"It’s important, therefore, to know who the real enemy is, and to know the function, the very serious function of racism, which is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining over and over
again, your reason for being.
Somebody says you have no language and so you spend 20 years proving that you
do.
Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is.
Somebody says that you have no art so you dredge that up.
Somebody says that you have no kingdoms and so
you dredge that up.
None of that is necessary.
There will always be one more thing.[...]
You don’t
waste your energy fighting the fever; you must only fight the disease. And the disease is not racism. It is greed
and the struggle for power. [Audience member murmurs in agreement]
And I urge you to be careful. For there is a deadly prison: the prison that is erected when one spends
one’s life fighting phantoms, concentrating on myths, and explaining over and over to the conqueror your
language, your lifestyle, your history, your habits.
And you don’t have to do it anymore. You can go ahead and talk straight to me."
-Toni Morrison, From Portland State University’s Oregon Public Speakers Collection: “Black Studies Center public dialogue. Pt.
2,” May 30, 1975
Morrison’s speech is entitled “A Humanist View
https://www.mackenzian.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Transcript_PortlandState_TMorrison.pdf
Ed.Note: [Fuck white trolls associated with this type of media. Fuck you forever, Vox.]
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