Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task
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0:01 - 0:04Yes I do, Charlie, but let me tell you,
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0:04 - 0:05that's the wrong question.
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0:05 - 0:06[Charlie Rose] OK What's the right question?
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0:06 - 0:09[Toni Morrison] How do you feel?
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0:09 - 0:10Not you, Charlie Rose,
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0:10 - 0:12but don't you understand
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0:12 - 0:14that the people who do this thing,
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0:14 - 0:16who practice racism,
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0:16 - 0:21are bereft, there is something distorted about the psyche?
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0:21 - 0:25It's a huge waste, and it's a corruption
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0:25 - 0:27and a distortion.
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0:27 - 0:30It's like it's a profound neurosis
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0:30 - 0:32that nobody examines for what it is.
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0:32 - 0:33It feels crazy.
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0:33 - 0:35It is crazy.
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0:35 - 0:36And it leaves,
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0:36 - 0:43it has just as much of a deliterious effect on white people;
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0:43 - 0:48and possibly equal as it does black people.
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0:48 - 0:50I always knew that I had the moral high ground.
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0:50 - 0:52All my life.
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0:52 - 0:54I always thought those people
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0:54 - 0:55who said I couldn't come in the drugstore,
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0:55 - 0:57I had to sit in this funny place,
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0:57 - 0:58I couldn't go in the park...
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0:58 - 0:59[Charlie Rose cuts in] You felt morally superior to them from day one.
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0:59 - 1:00[Toni Morrison] I did.
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1:00 - 1:05And I thought they knew that I knew that they were inferior to me, morally.
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1:05 - 1:06I always thought that.
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1:06 - 1:08And my parents always thought that.
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1:08 - 1:11[Charlie Rose] You said your your father was racist cause he always felt like he was superior...
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1:11 - 1:13[Toni Mossison] That's right, he always felt superior,
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1:13 - 1:17and that was a form, you know, of defensive racism.
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1:17 - 1:21But if the racist white person -
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1:21 - 1:25I don't mean a person who is examining his consciousness and so on
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1:25 - 1:30- doesn't understand that he or she is also a race,
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1:30 - 1:31it's also constructed,
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1:31 - 1:34it's also made,
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1:34 - 1:36and it also has some kind of serviceability,
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1:36 - 1:38but when you take it away,
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1:38 - 1:40like take your race away,
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1:40 - 1:42and there you are all strung out,
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1:42 - 1:44and all you got is your little self,
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1:44 - 1:47and what is that?
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1:47 - 1:50What are you without racism?
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1:50 - 1:51Are ya any good?
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1:51 - 1:53Are ya still strong?
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1:53 - 1:54Still smart?
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1:54 - 1:55You still like yourself?
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1:55 - 1:56I mean, these are the questions,
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1:56 - 2:02part of it is, "yes, the victim, how terrible it's been for black people..."
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2:02 - 2:04I'm not a victim.
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2:04 - 2:06I refuse to be one.
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2:06 - 2:08[Charlie Rose] And the victim is the other person who is morally inferior...
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2:08 - 2:12[Toni Morrison] That's a serious question... of course! ...
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2:12 - 2:15[Charlie Rose] ...& who has to hold onto racism to somehow for his or her own self esteem & definition
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2:16 - 2:20[Toni Morrison] If you can only be tall because somebody's on their knees,
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2:20 - 2:22then you have a serious problem.
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2:22 - 2:29And my feeling is, white people have a very very serious problem.
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2:29 - 2:34And they should start thinking about what they can do about it.
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2:34 - 2:36Take me out of it.
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2:36 - 2:39[Charlie Rose] Then give white people some free advice.
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2:39 - 2:43[Toni Morrison] They're all in my books [both laughing].
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2:43 -[Charlie Rose] And the advice is... [cuts off]
- Title:
- Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task
- Description:
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Few intellectuals have waged a public battle against white supremacy and patriarchy like Toni Morrison. Morrison has both examined and challenged systems of domination throughout her intellectual life. With her novels, essays, and interviews she has taken critical looks at the interlocking systems of race and gender oppression. In this interview she is asked by PBS's Charlie Rose what it is like for her to encounter racism. In true Morrison fashion she turns the question on its head, and places the onus for explaining racism back into the hands of White people. She asks Rose what he thinks of racism, why do Whites hold onto, and what are they going to do about it ending it. She rejects the notion that racism is simply something that Black people must grapple with, insisting, demanding, that White people also grapple with it. Fearless. Brilliant. Powerful.
Full Interview: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2790851242454573240#docid=4593061045941294502
- Video Language:
- English
- Duration:
- 02:44
Radical Access Mapping Project edited English subtitles for Toni Morrison Takes White Supremacy To Task | ||
Radical Access Mapping Project added a translation |