The First Slave To Read And Write

What People Forget Is That The Most Radical Thing About Obama Is That He Was The First Black Man In History To Imagine That He Could Become President, Who Was Able To Make Other Americans Believe It As Well. Other Than That, He Is A Centrist, Just Like I Try To Be. He's Been Bridging Divisions His Whole Life.

It's Very Lonely Being A Prominent Black Intellectual At An Institution Where You're The Only Prominent Black Intellectual. That Was The Model That Was Followed In The Late 60s When Black Studies Started. You'd Get One Here And One There And One Here, Like Johnny Appleseed.

You Have A Diasporic Black World, And The Only Way To Put It Back Together Again Is Symbolic. It's Like Humpty Dumpty. Whoever Could Edit The 'encyclopedia Africana' Would Provide Symbolic Order To The Fragments Created Over The Past 500 Years. That Is A Major Contribution.

People Who Own Property Feel A Sense Of Ownership In Their Future And Their Society. They Study, Save, Work, Strive And Vote. And People Trapped In A Culture Of Tenancy Do Not.

Lincoln Would Love The Fact That Obama Is Such A Great Conciliator, Trying To Transcend Ideology.