by Paul Hill, Jr.
- I would want my children to have a good feeling about themselves as Black people and to know that they are part of an enormous family and community in America, the Caribbean, South America and, of course, Africa.
- I would want them to know that Black people have always had a lifestyle based on sharing and community and that we are reexamining our values so that they reflect this older life style and a basic love and responsibility to other people.
- I want my children to know that they have a proud heritage so that they will not have to be dependent on anyone outside their community for information about themselves.
- I would want my children to know that Black people have been brutally victimized and are still being subjected to calculated cruelty.
- I would want my children to know that there is little that Black people can expect from eurocentric institutions, but that it is vital to keep making demands in order to guarantee primary survival while creating those institutions which are responsive to the needs of Black people.
- I would hope that my children would understand that racism is a way of life for many people, and that has nothing to do with their competence as human beings regardless of how they are treated.
- I would want them to understand that, as their father, I wish their beauty, curiosity and warmth to take them where it may, but at times I must interrupt that curiosity and warmth to explain the horrible, painful reasons for Malcolm X's and Martin Luther King's death so that they will be prepared to cope with the pain ahead of them.
- I would want my children to develop strong antennae for put downs, stupidity, and arrogance, and to learn all the options for dealing with these threats to their dignity.
- I would want them to have all of the basic skills necessary for survival and nation building. Their interest in scholarship and excellence should only be motivated by their own personal drives and the needs of their community.
- I would want them to know everything about this total society and how it functions, so that they can understand what has happened to all people and why they must concern themselves with making positive changes.
- I would want them, through knowledge, sensitivity and honesty to be able to cry for all the children who have been abandoned as wards of the state; and cry for all black people who try to escape the pain of their blackness. I would want them to understand their rage, when it comes, and make it a positive force. I hope that they will never lose their ability to laugh, love and share some of those beautiful things that happen to black people when they are together, and out of all that sorrow.