2 Quotes by Salman Akhtar

In a provocative 1997 interview on 60 Minutes, Harry Belafonte, the singer, actor, and civil rights activist, when asked how he was able to cope with his anger, frustration, and disappointment stemming from constant discrimination and harassment during the civil rights movement, responded with a one word answer: “Psychoanalysis!

Issues about race run deep and rarely rise to the level of reflective consciousness; nevertheless, they inform and impact our individual and collective psyche in terms of our cultural beliefs, our communications, and what we perceive about what is ‘true’ about the other and ourselves. On the surface, our current dialogue is infused with post-racial and race-fatigue language. However, we have rarely as a society dealt with race, so it lingers like metastatic cancer or the national debt.