BL.ACK PO.WER
197
to use the word 'black' instead of 'Negro.' I know what you're thinking,
man. You think 'Black Power' is a fad, a slogan, and probably some–
thing a guy like me needs, because he's tired, because he's worn-out.
Maybe so, but it's more than that. To me, to Stokely, to all of us, th!!
fact that we're talking 'Black Power' now means that we've grown up.
I mean, we're finally as sophisticated as every local politician in
America is. They know that you have to have a
constituency,
a follow–
ing that sticks together and pushes - pushes hard enough to make
even critics think twice before they criticize. I mean, if a cardinal says
something wild, or a rabbi or a high-up minister, or the head of some
big ethnic group - well, the newspapers and TV people watch them–
selves carefully when they disagree, and so do the congressmen. And
when those kinds of leaders
want
something, people start getting ready
to give - from the President on down.
"We used to think it was different with us. We used to think we
could pray, and hold hands, and sing, and appeal to Lincoln and The
Bill of Rights and all that. Well, we tried and we got little -little food,
little work, little of anything except a chance to vote for George C.
Wallace and Mrs. George C. Wallace and Lester Maddox. And up
North, all we have to do is
try
to move into a Chicago suburb or a
Milwaukee one and you'd think - how does it go, the movie,
The Rus–
sians are
Coming.
Actually, they'd rather have Communists in Cicero
than us. That's where even Communism takes a back seat to the Negro
in the American's list of things to run away from."
There is more, much more. We have talked for hours, then and
at other times.
It
is absurd to say that "Black Power" means anyone
particular thing. At a certain moment in history to a certain kind of
Negro the term came to mind and reflected all sorts of social, psycho–
logical, political and economic considerations. I don't think the
concept
"Black Power" can in itself "do" or "change" much today. (What can?)
I only know as an observer the concrete experiences and realities that
have made men like Stokely Carmichael or the one I have quoted
feel as they do, speak as they do - and be heard as they are being
heard by millions of worried and angry white Americans.
