I Want To Be Remembered As Someone

Diversity Doesn't Mean Black And White Only.

I Got A Letter From This Lady Of Russian And Jewish Descent. She Asked Me If I Was A Racist Because I Didn't Do Any White People. I Was Shocked, Because My Mandate Is To Do Black Studies. It Would Have Never Occurred To Me If This Lady Hadn't Written This Letter. We Decided We Were Going Expand The Brand And Do Everybody.

What Happened In The Interim Is, Billions Of Records Have Been Digitized. Historians And Scholars Have Always Used Genealogical Records To Tell The Story Of American History. It Takes Months And Years Of Research. I Can't Even Tell You How Laborious That Is. You Have To Be Somebody Who Has A Lot Of Free Time, Like A Professor Who Can Take Tenure Or Someone With A Great Deal Of Leisure.

Really, The Values Under Which My Generation Was Raised In The '50s Were Immigrant Values Even Though We Weren't Immigrants. The Greatest Thing You Could Be Was A College-educated Negro.

The Second Thing That Happened Is, Dna Analysis Is Much More Sophisticated. All You Have To Do Now Is Spit In A Test Tube And You Find Out All Kind Of Things In Six Weeks - Where They Are From In Africa Or Europe. You Can Prove Or Disprove The Fundamental African-american Myth That You Descended From A Cherokee Great, Great Grandmother.