“What I am, what you force me to be, 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 the 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 what. It is our common search for a better life, a better world, I march over the same ground you once marched. I fight for the same things you still fight for. My 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 its survival. Look at me. Listen to me. Try to understand my struggle against your racism. There is yet a chance to live in peace beaneath these restless skies.” 

– Gordon Parks, 1968