united against the system that oppresses us (410). Will America face a racial Armageddon?Concluding RemarksWhile white America has balked at giving up power to the black race, so has the black race refused to give up the fight. James Baldwin writes in The Fire Next Time, The only thing white people have that black people need, or should want, is power -- and no one holds power forever (96). A momentum exists, rooted and grounded in the very core of the institution of slavery, that has propelled the black race over many foes, many obstacles. The LA riots of the 90s should make white America stop and take note that black people are not going to remain idle. Grier and Cobbs, in Black Rage (1968), explained that the Civil Rights struggle was being fought at that time by black youth. But they also wrote that the time would soon come when the full range of the black masses . . . [would] put down the broom and [take up] the sword (211). Unfortunately, the momentum of black rage has been forced to carry the black race beyond a magical line in the sand called Equality to a final over-coming. Baldwin writes, People are not . . . terribly anxious to be equal (equal, after all, to what and to whom?), but they love the idea of being superior (88). To overcome is to get over, to be over, to rule over. Yes, suppress a race of men and women for 400 years, telling them you are superior to them, and they will turn and say that you have something coming to you. Thomas Jefferson once explained that slavery is like trying to hold a wolf by the ears. You can surely not let it go, for it will turn on you and rend you to pieces. At the same time, you can surely not continue to hold onto it, for it will soon overpower you in order to be set free, rending you in pieces (Jefferson 85). So, today, in 1998, America is still trying to hold the wolf by the ears. America is still trying to deal with her Negro problem through concession after concession,...
