"A black man isn't an object to be liked or disliked like an orange or a pear or a piece of furniture.  So why should you say, 'I like them'?

"The simple question perplexed Isnard.  He had never thought of Negroes as anything but children - often contrary children, but easily enough managed if you knew how."

Isnard has worked his entire career in close proximity to the Senegalese people.  He has a condescending attitude towards them, views them as children, but he does not feel negatively towards them.  You could say that he even has a certain affection for them.  

Doudou, however, correctly points out the flaws in this thinking.  Isnard does not see Africans as individuals, but rather as part of a total group with a stereotypical set of characteristics.   It is this reductive thinking that creates hostility - Isnard cannot even imagine why Doudou would turn down his generous terms for returning to work.  If he could think of Doudou as a thinking individual like himself, Isnard might understand that pride and dignity is more important to a person than monetary compensation.  

Could this lack of understanding work the other way as well?  Do the strikers see the French as individuals, or as a homogenous group that seeks to oppress them? 

Chapters 9 & 10 -

"She had learned at school about the workings of the law, and she had been taught that no one had the right to take the law in his own hands.  And for N'Deye there was no questioning the truth of anything she learned at the school." (111)

N'Deye Touti's character changes quickly from being a believer in the advantages of European civilization, to understanding its limitations and duplicity.  This epiphany comes when she is eavesdropping on the chief of police and a public health official.  At first, she is ashamed when they notice a woman urinating in the street.  But then, when she hears them speaking French and objectifying her, and "tears of rage and shame flooded the girl's eyes." (118)

As a result of this "rage and shame", N'Deye Touti returns to aid the women and translate for Ramatoulaye.  Herein lies  a paradox between the way the older and younger generations view and act towards the colonial power:

• The younger generation has a greater respect for French technology and institutions, but they are more likely to rebel against the colonial authority.
• The older generation holds on to their traditional language and culture, but the are less willing to participate in the strike

The exception to this paradox is, of course, the women of Thies, who foment the first serious violence of the strike.