What Shall We Tell Our Children? An Addenda, 1973

A lot of water has passed under the bridge since 1963. Then, my concern was particularly for my own people and this version was written especially for them. I am happy that it has done and is doing its job. However, I want it to be known, that I am not a proponent of the concept of cultural nationalism. I dearly love and am proud of my good, serious, sincere black people, yet at the same time, my concern is with all people of goodwill no matter the color. I make no mystique of blackness. I am a humanist. Indeed, I am a universalist. This truth, I know. The liberation of black people in the United States is tightly linked with the liberation of black people in the far flung diaspora. Further, and more important, the liberation of black and oppressed people all over the world, is linked with the struggles of the workers of the world of every nationality and color against the common oppressors, overlords, and exploiters of their labor. Thus it was only natural that I should write "What Shall We Tell Our Children?" in 1973. I have tried to tell them the facts of life and the truth as I see it: I hope I have succeeded. What shall we tell our children who are black? What shall we tell our children who are white? What shall we tell children of every race and hue? For all children are the children of all of us And all of us bear responsibility for all children What shall we tell them? How can we show them the conditions of their lives So they will see how they can change them? Those who are poverty stricken in the midst of plenty Who must live in rat-infested slums While decent homes stand empty Who go to bed hungry While grocery shelves are heavy Who huddle in tattered rags While racks in stores are sagging Who yearn for a good education But languish in programmed illiteracy Whose intellectual growth is stunted And whose ignorance is compounded While the Academies produce more drones for the labor colony What shall we tell them? How can we show them the conditions of their lives So they will see how they can change them? What shall we tell our children The men and women of the future? We shall tell them the truth It is our bounden duty to tell them the truth It may be painful. We must tell them the truth We may be criticized. We must tell them the truth We may be castigated. We must tell them the truth The truth it shall be, shall show them the conditions of their lives Of a glorified way of life, the greatest in the world Which is not concerned with people, but with profits Not with the well-being of many, but with the interests of a few Not with the welfare and future of the people But only with the profit-making present We shall tell them the truth about a way of life The greatest in the world Where freedom and equality is granted to every man, woman, and child Where everyone, providing he is willing to do what is necessary Can become rich and wealthy by doing others before they do you Where everyone, including you Can acquire life's most important goodies Like split-level houses, with wall-to-wall carpeting completely furnished And two cars and two color T.V.'s And the latest style clothes and minks And schminks and everything! We shall tell them the truth About a way of life The greatest in the world Which rejects the wisdom of its seers and sages And whose culture is dictated and delineated by Violent, vicious, destructive Murderous, unfeeling, crude And quick on the draw supermen Who deem the men and women of the future As expendable and shunt them off to Purposeless death in the name of patria and patriotism Who slaughter the innocents who protest or speak for Peace We shall tell them the truth We shall tell them the truth About a way of life, t