Edge of America (2004 TV Movie)

James McDaniel: Kenny Williams

Quotes 

• Annie Shorty : Those girls do everything you ask them to do. They practice hard, they get good grades, they win.

  Kenny Williams : Then you tell me why I'm pissed off.

  Annie Shorty : Because you're a black man in America.

  Kenny Williams : That's right. I'm good and pissed off.

  Annie Shorty : Well then get over it! You're talking to Indian people here. Get over it, get on with it or get the hell out!

• Annie Shorty : Most of these kids have never met an African American before.

  Kenny Williams : Well, I met my first Native American yesterday.

  Annie Shorty : Indian.

  Kenny Williams : Black.

• Kenny Williams : What the hell's going on?

  Annie Shorty : They don't understand why you're pissed off all the time.

  Kenny Williams : Look, I've had to deal with Norville, Homer, Shirleen.

  Annie Shorty : Shirleen?

  Kenny Williams : Yeah, she went out and got herself pregnant.

  Annie Shorty : She's not perfect, she made a mistake, but to you she's just another dark-skinned girl dragging down the race.

  Kenny Williams : I didn't say that.

  Annie Shorty : You thought it.

• Annie Shorty : I'm Annie Shorty.

  Kenny Williams : Kenny...

  Annie Shorty : Williams. Indian grapevine.

• Kenny Williams : So, we're all good at basketball, right?

  Homer Horton : You put it on your resume.

  Kenny Williams : I was a player. And basketball never did a damn thing for me that a book didn't do better.

• Annie Shorty : What are you doing to those girls?

  Kenny Williams : I'm teaching them to succeed.

  Annie Shorty : By running them into the ground?

  Kenny Williams : Well, it beats running off a mountain and screaming 'shit!'

  [referring to Carla's joke] 

  Annie Shorty : Oh, so you know all about Indians now? You know about 'unity,' 'harmony.'

  [said in Dine] 

  Kenny Williams : What?

  Annie Shorty : Unity? Harmony? All of us together?

  Kenny Williams : Look, what is this, multiple choice? I don't get it.

  Annie Shorty : That's an understatement.

• Alvina 'Baby' Tsosie : Got lots of clan up there.

  [talking about where she lives] 

  Kenny Williams : Never say clan to a black man.

• Kenny Williams : Look, I just want respect for me and my girls, that's all.

  [after Newell shouted racial insults] 

  Homer Horton : Yeah, well fighting Norville Newell is not a good way to get it, Kenny. Come on, I've been looking at their shit-eating grins for going on nine years now. Ten, if you count church. I saw you and I said, 'now there's a man who change all that.'

  Kenny Williams : The first time you saw me, you thought you saw the new janitor.

• Annie Shorty : This is black mail.

  [referring to Newell's complaint letter] 

  Kenny Williams : Well, this black male has had enough!

• Kenny Williams : Look, I know what it is to be used by rednecks. I went to an all-white high school where I was all-league my senior year. My coach had a problem with my attitude, so he kept me from getting a scholarship to college. Didn't seem to mind my attitude when I was winning games for him. You think Homer's any different? I think not.

  [to Annie] 

• Mother Tsosie : Basketball takes her away from our traditions. It's the women that keep the old ways alive. The women keep the history.

  Kenny Williams : Well, sometimes you got to make history.

  [trying to get Baby back in school] 

• Kenny Williams : Ever think of cutting that hair?

  [to Francie] 

  Annie Shorty : For traditionals, it's like cutting off your thoughts.

• Shirleen : Would you like anything to drink?

  Kenny Williams : Yeah, I'll have a Bud to start.

  Shirleen : Who?

  Kenny Williams : Budweiser. I don't care, whatever beer you got.

  Shirleen : Um, we don't have any beer. Our rez is dry.

  Kenny Williams : Well, nobody told him.

  [to a man outside the diner] 

• Kenny Williams : Okay Cuch, why'd you bring me all the way up here?

  Cuch : You're standing at the center of two worlds.

  Kenny Williams : Yeah, well, I thought I left that other world behind.

  Cuch : Well don't look through their eyes, look through your eyes. From here you can see forever - the past, the present, the future. See, the Creator scattered us to the four winds so we could prove that we're human by finding our way home.

  Kenny Williams : Well, always trying to find your way home can make a man crazy.

  Cuch : Hmmh, sometimes you have to go all the way around the world to find your way, and sometimes you've got to put pride aside to get there. Me, I'm home.

  Kenny Williams : This is like, what, a sacred site or something?

  Cuch : This?

  [chuckles] 

  Cuch : This is just a big rock.

  [walks away laughing] 

• Kenny Williams : So, you're a mechanic too?

  Cuch : You know, I thought about a more traditional line of work like bingo. But, I didn't like the hours.