"The question is, quite bluntly, 'Do Negroes have equal rights in America?' My answer is no, we do not have equal rights in all parts of the United States. But let's remember that 85 years ago Negroes in America were slaves and were 100 per cent illiterate. And the record shows that the Negro has advanced further in this period than any similar group in the entire world. You here get considerable misinformation about American Negroes and hear little or nothing that is constructive.”Though she was incorrect about illiteracy during slave times, she was certainly correct about the rest. Those sold into slavery who wound up in the United States were the lucky ones. They could have been sold to the Caribbean or to Brazil or to Middle East, or they could just have been killed. As far as the kids from Africa go, I know many African families from at least ten countries (Sierra Leone, Liberia, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi, and Sudan). The parents often have to settle initially in a lower income area and they are terrified, with good reason, that their kids will start adapting to the low income American black ways. I have seen a number of them that I characterize this way, "The refugee boys get locked up and the refugee girls get knocked up." Still, many of the parents are trying to make sure the kids do well in school, even though they themselves may be illiterate or functionally so. A teacher specializing in classes for refugees says that when they first come over the kids are hard working, respectful, and quiet but after a couple of years many of them have gotten sucked into the subculture. It's really sad. It doesn't help that a lot of them are watching rap videos back in the refugee camps and already being primed for the mold. I know of a couple parents who, after seeing the effects of the culture on their kids, sent them back for the summer at least to live with their grandparents out in the sticks. After a month of having to haul water from the river and working in the fields they are on the phone begging to come back to the States.
"I would rather be a Negro in America than a citizen in any other land."
Yes, what you say is absolutely the truth. As I said before, Richard Pryor experienced this epiphany first hand and expounded upon it in his comedy.
LLS