That same passion which saved Fonny got him into trouble, and put him in jail. For, you see, he had found his centre, his own centre, inside him : and it showed. He wasn't anybody's nigger. And that's a crime, in this fucking free country. You're supposed to be somebody's nigger. And if you're nobody's nigger, you're a bad nigger : and that's what the cops decided when Fonny moved downtown.