Leaving aside all the physical facts which one can quote, leaving aside rape or murder, leaving aside the bloody catalog of oppression, which we are in one way too familiar with already—what this does to the subjugated, the most private, the most serious thing this does to the subjugated, is to destroy his sense of reality. It destroys, for example, his father's authority over him. His father can no longer tell him anything, because the past has disappeared, and his father has no power in the world.

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Leaving aside all the physical facts which one can quote, leaving aside rape or murder, leaving aside the bloody catalog of oppression, which we are in one way too familiar with already—what this does to the subjugated, the most private, the most serious thing this does to the subjugated, is to destroy his sense of reality. It destroys, for example, his father's authority over him. His father can no longer tell him anything, because the past has disappeared, and his father has no power in the world." in the context of "Debate with William F. Buckley Jr. at the Cambridge Union on the subject "Has the American Dream Been Achieved at the Expense of the American Negro?", televised by NET (1965)
• A shortened transcript of Baldwin's speech was published in the March 7 issue of The New York Times under the title "The American Dream and the American Negro"." to mean that wisdom is timeless.