Wherever you go in the history of America there have been Black people making contributions but their contributions have been obscured lost buried.
What people forget is that the most radical thing about Obama is that he was the first black man in history to imagine that he could become president who was able to make other Americans believe it as well. Other than that he is a centrist just like I try to be. He's been bridging divisions his whole life.
America is the greatest nation ever founded. The ideals are the greatest ever espoused in human history and we just need the country to live up to them. But what I worry about are the 1 million black men in the prison system.
I did a book in 1996 an overview of black history. In that process I became more aware of a lot of the black inventors of the 19th century.
Black people don't have an accurate idea of their history which has been either suppressed or distorted.
In a typical history book black Americans are mentioned in the context of slavery or civil rights. There's so much more to the story.
Black History Month must be more than just a month of remembrance it should be a tribute to our history and reminder of the work that lies in the months and years ahead.
I was bused to a school in Gerritsen Beach in Brooklyn in 1972. I was one of the first black kids in the history of the school.
The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause as for instance the black man's right to his body or woman's right to her soul.
Black history is American history.
In the history of the treatment of depression there was the dunking stool purging of the bowels of black bile hoses attempts to shock the patient. All of these represent hatred or aggression towards what depression represents in the patient.
Let's be very honest about what this is about. It's not about bashing Democrats it's not about taxes they have no idea what the Boston tea party was about they don't know their history at all. This is about hating a black man in the White House. This is racism straight up.
I don't want a Black History Month. Black history is American history.
The thing about black history is that the truth is so much more complex than anything you could make up.
Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India history will look upon the act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest.
I suspect the psychological pressure associated with that crisis caused the first mental blackout I had ever suffered. It contributed to a deterioration in my health that later required the insertion of a heart pacemaker.
Illegal immigrants are beginning to comprise a black market class of workers in our society jeopardizing the financial health of companies which play by the rules while themselves vulnerable to the exploitation by those willing to take advantage of their illegal status.
The World Health Organisation has a lot of its medical experts sitting in Geneva while hospitals in Africa have no drugs and desperate patients are forced to seek medication on the black market.
I think the number one thing Black women and all Black people should be paying attention to is our health.
The white man's happiness cannot be purchased by the black man's misery.
I was really into Black Sabbath but heavy guitars can really be very limiting it's a great frequency and it's great fun to listen to but on the other hand musically you can do a lot more without it.
The government for example has determined that black people (somehow) have fewer abilities than white people and so must be given certain preferences. Anyone acquainted with both black and white people knows this assessment is not only absurd but monstrous. And yet it is the law.
The black market was a way of getting around government controls. It was a way of enabling the free market to work. It was a way of opening up enabling people.
I don't look to a man to get pride in myself. It's not about having a black president it's about having a good president and I think that's the most important thing.