Enter JOSEPH

 

JOSEPH

You’ve got to be kidding me?

 

MASON

Excuse me?

 

JOSEPH

You would really consider not allowing me this experience?

 

MASON

Son, this isn’t a football game we’re going to see here.  These men play for keeps.

 

JOSEPH

I know that.

 

MASON

They feel threatened, and plan on doing whatever they can to keep us down.

 

JOSEPH

And you don’t think I will face this while I’m away at school.

 

MASON

Son, you going to a black college.

 

JOSEPH

In Mississippi.  By bus.  I’ll probably find a racist along the way.

 

MASON

So now you want to be smart with me.  That’s a good way to impress me.

 

JOSEPH

My point is, I’m going to find racial intolerance everywhere.  But if I don’t learn how to face it at home, how will I know how to handle it on my own?

 

MASON

Son, I have to use my best judgment.  And it is telling me to keep you at home.

 

JOSEPH

I’m ready dad.  I’m eighteen and I am ready.  You’re sending me off to school to see what the world has to offer, but you wish to shield me from part of the world’s offering here at home.

 

MASON

You think you’re ready because you haven’t seen this type of thing before.  I know you’re not ready because I have.  You’re eighteen and book smart.  But there are lessons you still have yet to learn.

 

JOSEPH

So, allow me to learn them, with you?