An Interview with Amiri Baraka

What is your advice for the new generation?

My advice is… First of all the most important thing in the world is education. That’s the most important thing in the world, education. The two things people just really need are education and employment based on that education. Currently the United States sent factories out of the country, jobs out of the country, they have no message of educating the people. They’re not even thirst in education anymore in the world. The goal to the people of this country is money, making money, and the idea of actually educating people, which is the most sacred concern that exists… I mean, imagine the people living on this planet, who doesn’t know anything about it, they just walking around, stumbling around, they don’t even know what’s going on. There are people in the modern world who is like that, who don’t know anything of what’s happening, who don’t understand anything, who are just subjects to people that has the power. So I would like to see universal education. I think that is the most important thing, how you ensure that people always receive the maximum education, not some people but all the people. All the people on the planet need a PhD. Imagine a planet full with doctors. If you believe you could deal with this, that’s what primitive people would do, they‘d knew how to cure themselves, they could use various remedies and they could read signs… Well, the world has changed and we have to have developed a form that we can still do that.

Amiri Baraka: Walk On To The Freedom Land