Conspiracy Theories Are An Irresistible Labor-saving Device

The First Slave To Read And Write Was The First To Run Away.

I First Learned That There Were Black People Living In Some Place Called Other Than The United States In The Western Hemisphere When I Was A Very Little Boy, And My Father Told Me That When He Was A Boy About My Age, He Wanted To Be An Episcopal Priest, Because He So Admired His Priest, A Black Man From Someplace Called Haiti.

One Principle I've Been Fighting For That Doesn't Endear Me To A Lot Of People Is That Black People Can Be Just As Complicated And Screwed Up As White People. Our Motives Can Be Just As Base And Violent. Suffering Does Not Necessarily Ennoble You.

Let's Face It - Think Of Africa, And The First Images That Come To Mind Are Of War, Poverty, Famine And Flies. How Many Of Us Really Know Anything At All About The Truly Great Ancient African Civilizations, Which In Their Day, Were Just As Splendid And Glorious As Any On The Face Of The Earth?

The Biggest Surprise For Me, Without A Doubt, Was That The First Black People Who Came To The United States Weren't The 20 Who Arrived In Jamestown In 1619. All Of Us Had Been Taught That. The First African Came To Florida In 1513. And The Huge Shock Is We Know His Name, Juan Garrido, And That He Wasn't A Slave. He Was Free!