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And from the beginning of slavery, they did.

All right, so -- but, on balance, you have in American blacks a greater amount of self-doubt, conflict, ambivalence; the kind of thing that my life and my research demonstrated about the socialization of black children in America, you know, where it takes them a while to come to grips with the fact that they are worthy of more respect than the society as a whole gives them. I mean, they have to have this.

Now, this pattern of socialization, as far as I can see, did not occur in the West Indies. The West Indian black could afford to be more assertive and insistent upon his self-esteem and identity, because he didn't have to fight the counter-forces as vigorously and as consistently as the American blacks.

So he comes to America, and he has a higher proportion of his group involved in political assertiveness, and I think the figures will show that, in the Northeastern part of the nation, where there's a higher percentage of West Indians than anywhere else, that they are disporportionately in the area of political activism.

You know, Shirley Chisholm and Ray Jones, and Wallaba Stewart, Basil Paterson, --

And I guess, if I were a limited American black, I would have some anxiety about this, as some do. And particularly if I didn't have time to try to understand the historical and sociological context in which this makes sense.

A high proportion of West Indian blacks are involved in educational assertiveness, advancement, and there is a spillover from their involvement to American blacks -- and economic, a very high proportion of West Indian blacks are making economic, you know,