00:00What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Are you still
00:08like yourself? I mean, these are the questions. If you can only be tall because somebody's on their knees, then
00:14you have a serious problem. And my feeling is white people have a very, very serious problem.
00:22My authenticity comes from the street. Whether I'm living there or not, I'm supposed to have some tangible and be
00:32able to speak for and with, you know, that class. And people will say, you're a pretty good writer or
00:40you're a good writer. Why do you insist on the label, woman in black?
00:46And I kept saying, first of all, it's true. Second of all, I find that a very broad, deep, wide
00:53pool to draw from. It's richer. I really want to take that territory, which is virgin territory, and just explore
01:04it. There's so many facets. It's limitless.
01:07Race plays many, many roles. It is based and redistributed in the culture based on fundamental kinds of stereotype. It
01:17is possible to believe all sorts of things about the alleged perpetrator if he is black. He is associated already
01:25with violence. He is associated already...
01:30Blackness. Blackness and criminality are merged in the minds of most white Americans. It's because we are consistently presented with
01:42these modern, but nevertheless stable images and assumptions about black men.
01:50I know I'm beautiful. I know I'm beautiful. Or it doesn't matter to me. I'm not talking to white people.
01:57I'm talking in my books. I'm reading them. So I'm talking to me, which means I'm talking to black people.
