I Am Not Your Negro Page #5

You should have got

what was coming to you

after spitting

in that guy's face.

Why you...

It is impossible to

accept the premise of the story,

a premise based on the profound

American misunderstanding

of the nature of the hatred

between black and white.

That time is now.

The root of the black man's

hatred is rage,

and he does not so much

hate white men

as simply wants them

out of his way,

and more than that,

out of his children's way.

The root of the white man's

hatred is terror.

I'm gonna kill you.

A bottomless

and nameless terror,

which focuses

on this dread figure,

an entity which lives

only in his mind.

Run!

Come on!

I can't make it,

I can't make it!

When Sidney

jumps off the train,

the white liberal people

downtown

were much relieved and joyful.

But when black people

saw him jump off the train,

they yelled, "Get back

on the train, you fool!"

The black man

jumps off the train

in order to reassure

white people,

to make them know

that they are not hated,

that though they have made

human errors,

they done nothing

for which to be hated.

I'm Chiquita Banana

And I'm here to say

I am the top banana...

In spite of

the fabulous myths

proliferating in this country

concerning the sexuality

of black people,

black men are still used,

in the popular culture,

as though they had

no sexual equipment at all.

Sidney Poitier,

as a black artist, and a man,

is also up against

the infantile,

furtive sexuality

of this country.

Both he and Harry Belafonte,

for example,

are sex symbols,

though no one dares admit that,

still less to use them as any of

the Hollywood he-men are used.

Black people have been robbed

of everything in this country...

I've got something

to say to you, boy.

...and they don't want to be

robbed of their artist.

Black people

particularly disliked

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,

because they felt that

Sidney was, in effect,

being used against them.

Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

may prove,

in some bizarre way,

to be a milestone,

because it is really quite

impossible to go any further

in that particular direction.

If you ever plan

to motor West...

The next time,

the kissing will have to start.

Well, you've got your ticket?

Here you are.

Thank you.

I am aware

that men do not kiss each other

in American films, nor,

for the most part, in America

nor do the black detective

and the white Sheriff kiss here.

You take care, you hear?

Yeah.

But the obligatory,

fade-out-kiss,

in the classic American film,

did not speak of love,

and still less of sex.

It spoke of reconciliation,

of all things

now becoming possible.

I knew a blond girl

in the village

a long time ago,

and eventually,

we never walked

out of the house together.

She was far safer

walking the streets alone

than when walking with me.

A brutal and humiliating fact

which thoroughly destroyed

whatever relationship

this girl and I

might have been able to achieve.

This happens

all the time in America,

but Americans

have yet to realize

what a sinister fact this is,

and what it says about them.

When we walked out

in the evening, then,

she would leave

ahead of me, alone.

I would give about five minutes,

and then I would walk out alone,

taking another route, and

meet her on the subway platform.

We would not

acknowledge each other.

We would get into

the subway car,

sitting at opposite ends of it,

and walk, separately,

through the streets

of the free and the brave,

to wherever we were going...

a friend's house, or the movies.

All over the country,

families such this

are enjoying new prosperity.

They have new interests,

news standards of living,

a buying power

they've never enjoyed before.

There are good prospects

for practically all types

of goods and services.

All too often though,

they are overlooked prospects.

Since 1940,

in San Francisco alone,

the Negro market

has increased by 89%.

Here are millions of customers

for what you have to sell.

Customers with

15 billion dollars to spend

Someone once said to me

that the people in general

cannot bear very much reality.

He meant by this

that they prefer fantasy

to a truthful recreation

of their experience.

People have quite enough

reality to bear,

by simply getting

through their lives,

raising their children,

dealing with the eternal

conundrums

of birth, taxes, and death.

Negroes are continuously making

progress here in this country.

The progress in many areas

is not as fast as it should be,

but they are making progress,

and we will continue

to make progress.

There's no reason that they, in

a near and foreseeable future,

that a Negro could also be

president of the United States

I remember, for example,

when the ex-Attorney General,

Mr. Robert Kennedy,

said that it was conceivable

that in 40 years in America,

we might have a Negro president.

And that sounded like

a very emancipated statement,

I suppose, to white people.

They were not in Harlem...

...when this statement

was first heard.

And did not hear,

and possibly will never hear,

the laughter and the bitterness

and the scorn

with which this statement

was greeted.

From the point of view of the

man in the Harlem barbershop,

Bobby Kennedy

only got here yesterday.

And now he's already

on his way to the Presidency.

We've been here for 400 years

and now he tells us

that maybe in 40 years,

if you're good,

we may let you become president.

It was a dream,

Just a dream I had on my mind

It was a dream,

Just a dream I had on my mind

And when I woke up, baby

Not a thing could I find

I dreamed I was an angel

And had a good time

I dreamed I was satisfying

And nothin' to worry my mind

But it was a dream

Just a dream

I had on my mind

Let me put it this way,

that from a very literal

point of view,

the harbors and the ports

and the railroads

of the country,

the economy,

especially

in the southern states,

could not conceivably be

what it has become

if they had not had,

and do not still have,

indeed, and for so long,

so many generations,

cheap labor.

It is a terrible thing

for an entire people

to surrender to the notion

that one ninth of its population

is beneath them.

And until that moment,

until the moment comes,

when we, the Americans,

we, the American people,

are able to accept the fact

that I have to accept,

for example,

that my ancestors

are both white and black.

That on that continent we are

trying to forge a new identity

for which we need each other,

and that I am not

a ward of America.

I am not an object

of missionary charity,

I am one of the people

who built the country.

Until this moment,

there is scarcely any hope

for the American Dream,

because people who are denied

participation in it,

by their very presence...

...will wreck it.

And if that happens, it is a

very grave moment for the West.

Thank you.

We're here in the studio today

with seven men who have

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