WHITE LIBERTY GOOD BLACK LIBERTY BAD?

Here's a quote from American-born African writer James Baldwin: "When any White man in the world says, 'give me liberty or give me death', the entire White world applauds. When a Black man says exactly the same thing, he is judged a criminal and treated like one."

Baldwin was speaking on The Dick Cavett show in 1969. And it highlights the hypocrisy underlying Western society that many of us know and feel.

Africans growing up in the United States and other imperialist countries are educated on the brave struggles of Western 'freedom fighters', from George Washington to Joan of Arc. However, when it comes to the question of the emancipation of African people who have been subjected to hundreds of years of oppression, all of a sudden, fighting for freedom is unacceptable.

Baldwin gives two examples: The treatment of Nat Turner, who led the famous US slave rebellion in the 19th century, and the backlash against human rights activist Malcolm X around a hundred years later.

Baldwin also talks about Israel in this video but later made clear he's anti-Zionist, saying: "I don't believe they have the right, after 3,000 years, to reclaim the land with Western bombs and guns on the biblical injunction."