-You had a close call. -Hmm?
-Is what I heard. -Oh.
Yet cooler heads prevailed.
-Here you are. -I think
Some flapjacks this morning, Nadine.
You got it.
-I'll take this. -No, that's all right.
-Okay. -You're not eating?
I'm not saying
It wasn't a smart play, moving on the slaughterhouses.
But you must've knew it wouldn't stick.
Well, he gave permission, the old man.
Last week at the playground.
(Scoffs)
Well, you tell me one thing
Ever got given to you in this world
That you didn't have to take. Hmm?
And I'm saying...
...Respect the deal.
-Thank you. -Mm-hmm.
You didn't serve in the war, did you?
(Grunts)
I was in the legal corps.
Army. Pushing papers.
After the cease-fire,
They send me to Nuremberg for the trials.
Last Negro in Germany, I'd imagine.
Mm-hmm.
You ever heard of the Double V?
Hmm.
It's what they sold us.
Mm-hmm.
Fight for our country, and we get two victories.
One for America and one for we sons of servitude.
No more lynchings.
No more blackjacks at the polls.
Hmm? Okay.
So, they send me to Nuremberg,
And this colonel tells me he's got a big job for me.
Says, "You're gonna interview Hermann Goring,
The Reichsmarschall himself."
Says, "Days, weeks,
However long it takes to get him to talk."
Says, "I need you, Doctor Senator, Esquire,
"To use your training, your skills
To build the People's case."
Well, now,
What is that if not the double victory?
Hmm?
So I sit with the man for six weeks,
Eight hours a day, six days a week,
And we get into it.
The first two weeks,
He just stares at me, murder in his eyes.
But I use my wiles.
You know, appeal to his ego.
Get him talking.
Ah. Soon he won't shut up.
Bragging about every little thing,
And I type it down and write it up for the colonel
Word-for-word.
I spend two weeks crafting my conclusion,
My analysis of international law.
Then, one Sunday morning, after services,
I knock on the colonel's door and I give him my report.
You know what he does?
Throws it in the trash.
Yeah.
400 pages with footnotes.
Throws it in the trash
"I just wanted to make
That old Nazi squirm..."
"...Having to answer to a Negro."
So...
You say respect the deal?
(Silverware clatters)
Excuse me if I say
Our word is exactly as good as yours.
The slaughterhouses,
They belong to us.
Deal or no deal.
You can call it the cost of transition.
I'll pass it on.