I Am Who I Am Despite What

I Think Being Born In America And Growing Up Exclusively Within The American Boundaries Of Race And Race Oppression Is A Very Different Experience For Those Of Us Who Grew Up Under The Boundaries Of Race And Race Experience In The Caribbean Or For Those Who Grew Up In Africa.

When I Went To Japan I Sang In Japanese; When I Went To Greece I Sang In Greek. When I Went To Spain, I Sang In Spanish. I Couldn't Speak It Very Well, But I Sang, I Was Beautiful In Singing It. These Things Just Constantly Attracted People To The Uniqueness Of Who I Was And The Way In Which I Performed.

I Realized That Most White Americans Knew Very Little About Our History And Our Struggle, And Were Having Difficulty Understanding The Basis For Our Agitation And Our Resistance And Our Complaints. I Also Discovered That While Black Americans Had A Sense Of The Beauty And Tragedy Of The Journey From The Time Of Slavery Until Now, We Were Not Rooted In The Specifics. I Thought One Way To Familiarize People With That History Would Be Through The Voices Of The Great Folk Artists.

More Than Once My Mother Would Point Out: "harry Belafonte Is The Best-looking Man On The Planet."

Bring It On. Dissent Is Central To Any Democracy.