Whiteness
It is ironic that white people, who have all the power and prestige in America, are not actually white but simply believe themselves to be. Whiteness is as much a construct as blackness; many white people were not originally considered white (the Irish, the Poles, the Greeks).
Prince George County Police
Coates writes of the Prince George County police's infamous lawlessness and notes wryly, "Better to have been shot in Baltimore, where there was the justice of the streets and someone might call the killer to account" (76).
Deaths of Black People
Coates writes that Prince Jones, who was killed for no reason, was investigated thoroughly while the officer who killed him was not investigated at all. This irony characterizes many if not all of the deaths of black people (80).
Prince
There is terrible and tragic irony that Prince Jones, a young man who grew up in a privileged and loving household far away from the streets, was killed. Coates fears this same irony might eventually reach his own son.
