Ed Graves, Sr.

"Today, we live in a society happy to watch black people denigrate themselves, a culture that sees such self-denigration as a form of entertainment—and a lucrative one at that. The worst, most profane and self-destructive of the black community are celebrated in comedy, music, television, and film in the name of "keeping it real." Worse, not only do too few of us stand up against the public defamation of black people, too many of us defend such defamation and engage in it ourselves. It has been noted, and is worth repeating, that this is true of no other race or ethnic group in America.

I say: Enough is enough! So long as we permit the celebration of ignorance over intelligence and profit from the desecration of our time-honored values and traditions—allowing a culture of gold teeth, sagging pants, disdain for education, disrespect for women, glorification of criminality, low ambition, and irresponsible sexual behavior to be regarded as authentically black—we are destined to march back into the margins of society, into the shadows that so many heroes and heroines of our history fought so hard to escape."