The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies.
Ishmael ReedI was challenged to a fistfight by Margo Jefferson, the Pulitzer Prize winner, New York Times writer, who is part of a feminist clique at the Times, which believes that Black men are the principal threat to the women of the world.
Ishmael ReedI use non-fiction work written by Whites in my research. It's indispensable. That wasn't the problem. I said that "The Wire" was a clichรฉ! It's like my writing a series about Jewish life and casting all of the characters as inside traders.
Ishmael ReedWhat I can't understand why Blacks can't achieve royal status when it comes to forms that they have largely created? I mean there's a White King of Rock n' Roll, there's a White King of Jazz, how come we can never achieve titles of royalty in these fields we are supposed to prevail in? They held a so called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the other night, where White judges credit people who resemble them with the invention of Rock and Roll. I didn't even see Blacks in the audience.
Ishmael ReedIn Crash, you've got a pathological cop who at the end justifies police brutality. He tells the naรฏve, young cop that you're going to end up the same as him. He's the most sympathetic character in the movie. So, the naรฏve cop ends up murdering this Black kid and tries to cover up the evidence. It sort of justifies police brutality and the planting of evidence which is what happened in the O.J. Simpson case.
Ishmael Reed