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Kenneth ClarkKenneth Clark
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Session:         Page of 763

Q:

But did she have any feeling about a lot of black men--perhaps almost black men in general--as being too macho.

Clark:

Those were not her words; I mean--

Q:

I know she might not use that word, but

Clark:

If she saw a black man who was egoistic or pompous or pretending and not producing (which is usually the case with people who are spending that much time with image; they don't have very much time for production), she would say so. Not to the person, but when we would be discussing him. But again, I don't recall her ever discussing this kind of stupidity on the part of an individual by generalizing it. I just don't recall that. And there's really a lot of black, white, oriental males full of this need to verify some kind of pomposity.

Q:

Part of the genesis of the question was my recalling a meeting--I believe it was held in Philadelphia--of blacks. I cannot recall whether it was a Planned Parenthood meeting, or whether the issue of birth control came up. There were one or more Black Muslims there. They of course were taking the position at the time that family planning efforts in the black communities were genocide on the part of whites. One or more women got up--one in particular was quoted as saying, “You men can't tell us what to do. We're going to decide how many babies we're going to have, if any.” I was sort of thinking of that when I used the word macho.





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