I was THERE,absolutely mesmerized.
I need to set the scene for you,brwn.Its the Summer of 1968 and I am 21 years old living in the Bay Area.The Black Panthers are the heroes of the New Left and the black intelligentsia.The cities burned after the King assasination.Fear in the air,tension everywhere.It felt like the whole country was falling apart and black revolutionaries were seen as"the vanguard".Older black groups,including the NAACP and Urban League,were considered irrelevant Uncle Toms and scorned by those"in the know".
To see a young black conservative eviscarate the white radical was a big turning point for me.The prevailing orthodoxy of thought back then among us white kids was that all blacks were out to"get whitey".Some were scared to death at this prospect.Others rejoiced out of some sick masochism.
I was always very curious about Black America.I think I spent my first 18 years being the victim of white racial mythology and then was seduced for a while by the New Left because I was so ashamed of my past absorption of white supremacy.When I saw how destructive it all was,I began to take a more balanced view,rejecting the racism of the white world as well as the nihilism of the black enrages.
I think I am in a much better place now.If you are a good person and doing the right thing,you are my sister and brother,no matter,no matter what color.
If I may borrow that Timmy Thomas line!
That is so cool. What I would give to have been there.