charlie read it as saying : o white devil , you do not want to purloin that purple fruit , for i have four thousand years of ancestors and civilization on you ; my grandparents built the railroads and dug the silver mines , and my parents survived the earthquake , the fire , and a society that outlawed even being chinese ; i am mother to a dozen , grandmother to a hundred , and great-grandmother to a legion ; i have birthed babies and washed the dead ; i am history and suffering and wisdom ; i am a buddha and a dragon ; so get your fucking hand off my eggplant before you lose it .