do it with a white guy who was dressed as a Klansman…well…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
“You coming over here asking us to help you use a black girl IS a big deal, Blake. That’s not to mention you tossin’ the n-word around like you own it.”
Blake: You don’t own it any more than I do, bro. Nobody owns words. I’d think you’d know that as someone “smart enough” to get into Yale.
Manny: All right, y’all, let’s calm down before this gets outta hand.
Justyce: It’s already outta hand, Manny. Your boy Blake is a racist.
Blake: What is it with you people and the goddamn race card, huh?
Justyce: We people. You realize Manny is one of us people too, right?
Blake: Except Manny’s got some sense and doesn’t make everything about race. Why don’t you loosen the hell up?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11
Quotes
“That’s what it was like for me at the new school. Everybody saw me as black, even with the light skin and green eyes. The black kids expected me to know all the cultural references and slang, and the white kids expected me to ‘act’ black. It was a rude awakening for me. When you spend your whole life being ‘accepted’ by white people, it’s easy to ignore history and hard to face stuff that’s still problematic, you feel me?”
“I guess.”
“And as for you, the only way you’re gonna thrive is if you’re okay with yourself, man. People are gonna disrespect you, but so what? Guys like Jared don’t have any bearing on how far you get in life. If you know the stuff they’re saying isn’t true, why let it bother you?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Dear Martin LitChart as a printable PDF.
Blake Benson Quotes in Dear Martin
The Dear Martin quotes below are all either spoken by Blake Benson or refer to Blake Benson. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
November 1
Quotes
Me: Well, either way it went, I was sayin somethin’, you know? Staying woulda been a statement of solidarity with these guys I grew up with—and who look like me. Leaving was a different statement, and the fact that I chose to do it with a white guy who was dressed as a Klansman…well…
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10
Quotes
“You coming over here asking us to help you use a black girl IS a big deal, Blake. That’s not to mention you tossin’ the n-word around like you own it.”
Blake: You don’t own it any more than I do, bro. Nobody owns words. I’d think you’d know that as someone “smart enough” to get into Yale.
Manny: All right, y’all, let’s calm down before this gets outta hand.
Justyce: It’s already outta hand, Manny. Your boy Blake is a racist.
Blake: What is it with you people and the goddamn race card, huh?
Justyce: We people. You realize Manny is one of us people too, right?
Blake: Except Manny’s got some sense and doesn’t make everything about race. Why don’t you loosen the hell up?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11
Quotes
“That’s what it was like for me at the new school. Everybody saw me as black, even with the light skin and green eyes. The black kids expected me to know all the cultural references and slang, and the white kids expected me to ‘act’ black. It was a rude awakening for me. When you spend your whole life being ‘accepted’ by white people, it’s easy to ignore history and hard to face stuff that’s still problematic, you feel me?”
“I guess.”
“And as for you, the only way you’re gonna thrive is if you’re okay with yourself, man. People are gonna disrespect you, but so what? Guys like Jared don’t have any bearing on how far you get in life. If you know the stuff they’re saying isn’t true, why let it bother you?”
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
