It's not hard to get your way when it's your way or the highway. People either follow suit or they're not around. I don't really like the sound of that 'cause that sounds like a temper tantrum. I'm just very black and white when it comes to my business. There's really no gray area.
White shall not neutralize the black nor good compensate bad in man absolve him so: life's business being just the terrible choice.
Very few if any first-generation black or white or Asian kids will pursue a Ph.D. They'll pursue the professions for economic security. Many will go to law school and/or business school.
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.
You know it's going to hell when the best rapper out there is white and the best golfer is black.
There's one more thing I want to say. It's a touchy subject. Black beauty. Black sensuality. We live in a culture where the beauty of black people isn't always as celebrated as other types. I'd like to help change that if I can!
My father always taught by telling stories about his experiences. His lessons were about morality and art and what insects and birds and human beings had in common. He told me what it meant to be a man and to be a Black man. He taught me about love and responsibility about beauty and how to make gumbo.
The pattern of a newspaperman's life is like the plot of 'Black Beauty.' Sometimes he finds a kind master who gives him a dry stall and an occasional bran mash in the form of a Christmas bonus sometimes he falls into the hands of a mean owner who drives him in spite of spavins and expects him to live on potato peelings.
One night I'll be in Los Angeles and it'll be a Latin crowd and then another night I'll go to Fresno and it'll be an all-black crowd. To me that's the beauty of the music.
I find in being black a thing of beauty: a joy a strength a secret cup of gladness.