Calypso Louie at the Million Man March nearly two decades ago.
Black folk that got talent, they all grow up in the "hood." When we first sing, we sing in these old raunchy night clubs in the "hood." When we play sandlot ball, we play it in the "hood." But when you spot us, you draw us out. You say "that Negro can run. Look at how high he jumps." So you give us a scholarship to your university. But the blacks who are in college, who play basketball for you, who play football for you, who run track for you, you disallow them to get involved with black students and the suffering of black students on all white campuses. You hide them away. Give them privileges. Then they find themselves with your daughter.
Then you take them into the NBA, the NFL, and they become megastars. Or in the entertainment field and when they become megastars, their association is no longer black. They may not have a black manager, a black agent, a black accountant. They meet in parties, in posh neighborhoods that black folk don't come into. So their association becomes white women, white men, and association breeds assimilation. And if you have a slave mentality, you feel you have arrived now because you can jump over cars, running in airports, playing in films.
I'm not degrading, my brother, I love him. But he was drawn out. He didn't sell out, he was drawn out. Most of our top stars are drawn out. And then, when you get them, you imprison them with fear and distrust. You don't want them to speak out on the issues that are political, that are social. They must shut their mouths or you threaten to take away their fame, take away their fortune because you're sick.
