Process
Status Items Output None Questions None Claims None Highlights Done See section below
Highlights
id757149341
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.
✏️ As with any marginalized community (thinking about queer people as well), the goal of discrimination is to distract, to deter, with the end result that you are constantly explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Your identity is at question, constantly. You are not the norm… whatever that may be at the moment. 👓 quote racism 🔗 View Highlight
id757149342
Morrison said this during a speech titled The Humanist View at Portland State University on May 30, 1975.
id760455822
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
id760455863
Morrison said this during a speech titled The Humanist View at Portland State University on May 30, 1975.