Tell anyone you like

Tell anyone you like,” he said. “I don’t care. I wouldn’t raise my little finger to stop you because I don’t owe anyone a thing, son. Who, Negroes? Negroes don’t control this school or much of anything else – haven’t you learned even that? No sir, they don’t control this school, nor white folk either. True they support it, but I control it. It’s big and black and I say ‘Yes, suh’ as loudly as any burrhead when it’s convenient, but I’m still the king down here. I don’t care how much it appears otherwise. Power doesn’t have to show off. Power is confident, self-assuring, self-starting and self-stopping, self-warming and self-justifying. When you have it, you know it. Let the Negroes snicker and the crackers laugh! Those are the facts, son. The only ones I even pretend to please are big white folks, and even those I control more than they control me. This is a power set-up, son, and I’m at the controls. You think about that. When you buck against me, you’re bucking against power, rich white folk’s power, the nation’s power – which means government power!”