My books are not about how it feels to be a black man. My books are about how it feels to be a human being, and part of what I'm trying to sort out is what we mean - what I mean, what you mean, what everybody in the culture means - when they say 'black man,' or they say 'white person.'
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the universal human experience over racial identities.
John Edgar Wideman's quote reflects on the complexity of human identity, suggesting that while race is a significant aspect of individual experience, his writing aims to reach beyond racial distinctions to explore the commonalities of the human condition. He highlights the need for deeper understanding and communication about race, urging a conversation that includes multiple perspectives on what it means to be both black and white in society.
In practice
In a speech on diversity, one might use this quote to emphasize the shared human experience beyond racial lines.
My aunt Geraldine was the unofficial historian and storyteller. She had all the information about family members and the gossip that came out of the church because we were very much part of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. At family gatherings, the older folk had the floor, had pride of place, and it was their stories I remember.
As nonhuman animals, plants, and even 'inanimate' rivers once spoke to our oral ancestors, so the ostensibly “inert” letters on the page now speak to us! This is a form of animism that we take for granted, but it is animism nonetheless - as mysterious as a talking stone.
If alpha [the fine-structure constant] were bigger than it really is, we should not be able to distinguish matter from ether [the vacuum, nothingness], and our task to disentangle the natural laws would be hopelessly difficult. The fact however that alpha has just its value 1/137 is certainly no chance but itself a law of nature. It is clear that the explanation of this number must be the central problem of natural philosophy.
There are reveries so deep, reveries which help us descend so deeply within ourselves that they rid us of our history. They liberate us from our name. These solitudes of today return us to the original solitudes.
The most dangerous thing is illusion.
Faith must be tested, because it can be turned into a personal possession only through conflict.
What exactly is it that humans do that is specifically human? There has to be something. How odd it is for billions of people to be alive, yet not one of them is really quite sure of what makes people people.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.