This is an oft-repeated statement by activist and scholar, Dr. Henry Louis Taylor.  Dr. Taylor does not reject sexual or marital relationships among Black, white, and brown skinned peoples.  What he rejects is the myth that these relationships by themselves will confront and defeat racism and racist practices — individual and institutional.  He points to the color of his own light-brown skin; what in another time and place would have been referred to as “high-yellow”.

     Dr. Taylor was quoted out-of-context when being interviewed by a FOX news reporter about the movie Green Book.  In that article he said, “We can get caught up in the controversy about whether or not the film is an account of the white’s man’s view, which it is, and whether the story would have been different had Shirley told it, which it would have.  But that doesn’t matter as much as the larger question,”What is the place of individual friendship within the process of social change?”  What was excluded from that article was his answer.

     “Individual friendships are important only if they inspire and incite the fight against structural forces that produce racism, prejudice, and discrimination.” (1/13/2019)