Question :Your new book 'Black Prophetic Fire' has quite a title . Why that name ?
Answer : I think that we need fire in our world ; people on fire for justice , on fire for freedom . The most fundamental question in the book is how to be men and women of integrity and honesty in a time of such vast mendacity and criminality . And when you look at W.E.B. DuBois and Frederick Douglass , Martin Luther King , Malcolm X , Ida B. Wells and Ella Baker , these are people of integrity and decency .
Question : So a prophet is not the same as a leader ?
Answer : Usually not . A prophet is a lover , not a leader . A lot of people say ,"you're a leader of black people ." No, no, no, I'm not a leader of black people . I am a lover of black people . I'm a lover of poor people .
Question : You're critical of President Obama in the book and publicly . What are his chief failings ?
Answer : It's not so much as a personal attack . It's a critique of his priorities . We ended up with a Wall Street presidency , a drone presidency , a national-surveillance presidency . When you're speaking to young black boys in a very paternalistic way but on Wall Street you speak in a very subservient way , or you say your major program for black young boys is going to be one of charity and philanthropy but no public policy , then criticism must be put forward just to be true to the black prophetic tradition . I think he lacks backbone .
Question : Did you vote for Obama in '2012?
Answer : I didn't vote for anybody . I couldn't vote for a war criminal . He's tied to war crimes and drones dropping bombs on innocent people . But no way would I vote for Romney .
Question : Why do you write that many black leaders are for sale ?
Answer : In the history of black people , those who could be prophetic have either been kill or bought off and co-opted . And we live now in an age of the sellout , no matter what color. I argue in the book that we have witnessed the re-niggerization of the black professional class , they got power , assets and prosperity , but they're still intimidated . They're concerned with their careers rather than their callings . Malcolm X specialized in de-niggerizing black people . Folk willing to fight , tell the truth , die . That's what we need today .
Question : What would you like to see happen in Ferguson , Mo ?
Answer : I want justice . The policeman needs to be arrested . They have to have a fair trial . But it's not just Ferguson . That's the peak of the iceberg . We need more targeting of our poor young people , make them center stage in our public policy .
Question : Why are you opposed to the idea of the self-made man ?
Answer : It's a lie . Everybody's dependent on somebody . Nobody gave birth to themselves . Everybody gets a language from somewhere else . And so the notion of self-made men , from Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln ... even Frederick Douglass went around the country giving lectures on being self-made . It's an American lie that anybody's self made .
Question : Is a prophet always marginalized ?
Answer : Yes absolutely .
Question : Have you been marginalized ?
Answer : I've been very blessed . But you know , you got character assassination . You got different lies told on you . That's a kind of marginalization .
Question : How did you celebrate John Coltrane's birthday ?
Answer : We started off at Union Theological Seminary with "After the Rain" and then ended up in the cemetery . We jumped the fence [at Coltrane's grave] and tried to make it on in . Coltrane had what you this book is also about ... a militant tenderness and a subversive sweetness .
Thanx ... Belinda Luscombe
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