American cultural institutions seem so bent on preserving the values of "Western civilization," the mythical "Whitetown," that welearn about one another's cultures the same way we learn about sex: in the streets. Ishmael Reed More Quotes by Ishmael Reed More Quotes From Ishmael Reed During the last decades, films about the black experience have been produced, directed, and even scripted by white men. Some of them are excellent. But most reflect George Bernard Shaw’s warning that 'if you do not tell your stories others will tell them for you and they will vulgarize and degrade you.' Ishmael Reed white-man black men No one says a novel has to be one thing. It can be anything it wants to be, a vaudeville show, the six o’clock news, the mumblings of wild men saddled by demons. Ishmael Reed news writing men One of the joys of reading is the ability to plug into the shared wisdom of mankind. Ishmael Reed reading joy book I consider racism to be a medical problem. Racists need serious medical and psychiatric help, because they are killing themselves and making others suffer along with them. Ishmael Reed medical-problems racism suffering A black boxer's career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination. Ishmael Reed black careers perfect I used to be a discipline problem, which caused me embarrassment until I realized that being a discipline problem in a racist society is sometimes an honor. Ishmael Reed racist discipline honor In Haitian mythology there is the figure Ghede, who in West Africa, is Iku, whose role is to show "each man his devil." He's represented by a figure wearing a top hat and smoking a cigar. That's my gig. Ishmael Reed devil smoking men The treatment of African and African American culture in our education was no different from their treatment in Tarzan movies. Ishmael Reed african-american race education Writing poetry is the hard manual labor of the imagination. Ishmael Reed poetry imagination writing In the middle of the next century, when the literary establishment will reflect the multicultural makeup of this country and not be dominated by assimiliationists with similar tastes, from similar backgrounds, and of similar pretensions, Langston Hughes will be to the twentieth century what Walt Whitman was to the nineteenth. Ishmael Reed makeup taste country I think I have a pugnacious style. My style is not pretty. I don't use words like "amber" or "opaque." Ishmael Reed amber style thinking What was once dormant is now a Creeping Thing Ishmael Reed dormant How does the [New York] Times treat White pathology? They reported an epidemic of heroin addiction in the Philadelphia suburbs. which included emergency admissions and overdoses; these White people in the suburbs were doing heroin like it was going out of style. I counted the words: the article consisted of 200 words. "Heroin Epidemic" in the back section. Out here in California, the typical drug addict is a housewife or suburban White woman. Ishmael Reed epidemics california new-york History is the story of warfare between secret societies. Ishmael Reed warfare secret stories My work holds up the mirror to hypocrisy, which puts me in a tradition of American writing that reaches back to Nathaniel Hawthorne. Ishmael Reed hypocrisy mirrors writing When I say Afro-American aesthetic, I'm not just talking about the United States, I'm talking about the Americas. People in the Latin countries read my books because they share the same international aesthetic that I'm into and have been into for a long time. And it's multicultural. Ishmael Reed latin country book I reached the age of 70, because I have cultivated an association of multicultural intellectuals who are informed and alert to whatever "tricknology" that's laid on us by the powers that be. These include White ethnic intellectuals- people who know their roots- as well as Native American, Asian American, Hispanic and Black intellectuals. These are thirty, forty-year associations with some of the best minds around. Minds that are ignored by the media. Ishmael Reed media native-american years Writing has made me a better man. It has put me in contact with those fleeting moments which prove the existence. Ishmael Reed fleeting writing men Few white citizens are acquainted with blacks other than those projected by the media and the so--called educational system, whichis nothing more than a system of rewards and punishments based upon one's ability to pledge loyalty oaths to Anglo culture. The media and the "educational system" are the prime sources of racism in the United States. Ishmael Reed loyalty white education [David] Mamet is another hypocrite. His idea of Black man is a pimp who abuses women, [Edmond], yet his play Oleanna [1994] ends with a White professor slapping an uppity feminist, at least the version I saw at San Francisco's ACT. Ishmael Reed hypocrite play men
