You Have To Act As If It

There Is An Unbroken Line Of Police Violence In The United States That Takes Us All The Way Back To The Days Of Slavery, The Aftermath Of Slavery, The Development Of The Ku Klux Klan. There Is So Much History Of This Racist Violence That Simply To Bring One Person To Justice Is Not Going To Disturb The Whole Racist Edifice.

I Think That Has To Do With My Awareness That In A Sense We All Have A Certain Measure Of Responsibility To Those Who Have Made It Possible For Us To Take Advantage Of The Opportunities. The Door Is Opened Only So Far. If Some Of Us Can Squeeze Through The Crack Of That Door, Then We Owe It To Those Who Have Made Those Demands That The Door Be Opened To Use The Knowledge Or The Skills That We Acquire Not Only For Ourselves But In The Service Of The Community As Well. This Is Something That I Guess I Decided A Long Time Ago.

Actually We've Had A Black Bourgeoisie Or The Makings Of A Black Bourgeoisie For Many More Decades.in A Sense The Quest For The Emancipation Of Black People In The Us Has Always Been A Quest For Economic Liberation Which Means To A Certain Extent That The Rise Of Black Middle Class Would Be Inevitable. What I Think Is Different Today Is The Lack Of Political Connection Between The Black Middle Class And The Increasing Numbers Of Black People Who Are More Impoverished Than Ever Before.

It's True That It's Within The Realm Of Cultural Politics That Young People Tend To Work Through Political Issues, Which I Think Is Good, Although It's Not Going To Solve The Problems

Racism Is A Much More Clandestine, Much More Hidden Kind Of Phenomenon, But At The Same Time It's Perhaps Far More Terrible Than It's Ever Been.