If black folk hurt because of race, you say you hurt because of class. Many of you can’t see that race makes class hurt more. And when many of you claim that black folk shouldn’t get affirmative action, that the kids of, say, Barack Obama, or some rich black person, shouldn’t get a bid for a job or a space in a classroom usually reserved for white folk, you miss a crucial fact: wealthy blacks didn’t get a pass from Jim Crow; well-to-do blacks don’t get an exemption from racism.

