It is not an overstatement to say that the destiny of the entire human race depends on what is going on in America today. This is a staggering reality to the rest of the world; they must feel like passengers in a supersonic jetliner who are forced to watch helplessly while a passel of drunks, hypes, freaks, and madmen fight for the controls and the pilot's seat. — Eldridge Cleaver, Soul on Ice, 1968 . Mark Kurlansky
About This Quote

It is not an overstatement to say that the destiny of the entire human race depends on what is going on in America today. This is a staggering reality to the rest of the world; they must feel like passengers in a supersonic jetliner who are forced to watch helplessly while a passel of drunks, hypes, freaks, and madmen fight for the controls and the pilot's seat. Eldridge Cleaver was one of the founders of the Black Panther Party, a radical organization that advocated black separatism. The Black Panthers' ideology was criticized by many, notably by Malcolm X, who said that the Panthers were "raising up a new generation that have no sense of history whatsoever."

Source: 1968: The Year That Rocked The World

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