Black Socrates
Huffington Post: You once described your father as a deep thinker and storyteller, a ‘black Socrates.’ Will you elaborate a bit?
Walter Mosley: If you were poor and white, you might have claimed Socrates as an inspiration.
If you were poor and Chinese, maybe you would have said Confucius.
But if you were poor and black, there was nobody from your race you could claim.
Maybe you’d look up to someone, but that person wasn’t from your race or ethnicity.
My paternal grandfather was the only black man in New Iberia, Louisiana who could read. Everyone brought him their contracts, letters or whatever else required a written response.
My father, like his father and like Socrates, was first and foremost an educator. To me, my Dad was a ‘black Socrates.’