In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Harry Belafonte broke new ground for black Americans as a recording artist, concert singer, actor, and producer.As part of his lifelong struggle to advance human rights, he has served on the board of directors of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, as cultural advisor to the Peace Corps, chairman of the Martin Luther King, Jr Memorial Fund, and a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF.Among the many awards he has received are the Dag Hammarskjold Peace Medal and the Martin Luther King, Jr Peace Prize. Harry Belafonte Q: How would you define racism? BELAFONTE: I would define racism as an invented mode of social response that works toward the detriment of a group of people.And it comes in many forms, because it isn’t just one bacteria at work; it’s several. But the overall thing is an invented form of social response or social behavior that works to the detriment of a group of people.And the operative word is “invented,” because I don’t think people are born with racist attitudes. It’s acquired, and its acquisition and the development of it has so many layers and so many interpretations that no one dynamic can eliminate it and no one definition can satisfy what it really is. Racism has had so many institutions of respectability responsible for some of its most intense expression. The church and the Christian forces of the world legitimized the slave trade because it put large profits into the state and into those who were supportive of the church. That set up a whole dynamic.And when I look at an immigrant coming from Europe, who comes here with no money, just raw off the boat; one of the first things he realizes in this country,from the day he lands,is he’s already better than black people.And he begins to play a role in that, which already puts him in an adversarial position to the blacks who he might meet, who are economically on the same level.And it sets up this reciprocity of hate and social conflict.To define racism is not an easy thing to do, because its tentacles go so many places that you have to define it each place you see it for people to understand fully. 104 THOMAS HAUSER Q: How deeply ingrained in the black community is racism? BELAFONTE: I don’t know how you can be the victim of something that is as oppressive as racism and not begin to develop mechanisms in response that become racist as well. How can you eternally love white people without some sense of discontent or hate or anger toward them as a group, when the group of white people have been so responsible in the daily practice of racism,behaving in a way that supports and reinforces the institutions of racism. So, for example, black people who suffered at the hands of rents that were gouged from buildings that were traditionally owned by Jews developed an anti-Semitic bias.The world already had an anti-Semitic formula. Blacks were just able to find a specific one for their own kind of racism, because there was this economic exploitation in the face of their economic helplessness. So I believe that there is a great deal of racism that exists within black consciousness and black subconsciousness. But I believe that, in blacks, it is perhaps the most swiftly healed. I find in many instances that blacks who begin to have access, blacks who begin to understand that there is a legitimate basis for an interdependency with other races and other people, are the first to play that chord of harmony, because their basic thrust is to find harmony, to find brotherhood, because they’ve lived for so long outside of the regions of brotherhood.Americans can sit down and talk about our British allies.They can talk about our French allies.They can talk about a host of things that give them a sense of community, a sense of brotherhood, a sense of fraternity. Blacks don’t have that.When we talk about our West Indian brothers, we can only relate as victims.We can’t relate as people who come with power to reinforce each other.We can’t call on a black Margaret Thatcher to interface with our black George Bush to arrive at some common objective and therefore get a sense of fraternity within the tribe.We come together all the time in a desperate hope...

Share