Suffering Does Not Necessarily Ennoble You.

You Can Say I Had A Severe Case Of 'roots' Envy. I Wanted To Be Like Alex Haley, And I Wanted To Be Able To... Do My Family Tree Back To The Slave Ship And Then Reverse The Middle Passage, As I Like To Put It, And Find The Tribe Or Ethnic Group That I Was From In Africa.

Like The Amazing Story Of Anthony Johnson. This Man Was A Slave, Then Became Free, Accumulated 250 Acres, And Even Had His Own Slave, A Black Man Who Took Him To Court In Virginia In 1654.that Man Argued That He Should Be Freed Like An Indentured Servant. But Johnson, Who We Believe Was A Pure African From Angola, Said, "no Way, You're My Slave." And The Court Agreed.

Diversity Doesn't Mean Black And White Only.

It Is The Black Poet Who Bridges The Gap In Tradition, Who Modifies Tradition When Experience Demands It, Who Translates Experience Into Meaning And Meaning Into Belief.

The Historical Basis For The Gap Between The Black Middle Class And Underclass Shows That Ending Discrimination, By Itself, Would Not Eradicate Black Poverty And Dysfunction. We Also Need Intervention To Promulgate A Middle-class Ethic Of Success Among The Poor, While Expanding Opportunities For Economic Betterment.