So, I've finished reading Nigger by Dick Gregory... I can't believe all that shit could have happened to a man in 31 years of life!

I just have to review a couple of quotes from him... these are all toward the end of the book:

"But I guess the greatest lesson of that Birmingham bombing was for the Negro who thought that civil rights didn't pertain to him -- the principal, the teacher, the that church, and whether he wanted to demonstrate or not, whether he thought we were going too fast or not, he found out that as long as your skin is black...."

I think that this quote is reflected by the movement of consciousness and protest that is taking place in the United States today. We are in the midst of a recession & people are sick and tired of being sick and tired. People are understanding that if we are not all progressive then none of us can truly be progressive. Also, to this day, as a black man, whether or not you are a doctor, lawyer, councilman... you too can still be followed by the police, might see a white woman clutch her purse as you stroll into the elevator, perhaps you will get followed around the store... There has been a movement in this country by people from all colors and all backgrounds against the wrongs of this country... the wrongs that our government & has inflicted upon us. There is no reason in the United States of America 13 million children live in poverty...


"And do you know that 50 per cent of the killings are our fault? That's right. We let this white man go crazy on us, instead of straightening him out when we should have."

The War in Iraq. There is so much data that many of us has yet to touch... Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield what's going on over there? What kind of mess have we created against the terrorists? But where are the citizens who are THAT angry...that angry enough to protest against this crime against the people of Iraq... why aren't we straightening out our government? Perhaps it's too late to change any policies of the current administration...we'll have to wait for someone else to step in and clean up this mess... straighten up this mess

"I saw the monster in Mississippi where we marched for voter registration, so a Negro can cast his ballot for the government he lives under and supports with his tax money, and dies for in wars... I saw it in San Francisco where white doctors and lawyers marched on the lines with us and went to jail with us and showed the world that this isn't a revolution of black against white, this is a revolution of right against wrong. And right has never lost."

There is a movement in American & abroad fighting against hate, injustice, oppression... a whole bunch of people ... people who will not rest until this world is a more just place.