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difference between Brimmer and Soul[?]. To be quite honest with you, I don't know what they really think. I guess what I do is that I have not been able to get away from my roots. I've not been able to mask my observations of Harlem in which I grew up, with the fact that I was a professor at City College. I still, rightly or wrongly, maybe neurotically, still see as an important set of determinants in the struggle of blacks, my mother's struggling to support two children by her working in the garment factories, working in the attempt to organize the union. These things are still very important factors in my attempt at understanding the ongoing struggles of blacks. Now, if somebody says to me, “But look, your mother succeeded in working very hard to put her two children through college. She succeeded in holding up standards for them.” But even as she did that she never permitted us not to be sensitive to the struggles of others who might not have been as successful.

My mother singlehandedly, not only helped her children, but when she died I wrote something about her in which I said she was, “a one woman social service agency.” She brought other children into our home. Believe me, it was not an affluent home. But she was concerned with how could she help the children. By the way, I still have some contact with some of the children. They're grown now. They have children of their own. But--oh, what the hell. Maybe it's easier for some of us to forget than for others. To be quite honest with you, maybe I'm one of those people who've been burdened with the difficulty in forgetting certain realities. I'm always fascinated by people telling me how successful I have been personally. I don't get into any discussions with them as to what that success means, or what