And during slavery you had two Negroes. You had the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negro usually lived close to his master. He dressed like his master. He wore his masters second-hand clothes. He ate food that his master left on the table. And he lived in his masters house--probably in the basement or the attic--but he still lived in the masters house. So whenever that house Negro identified himself, he always identified himself in the same sense that his master identified himself. When his master said, We have good food, the house Negro would say, Yes, we have plenty of good food. We have plenty of good food. When the master said that we have a fine home here, the house Negro said, Yes, we have a fine home here. When the master would be sick, the house Negro identified himself so much with his master hed say, Whats the matter boss, we sick? His masters pain was his pain. And it hurt him more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself. When the house started burning down, that type of Negro would fight harder to put the masters house out than the master himself would. But then you had another Negro out in the field. The house Negro was in the minority. The masses--the field Negroes were the masses. They were in the majority. When the master got sick, they prayed that hed die. [Laughter] If his house caught on fire, theyd pray for a wind to come along and fan the breeze. If someone came to the house Negro and said, Lets go, lets separate, naturally that Uncle Tom would say, Go where? What could I do without boss? Where would I live? How would I dress? Who would look out for me? Thats the house Negro. But if you went to the field Negro and said, Lets go, lets separate, he wouldnt even ask you where or how. Hed say, Yes, lets go. And that one ended right there. So now you have a twentieth-century-type of house Negro. A twentieth-century Uncle Tom. Hes just as much an Uncle Tom today as Uncle Tom was 100 and 200 years ago. Only hes a modern Uncle Tom. That Uncle Tom wore a handkerchief around his head. This Uncle Tom wears a top hat. Hes sharp. He dresses just like you do. He speaks the same phraseology, the same language. He tries to speak it better than you do. He speaks with the same accents, same diction. And when you say, your army, he says, our army. He hasnt got anybody to defend him, but anytime you say we he says we. Our president, our government, our Senate, our congressmen, our this and our that. And he hasnt even got a seat in that our even at the end of the line. So this is the twentieth-century Negro. Whenever you say you, the personal pronoun in the singular or in the plural, he uses it right along with you. When you say youre in trouble, he says, Yes, were in trouble. But theres another kind of Black man on the scene. If you say youre in trouble, he says, Yes, youre in trouble. [Laughter] He doesnt identify himself with your plight whatsoever.
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 11:43:44 +0000
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