If You Don't Tell Your Stories, Other

I'm Looking Forward To The Time When We All Look Like Polynesians.

It's Not White Versus Black Any More, It's Haves Versus Have-nots. Unless The Black Middle-classes Unite To Promote The Interests Of The Black Underclass, Tension Between Them Is Inevitable. What We, The Black Middle Class Have To Do, Is Think Of A Strategy To Avert That.

Patriotism Is Best Exemplified Through Auto-critique. When You're Willing To Stand Up Within The Group And Say, 'it Is Wrong For Black People To Be Anti-semitic,' Or 'it Is Wrong For America To Discriminate Against Persons Of African Descent And Made Them Slaves And Based Its Wealth Upon Free Labor,' It's Crucial To Say That.

I Think That We Need More Economic-based Solutions To The Problems Afflicting The Black Community, And I Think That That's A Way To Redefine Affirmative Action. I Grew Up With Poor White People In West Virginia, And I Know There's A Culture Of Poverty. I Know That I've Seen White People Perform Exactly The Same Pathological Forms Of Behavior As Black People Do When They're Systematically Deprived, Whether It's Getting Pregnant, Doing Drugs, Dropping Out Of School, Whatever We're Talking About. I Think That We Should Have Affirmative Action For Poor White People Too.

Learning To Sing One's Own Songs, To Trust The Particular Cadences Of Own's Voices, Is Also The Goal Of Any Writer.