Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 763

Q:

You made the remark that Louis Farrakhan had really not gotten much media attention until he joined up with Jackson and got all the publicity with those remarks. The National Press Club invited him subsequently to speak, which is a rather sought after platform, which prompted Teddy White-- Theodore White, the author-- to resign, because he considered the man terribly biased. How do you feel when an organization that has such an influential platform as the National Press Club invites a Louis Farrakhan to address them?

Clark:

Confused. Bewildered. And if I try to cut through my confusion, I find myself with cynicism. Do you imagine that the National Press Club would invite me to speak to them? And if not, why not? A Farrakhan can be easily dismissed. He can be easily made an example-- well, you don't have to take these people really seriously. There are blacks who could have been invited to speak. They may have been as boring as I am. But I have to believe that that was a deliberate attempt to put the spotlight on-- if you'll pardon-- a kind of a clown. That's where I arrive at when I cut through my confusion and bewilderment. It's a cynical view, that the people who made those decisions are unable to take blacks seriously.

Q:

In other words, you're not saying, they put the spotlight on him as a clown in order to expose him as a clown?





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help