Black Man’s Got No Place…One Man’s View.
Brother, back home at the drop of Whitey’s racist frown you are ready to fight to the death, to storm through a hail of bullets to let the man know that he can’t mess around with cats just because they are black. But now, the man puts you in a monkey suit and can dolt on your loyalty. He can do anything to you and all you do is tuck your tail and take the spite out on Colored Vietnamese. Bro, they say clothes make the difference. Damned if you aren’t proving it. Niggers in uniform are more passive and Tomish toward the bullshit of Uncle Sam than the brother in patched overalls. “Uncle Sam,” now ain’t that a thing and a trick. How the hell is white Sam to be looked on as the black man’s uncle? Brother, being a black man in a white racist world is a hurting thing. To live with yourself, to keep cool, you have to alibi the man man to your heart and the more you alibi for him against your best interest, the more he is convinced that you are a natural brainless fool. It’s a vicious circle. Well, you keep telling yourself like all the black veterans before you, that things will be better after the war…that you are earning your rights the hard way…and that you ain’t gonna take no more of that white man’s shit when you get back home…Brother, who is kidding whom?
Robert F. Williams, Listen Brother, 1968.
