Gordon Parks: How it feels to be black in the white men's world, the learning tree

What I want
What I am
What you force me
Is what you are
 
For I am you, staring back from a mirror of poverty and despair, of revolt and freedom.
Look at me and know that to destroy me is to destroy yourself.
You are weary of the long hot summers. I am tired of long hungered winters.
We are not so far apart as it might seem.
There is something about both of us that goes deeper than blood or black and white. It is our common search for a better life, a better world. I march now over the same ground you once marched. I fight for the same things you still fight for. My children’s needs are the same as your children’s. I too am America.
America is me. It gave me the only life I know – so I must share in it’s survival. Look at me. Listen to me. Try to understand my struggle against your racism.
There is yet a chance for us to live in peace beneath these restless skies.