How do you talk about 300 years in four minutes?
(Sigh)
We want
We want
Total identification
Was it ever so apparent we need this dialogue?
Its not a question of reading anybody out
Its a merger
And it has to be a merger
On the basis of true and genuine equality
And if we think that isn't gonna be painful
We're mistaken
We want
We want
Total identification
Can't you understand
That this is the perspective from which we are now speaking?
It isn't as if we got up today and said, you know
What can we do to irritate America?
It's because that since 1619
Negroes have tried
Every method
Of communication
Of transformation of their situation
From petitions
To the vote
Everything, we've tried it all
There isn't anything that hasn't been exhausted
Isn't it rather remarkable that
We can talk about a people who were publishing newspapers
While they were still in slavery in 1827?
And now
The charge of 'impatience' is simply unbearable
We have to find some way
With these dialogues
To show and to encourage
The white liberal
To stop being a liberal
And become an American radical
We want
We want
Total identification
Total identification
Total identification
We want
Total identification
What makes you think I want to be accepted
(Into this) Into this?
(Maybe something else)
Maybe something else
But, you know
There's no question of acceptance or tolerance here
We've got to sit down and rebuild this house.
(Yes, quickly) And very quickly
And we have to do it together