White people are astounded by Birmingham. Black people aren't. White people are endlessly demanding to be reassured that Birmingham is really on Mars. They don't want to believe, still less to act on the belief, that what is happening in Birmingham is happening all over the country. They don't want to realize that there is not one step, morally or actually, between Birmingham and Los Angeles.
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I don't know if white Christians hate Negroes or not, but I know we have a Christian church which is white and a Christian church which is black.... I can't afford to trust most white Christians, and I certainly cannot trust the Christian church. I don't know whether the labor unions or their bosses really hate me ... but I know I'm not in their union. I don't know whether the real estate lobby has anything against black people, but I know the real estate lobby is keeping me in the ghetto. I don't know if the board of education hates black people, but I know the textbooks they give my children to read and the schools we have to go to. Now, this is evidence.
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You never had to look at me. I had to look at you. I know more about you than you know about me.
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What white people have to do is try and find out in their own hearts why it was necessary to have a "nigger" in the first place. I'm not a nigger, I'm a man. But if you think I'm a nigger, it means you need him.... If I'm not the nigger here and you invented him, ... then you've got find out why.
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