When Bush Says Democracy, I Often Wonder

Poor People, People Of Color - Especially Are Much More Likely To Be Found In Prison Than In Institutions Of Higher Education.

The Process Of Empowerment Cannot Be Simplistically Defined In Accordance With Our Own Particular Class Interests. We Must Learn To Lift As We Climb.

Imprisonment Has Become The Response Of First Resort To Far Too Many Of Our Social Problems.

We Have Inherited A Fear Of Memories Of Slavery. It Is As If To Remember And Acknowledge Slavery Would Amount To Our Being Consumed By It. As A Matter Of Fact, In The Popular Black Imagination, It Is Easier For Us To Construct Ourselves As Children Of Africa, As The Sons And Daughters Of Kings And Queens, And Thereby Ignore The Middle Passage And Centuries Of Enforced Servitude In The Americas. Although Some Of Us Might Indeed Be The Descendants Of African Royalty, Most Of Us Are Probably Descendants Of Their Subjects, The Daughters And Sons Of African Peasants Or Workers.

I Think We Have To Really Focus On The Issues Much More Than We May Have In The Past. I Think We Have To Seek To Create Coalitional Strategies That Go Beyond Racial Lines. We Need To Bring Black Communities, Chicano Communities, Puerto Rican Communities, Asian American Communities Together.