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going, and we didn't see any particular advantage in public discussion of this. Nobody said, you know, “Let's swear in blood that we're going to be secret” or anything of that sort.
I don't recall having read an analysis of The Group in the NEW YORK TIMES or any place else, during the days I was --
-- that's right --
-- doing fairly intensive research on this.
That was not accidental. I mean, our role in the Bob Mangum thing, for example, was clearly not intended to be public. We were outraged. But we just had to express our opinions to people quietly. I'm enjoying my work, as you can see, here, and it's doing well, and it is I think performing a service, and I'm being paid for it, and apparently, what people pay for, they tend to respect more than what you try to give them free. Even if it's the same thing. (laugh)
I wanted to ask you a footnote question about your use of the terms, “black, Negro, colored” -- you mentioned, of course the group adopted “Black,” you said, “when Black became fashionable.”
How do you account for the change in these adjectives over the years?
I can talk with a little more confidence about the last change, from Negro to Black. I think I saw that process. That, to me, stemmed out of the tremendous influence of Malcolm X, when he was an accepted member of the Muslims, and came, orinically, to
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