What is your idea of perfect happiness? Late one Sunday afternoon, my three-year-old granddaughter, out of the blue, took my hand and said she wanted to whisper something to me. Could we go for a ride around the block before we all sat down for dinner? Just the two of us? Holding hands as we walked to and from the car in the driveway: Bliss.
What is your greatest fear? That we will be remembered as a people who locked our fellow citizens in cages and who believe that some people are rich and some people are poor because “its their nature” and that racism and poverty are inevitable parts of the order of things; that M.L.K. and Bobby Kennedy died in vain; and that no one any longer believes what M.L.K. said in his Nobel Prize address in Oslo: “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we have the resources to get rid of it.”
Which historical figure do you most identify with? I most admire W. E. B. Du Bois, for the same reason that M.L.K. did: “One idea he insistently taught was that black people have been kept in oppression and deprivation by a poisonous fog of lies that depicted them as inferior, born deficient, and deservedly doomed to servitude to the grave.… So long as the lie was believed the brutality and criminality of conduct toward the Negro was easy for the conscience to bear. The twisted logic ran: If the black man was inferior he was not oppressed—his place in society was appropriate to his meager talent and intellect. Dr. Du Bois recognized that the keystone in the arch of oppression was the myth of inferiority and he dedicated his brilliant talents to demolish it.” But there was only one Du Bois. I dont identify myself with him; I admire him.
Which living person do you most admire? Its a tie between Vernon Eulion Jordan Jr., Wole Soyinka, and Oprah Winfrey. All are fearless, all know themselves, all have examined themselves, and all are comfortable with what they have seen.
What is your greatest extravagance? Signed first editions in dust jackets by pre-Harlem Renaissance writers. And suits made by a London tailor.
What is your favorite journey? Then: hitchhiking across the equator with Lawrence Biddle Weeks when I was 20. Now: the drive to the ferry at Woods Hole on July 1.
What is your greatest regret? Not realizing that I was never meant to become a medical doctor or a lawyer sooner than I did.
What or who is the greatest love of your life? Producing films and writing about the historical experiences of black people.
When and where were you happiest? Well, Im happiest on Marthas Vineyard, between July 1Read More – Source
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Vanity Fair
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