Manchild in the Promised Land is a 1965 autobiographical novel written by Claude Brown. It chronicles the author's coming-of-age story amidst poverty and violence in Harlem during the 1940s and 1950s.

I thought about Dunnny and Trixie and I thought that these people were really mature; I felt childish, the way I'd been thinking about people not loving whores and all that kind of none-sense. It seemed stupid to me. I realized that even though I had been out there in the streets and had met all kind of people, I hadn't learned to accept people, not really accept them. I had still thought of a whore as being something unlovable. It was as though T. had been pinning diapers on me when we sat there at the bar and he told me about the mother and the whore thing. I was kind of grateful to him for that.

I realized that even though I had been out there in the streets and had met all kind of people, I hadn't learned to accept people, not really accept them.