'I'm Going to Kill You, Cracker,' And Other Greetings of the Day

Midway through the so-called Million Youth March, a teenager, perhaps 15 years of age, brushed by me on his way to the stage. I was standing near the densely packed corner of 119th Street and Lenox Avenue, surrounded by members of the Assata Shakur Freedom Fighters, the Socialist Workers Party, the Umoja Nation, along with a seller of disposable cameras, a lone Garveyite and my friend Tamar Jacoby, the author of the recently published "Someone Else's House," which argues for the revival of the integrationist idea.

The 15-year-old was wearing a T-shirt that featured a photograph of Mayor Giuliani, as well as a text message, which I could not make out. I asked him what the shirt said. He responded: "He's a cracker. He's killing all of us. And we're going to kill you too, you white cracker expletive."
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