I Am Not Your Negro Page #6

two things in common:

they are entertainers

and artists;

and they've all

come to Washington.

They are seven out of some

two hundred thousand

American citizens

who came to the capital

to march for freedom

and for jobs.

Will this tremendous outburst

now lead to a course of action,

Mr. Belafonte?

The now that is being

spoken about is the fact that

in a hundred years, finally,

through whatever the causes

have been in history,

and most of them have been

because of oppression,

the Negro people

have strongly and fully

taken the bit in their teeth,

they're asking absolutely

no quarter from anyone.

But I do say that

the bulk of the interpretation

of whether this thing

is going to end

successfully and joyously,

or is going to end disastrously,

lays very heavily

with the white community,

it lays very heavily

with the profiteers,

it lays very heavily

with the vested interests.

It lays very heavily

with a great middle stream

in this country,

of people who have refused

to commit themselves,

or even have

the slightest knowledge

that these things

have been going on.

I am speaking as

a member of a certain democracy

in a very complex country,

which insists on being

very narrow-minded.

Simplicity is taken to be

a great American virtue,

along with sincerity.

I am sorry.

I am deeply sorry.

And I am sorry.

I'm deeply sorry about that.

They are no excuses.

I am solely...

We have made

plenty of mistakes.

For that, I apologize.

I am very sorry.

I'm sorry I did this to you,

but you gotta get used to it.

It's one of those

little problems in life.

I take full responsibility.

I'm here today

to again apologize.

I'll just apologize for that

to her.

For any mistakes I've made,

I take full responsibility.

It's an honor to serve

the city of Ferguson

and the people who live there.

One of the results of this

is that immaturity

is taken to be a virtue too.

So that someone like that,

let's say John Wayne,

who spent most of his time

on screen

admonishing Indians,

was in no necessity to grow up.

We were free and we decided

to treat ourselves

to a really fancy,

friendly dinner.

The head waiter came and said

there was a phone call for me,

and my sister Gloria

rose to take it.

She was very strange

when she came back.

She didn't say anything,

and I began to be afraid

to ask her anything.

Then, nibbling at something

she obviously wasn't tasting,

she said,

"Well, I've got to tell you

because the press

is on its way over here.

They have just killed Malcolm."

There is nothing in the evidence

offered by the book

of the American republic,

which allows me really to argue

with the cat who says to me,

"They needed us

to pick the cotton,

and now they don't need us

anymore.

Now they don't need us,

they're gonna kill us all off,

just like they did the Indians".

And I can't say

it's a Christian nation.

though your brothers

will never do that to you,

because the record is

too long and too bloody.

That's all we have done.

All your buried corpses

now begin to speak.

I say violence is necessary.

Violence is a part

of America's culture.

It is as American as cherry pie.

Black power, Brothers.

If we were white,

if we were Irish,

if we were Jewish,

if we were Poles,

if we had, in fact,

in your mind,

a frame of reference,

our heroes would be

your heroes too.

Nat Turner would be a hero

for you instead of a threat.

Malcolm X might still be alive.

Everyone is very proud

of brave little Israel,

a state against which I have nothing,

I don't want to be misinterpreted,

I'm not an anti-Semite.

But, you know,

when the Israelis pick up guns,

or the Poles, or the Irish,

or any white man

in the world says,

"Give me liberty,

or give me death",

the entire white world applauds.

When a black man says

exactly the same thing,

word for word,

he is judged a criminal

and treated like one

and everything possible is done

to make an example

of this bad n*gger,

so there won't be

any more like him.

Look out

across this land we love,

look about you whatever you are,

this unending scenic beauty,

and there's freedom,

it's an inherent American right

meaning many different things

to every single citizen.

It's a leisurely afternoon

of golf along a pleasant course.

It's an amusement park,

a rollercoaster ride.

A day at the county fair.

A day of excitement,

unrestricted travel

across all our 50 states,

unlimited enjoyment

of all these jewels

in the continent's crown.

For all of us,

there's all of America,

in all of its scenic beauty,

all of its heritage of history,

all of its limitless

opportunity...

We've dropped too many bombs

on Vietnam now.

Let us save our national honor!

Stop the bombing,

and stop the war!

What I am

trying to say to this country,

to us,

is that we must know this.

We must realize this,

that no other country

in the world

have been so fat

and so sleek, and so safe,

and so happy,

and so irresponsible,

and so dead.

No other country can afford to

dream of a Plymouth and a wife

and a house with a fence,

and the children

growing up safely

to go to college

and to become executives,

and then to marry,

and have the Plymouth

and the house

and so forth.

A great many people

do not live this way,

and cannot imagine it,

and do not know that when

we talk about "democracy",

this is what we mean.

The industry is compelled,

given the way it is built,

to present

to the American people

a self-perpetuating fantasy

of American life.

Their concept of entertainment

is difficult to distinguish

from the use of narcotics.

What worries you about

them having black partners?

Do you think people are

gonna look down on them,

- or judge them?

- Yes, I think people look down.

To watch the TV screen

for any length of time

is to learn some really

frightening things

about the American

sense of reality.

We are cruelly trapped between

what we would like to be

and what we actually are.

And we cannot possibly become

what we would like to be until

we are willing to ask ourselves

just why the lives we lead

on this continent

are mainly so empty,

so tame, and so ugly.

These images are designed

not to trouble,

but to reassure.

They also weaken our ability

to deal with the world as it is,

ourselves as we are.

I would like to add someone

to our group here,

Professor Paul Weiss,

the sterling professor

of philosophy at Yale.

Were you able to listen

to the show backstage?

I heard a good deal of it,

but then I was behind

the whatsitmajig.

- Yes.

- So I heard only some of it.

Did you hear anything

that you disagreed with?

I disagreed with

a great deal of it,

and of course, there's

a good deal I agree with.

But I think he's overlooking

one very important matter,

I think.

Each one of us,

I think, is terribly alone.

He lives his own

individual life.

He has all kind of obstacles,

the way of religion or color

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