When Toni took that sip of water 💦.... chile.... I saw the ancestors in her eyes and HEARD the beat of the drums.... and then their voices spoke 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
You can tell she was blown away that the interviewer even asked that question. And yet, she was able to keep her regal composure to give an honest answer. What a woman! What a writer!!!
@Miah and what a virulent racist!! 100 years from now people will be astonished such a racist and race-baiter somehow played the system for undeserved Pulitzer and Nobel!!
Stay Up exactly 🧐 she was wrong. Her question did nothing but show her privilege and her racism.sorry not sorry. It is not the responsibility of the Black writer to include white people in our stories. It is not.
Except she did, by assenting to the point that she was used to being the centre. And Toni was forgiving of the mistake immediately. You are looking for an excuse to hate and should be quiet.
@@russell1764 Superior points of view? I believe Toni Morrison demonstrated the superior point of view. Black authors do not have to incorporate white people in their books if they don't want to. It was a ignorant question for the interviewer to ask. For the record, the interviewer doesn't dictate what is or isn't going to be seen.
She snatched the interviewers entire molecular makeup without raising her voice and without trying to justify her position. We needed you, we had you and your words and knowledge with be with us always!!! SIP
@@highlyfekrew she made perfect sense. I think what you meant to comment was "I don't have the range to understand nor participate in this conversation." You can't learn without being willing.
@@elijahishere man yo pfp tells it all, u just another goofy deifying blk women. Is he’s could say the sky is red n u would agree. Go cry somewhere else
they (kinda) have! there’s a collection of her essays and interviews and other little tidbits it’s called The Source of Self Regard, you should def check it out!
@@jornkirkengard8238 the way white minds operate is what got in this mess in the first place and they refuse and can not handle the truth about their own mental flaws they'd deflect, abuse and deny the facts away and have the power to do so.
This interview, although insulting, was perfect. It was perfect because of Toni's responses. This interview only empowers her work even more. It makes me want to read ALL of her work even more so. We need interviews where the ignorance comes to the light so that it can be responded to.
AJ Assata same reason I'm to remember how she honored and loved our people with her writings and never desired inclusion of others no matter how many times or ways "they" questioned her about it. Her response was simply eloquent, bold and revealing! Love her!
Toni didn't 'eat her up'. That was what was so brilliant and powerful about this interview. Instead of reacting, Toni responded with total authenticity, and used this as a teaching moment, to a receptive student, and both women ended the interview with mutual respect. Toni was too aware, and wise to 'eat her up'. Besides which, you could touch Jana's heart, and make her laugh, but Jana had been interviewing dictators and murderers, with her life in danger, from the age of 24 years old. She was not easily phased, but always receptive to the other person's perspective, and willing to learn. Toni's words would have hit her hard, but as the consumate professional, acknowledged her racist perspective as a position that she had become stuck in, but didn't want to interrupt Toni. Obviously Toni was the focus, and Jana was moving into Toni's mainstream.
@ajassata9465 Sure, I write a lot. But I don't see it as a down side that I like to consider, and process new information. Sure, Toni swiftly and firmly made Jana aware of her place!!! Toni was too intelligent, and graceful to aggressively 'eat her up'. I am sorry you only want to see Toni as aggressive, the lowest common denominator, and not masterful in her self control not to attack, but be powerfully assertively honest, to use as a teaching moment. Also, I am betting Toni did her research on Jana, and knew that her words would have a strong impact, without it escalating into a fight. I am sorry that you can only see this interview as 'black v. white', rather than a black woman masterfully and powerfully instantly educating a white woman. Toni had a whole lot more integrity and wisdom than to 'eat her up', and I am sorry you can't see that. You obviously see less in Toni than I do. I genuinely find that sad that you have reduced Toni to an aggressor in your perception. She was obviously, far, far more than that.
Oh but you missed it then. The interviewer knew exactly what she was doing. Otherwise she would not have said, "and being used to being in the center" @2:17.
"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." - Toni Morrison Nobel Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1993 Rest In Power.
They may be black and white, but the world isn't that simple. Toni used this as a teaching moment for Jana's well meaning, but oblivious question, and Jana expanded her perspective in real-time. Both women: highly intelligent and have integrity. Toni obviously knew she had Jana's respect. It is sad that these women ended the interview with mutual respect, but you, and many others, must see the person who made one ignorant error, as the devil. Toni obviously didn't perceive Jana that way. Toni clearly had more wisdom and awareness than that. She knew that Jana definitely wasn't smirking. That was her little smile when she was following someone,with appreciation,. I think Toni would have treated Jana differently, and the interview would have ended differently, if Toni didn't believe Jana was fully receptive and willingly moving into the mainstream Toni created.
I love how she CORRECTED the interviewer on her language and approach to the "issue" of her writing for and about black perspectives as a black woman herself. She handled that so fiercely yet elegantly. She didn't cry about it or make it over-dramatic... she simply gave her an analogy to think about and compare logically.... nothing but love and respect for Ms. Morrison.
sugarfreemars ...and she had every right to be reactive as she wanted and dramatic. It isn't up to whites to decide the appropriate response. What satisfies them as far as our collective or individual approach. Toni responded the way she judged was appropriate for HER. Baldwin would've been a tad bit more brutal perhaps , whilst maintaining his legendary vernacular.
If she wanted to get dramatic she had every right to be. She didnt give the analogy to allow the interviewer to think logically, she gave it to show the absolute stupidity and absurdism of her question!!
Ms. Chelly Lumpkins Exactly...and notice her wording..."She didn't CRY about it become OVERLY-DRAMATIC...😡🙄 As if, we need to respond in a tone that THEY can accept or deem appropriate...in a way not too bothersome...😒 Toni said JUST enough...and she got a blank stare...and knew it was fruitless to attempt to engage her racist question further...
Only someone of Toni's grace and wisdom could have answered such an ignorant interviewer with this amount of tranquility and insight. Toni truly was one of a kind! The world is a much sadder place now that she's gone, but her work will forever remain to teach and enlighten us.
The interviewer's question was an example of her ignorance to her own white privilege. Toni is always asked when she will stop writing about and for Black people and when she will write for and about whites. James Joyce was never asked when he would stop writing for and about Irish people. She has made this point throughout her entire career. She writes outside of the white gaze. I know that this interview is older, but I hope interviewers are not still asking her this question.
You don't think the interviewer asked the question not because she believed it, but because she knew it was in the minds of some in the audience, and wanted to give Ms Morrison the opportunity to address it? That's what good interviewers do. The interviewer's name is Jana Wendt and to those saying she's sneering and jealous, that's just her face. She was considered a beautiful and intimidating trail blazing woman in the 80s and 90s.
i don’t think the interviewer received the message toni was trying to get across in the end. she was trying to cover up her racism instead of trying to understand
She didn't want to comprehend or understand. The intereviewer realized that it wasn't the answer she was looking for and hurried along so she didn't have to deal with herself
The interview did mess up, 100% no doubt, but I think some people are misinterpreting the interviewer's response to being called out. She realizes her error, and she acknowledges it when she adds to Toni's thought and says "...and being USED to being in the mainstream." She responded in a way that an open-minded, ignorant person who is confronted like this for the first time might react. (And I use ignorant here not in a derogatory way but in a factual way.) There's something characteristically British to me about her response: It's understated, but she is aware of and does acknowledge her error. She is also clearly embarrassed, and rightfully so. Yes, Toni didn't owe her this teaching moment and shouldn't have been put in this position in the first place, but she reacted beautifully and graciously. She was a blessing. And the interviewer looked, to me, like she thought long and hard about this interaction after it was over. She was still processing it in the moment, though. I think we as an audience could take a lesson from Toni and give the interviewer a little more grace here. The interviewer stuck her foot in it, Toni set her straight, and the interviewer seemed to take it to heart. I don't think we need to rub her face in it. Some of her follow-up questions still indicate she's working through a lifetime of ignorance. I can't be the only one watching this video who can relate to that, surely? Anyway, just my two cents. I love listening to Toni's old interviews. She was so incisive--truly a genius.
when she gulped after Toni said that she knew she fucked up. I think sometimes some whites will truly try and be caught off guard when we articulately get them together.
4:05 - Interviewer has RBSF. How ingenuine she seems....RIP Toni. You rocked them with your stellar vocabulary and tear-down style. This reporter is still trying to figure out what Toni meant at 1:57 ...smh.
William Ashanti Hobbs it makes me so angry that some white people are so patronising under the guise of being benevolent and they are usually highly intellectual too
She speaks but they don't understand. She is so brilliantly composed and calculating in her responses to questions because she understands the weight of every single word she says. How could she possibly write from the point of view, or about white people- she is not white. Well she could but like she said, why would she want to. She turned the ashes of the past into beauty canvassing it with her words. Her writing is genuine, her work is her. You cannot separate an artist from the art? What she is known for is not writing from the white gaze. Or did you miss that? This is why we love Toni. She writes for us.
That look, that look. It told it all. The journalist is trying to best Toni in conversation. With the sip, the look she let her know she was of nothing to her. Toni, so classy in her answers. Love this.
The look on Jana's face when told "you have no idea how powerfully racist that question is" sums up the absolute entitled attitude she has!! If looks could kill😳🤣🤣
Incredibly gracious, a smackdown worthy of a Mike Tyson punch without being verbally nasty. The Creator needed Toni; we are all the poorer for her loss. Guess I'm going book shopping now... Rest in Power and Peace, Queen Toni
For the last week I’ve wallowed in documentaries about great American writers such as John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatby), William Faulkner, Susan Sontag and a few others. This kind of feverish thirst comes upon me once or twice a year where I glorify the writer’s life and all that it entails. I am totally consumed and in a creative space that I relish. It wasn’t until this week that I began to look at the lives of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and suddenly I hear Toni Morrison passes away. There was something mystical about experiencing her death while I was in this creative space. I’ve always adored her stories and the videos documenting her writings. I told myself that I would meet her one day. When I heard of her death I was stunned. I felt a tremendous loss. R.I.Love Toni Morrison
I came to know of this interview because the racist remark of the interviewer has made it famous. However, that is not a big deal to me. That is what white people do--all day, every day--it's not shocking. What captures me is Ms. Morrison's responses. I am riveted by her beauty. Her literal beauty and the beauty of her spirit and mind. Her statement on how she wrote at the border and everyone came to her is a lesson for the ages.
This interviewer is seething with hatred! Probably wondering how in the HELL did the Written Word gate keepers let this one through. The interviewer is/was an Australian journalist and for her types, a Toni Morrison might as well be a Russian. Well done Toni for HANDLING her.
Fanta Graham ROUND....OF...APPLAUSE AND a standing ovation Fanta !! How you conjured the energy to illustrate CERTAIN aspects of the "white gaze" is in a word: commendable!!! PS...Here's one you left off: the condescending smile that hurts ones cheeks later and during the arduous process of maintaining it toward those you despise....
TM taking her interviewer to SCHOOL, and kindly and patiently instructing her on some basic facts of the human condition. One can only hope the interviewer has enough sense (and sensibility) to absorb even a fraction of what she's being gifted with. The irony being of course, such gifts are but mere crumbs from prodigiously bounteous table laden with TM's knowledge, wisdom and emotional centeredness.
I just admire how intelligent this woman is and how she responded to the lady interviewing her. Even though her questions had a negative undertone to it.
What’s sooooo interesting about this interview is that Toni was telling the interviewer exactly what happens and the interviewer did exactly what Toni was referring to. I almost thought this clip was fake at first because I was thinking surely she heard what Toni just said lol. And the parallel of black music was brilliant. Black people do tend to think that the beauty of what they have is not legitimate until it goes mainstream rather than continuing to blossom in its own soil and still very much become attractive to everyone. And the comparison of being a Russian writer was also brilliant. Wow!
Take a note from the Sistah Elder's page , see the grace the calm the eloquent manner in which she addressed the interviewer? Without even raising her voice she SHREDDED the notion that her writing should depict anyone other than who she deems significant. Easy Baby. I feel ya but theres sooooo much more to learn in this clip than laying hands. PEACE
kim corbin Preach & Teach Chile! It totally wrecks their wickedly pompous world when we don't respond to their juvenile jabs with an outburst of emotional anger but exceed them with intelligence and composure...hehehe.
I can understand how the question made sense as a question from Jana Wendt's perspective. It his her job to question to find the parameters. It was definitely not intended to be racist. Jana was born of Czechoslovakian parents. Her standpoint was different. Jana's response was absolutely acknowledging Toni's perspective, and owning her bias, without disrupting Toni's flow, and the focus on Toni's writing. Jana, the consumate professional, made a mistake, and acknowledged it without taking the focus off Toni. Toni handled the unintentional insult with direct authenticity, but without rage. Because she knew it was not intended as an insult, but ignorance. Instead of reacting, she chose to use that exchange as a teaching moment. She knew she had a completely receptive student. The mutual respect was palpable. Jana definitely would have walked out of that interview not quite the same as when she walked in! I feel privileged to have been witness to this powerful exchange between two women with intelligence and integrity, with Jana learning from Toni and expanding her perspective in real-time.
Girl …. Please. Like she stated the interviewer would have never asked a white author. Will you change your perspective and incorporate black people. Because as she stated white people AROUND THE WORLD (not just America, because apparently only America houses racist) center themselves, and when they aren’t it’s a problem. Even though these same white people gatekeep their community.
When Toni took that sip of water 💦.... chile.... I saw the ancestors in her eyes and HEARD the beat of the drums.... and then their voices spoke 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Ase' Queen. 🤜🏾🤛🏿 ✊🏿
Lmao yo why did I see her eyes shift for a second. Shit moved my soul like she was like “tread lightly no lips”
Yes 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
She took that sip so she wouldn't say another word and dilute that exquisite response.
Girl yes
"I stood at the edge and CLAIMED IT AS CENTER." chills
You can tell she was blown away that the interviewer even asked that question. And yet, she was able to keep her regal composure to give an honest answer. What a woman! What a writer!!!
@Miah and what a virulent racist!! 100 years from now people will be astonished such a racist and race-baiter somehow played the system for undeserved Pulitzer and Nobel!!
@@dipdo7675 oh please 🙄 what are you even talking about
the fact that the interviewer did not even acknowledge her racist comment and tried to gloss over it was disgusting
They do that a lot.
Stay Up exactly 🧐 she was wrong. Her question did nothing but show her privilege and her racism.sorry not sorry. It is not the responsibility of the Black writer to include white people in our stories. It is not.
Except she did, by assenting to the point that she was used to being the centre. And Toni was forgiving of the mistake immediately. You are looking for an excuse to hate and should be quiet.
Stay Up exactly! It’s facts!!! Not a damn point of view.
@@russell1764 Superior points of view? I believe Toni Morrison demonstrated the superior point of view. Black authors do not have to incorporate white people in their books if they don't want to. It was a ignorant question for the interviewer to ask. For the record, the interviewer doesn't dictate what is or isn't going to be seen.
She snatched the interviewers entire molecular makeup without raising her voice and without trying to justify her position. We needed you, we had you and your words and knowledge with be with us always!!! SIP
exactly!
No tf she didnt. She ain’t make not one sense
@@highlyfekrew Yeah because you aren't intelligent enough to comprehend what she was saying
@@highlyfekrew she made perfect sense. I think what you meant to comment was "I don't have the range to understand nor participate in this conversation." You can't learn without being willing.
@@elijahishere man yo pfp tells it all, u just another goofy deifying blk women. Is he’s could say the sky is red n u would agree. Go cry somewhere else
Someone could publish a collection of her responses in interviews and I’d buy it!!!! I love her!
Yes her responses to the questions are ABSOLUTELY PRICELESS!!!!
they (kinda) have! there’s a collection of her essays and interviews and other little tidbits it’s called The Source of Self Regard, you should def check it out!
There’s one in a series called The Last Interview. It’s on Amazon.
Working on it 🙏🏾✨
True
“...write books incorporating white lives into them substantially?”
“You can’t understand how powerfully racist that question is, can you?”
😄🤔👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
Sad, isn't it?
@@jornkirkengard8238 the way white minds operate is what got in this mess in the first place and they refuse and can not handle the truth about their own mental flaws they'd deflect, abuse and deny the facts away and have the power to do so.
"Even the inquiry..." ooh wee!!
Toni M. calls it like it tis' with NO APOLOGIES. Wish more of us could do that
It's like the sweetest music I've ever heard
This interview, although insulting, was perfect. It was perfect because of Toni's responses. This interview only empowers her work even more. It makes me want to read ALL of her work even more so. We need interviews where the ignorance comes to the light so that it can be responded to.
@Blanca Munguia so very true!
yes. it was needed.
its not at all insulting though
RIP Ms Toni - You 👏🏾Did 👏🏾That 👏🏾 For 👏🏾All 👏🏾 of 👏🏾 US
Sasha Baby TESTIFY!
Mrs. Morrison is so very graceful and beautiful 😍😍
Heard she passed today and immediately came to watch this clip. I love the way Toni ate her up in this interview. RIP! May your work live forever.
AJ Assata same reason I'm to remember how she honored and loved our people with her writings and never desired inclusion of others no matter how many times or ways "they" questioned her about it. Her response was simply eloquent, bold and revealing! Love her!
Did the same thing, her work is forever.
Toni didn't 'eat her up'. That was what was so brilliant and powerful about this interview. Instead of reacting, Toni responded with total authenticity, and used this as a teaching moment, to a receptive student, and both women ended the interview with mutual respect. Toni was too aware, and wise to 'eat her up'.
Besides which, you could touch Jana's heart, and make her laugh, but Jana had been interviewing dictators and murderers, with her life in danger, from the age of 24 years old. She was not easily phased, but always receptive to the other person's perspective, and willing to learn. Toni's words would have hit her hard, but as the consumate professional, acknowledged her racist perspective as a position that she had become stuck in, but didn't want to interrupt Toni. Obviously Toni was the focus, and Jana was moving into Toni's mainstream.
@@daniellamcgee4251girl no need for a book. SHE ATE HER UP🥰
@ajassata9465 Sure, I write a lot. But I don't see it as a down side that I like to consider, and process new information. Sure, Toni swiftly and firmly made Jana aware of her place!!! Toni was too intelligent, and graceful to aggressively 'eat her up'. I am sorry you only want to see Toni as aggressive, the lowest common denominator, and not masterful in her self control not to attack, but be powerfully assertively honest, to use as a teaching moment.
Also, I am betting Toni did her research on Jana, and knew that her words would have a strong impact, without it escalating into a fight. I am sorry that you can only see this interview as 'black v. white', rather than a black woman masterfully and powerfully instantly educating a white woman. Toni had a whole lot more integrity and wisdom than to 'eat her up', and I am sorry you can't see that. You obviously see less in Toni than I do. I genuinely find that sad that you have reduced Toni to an aggressor in your perception. She was obviously, far, far more than that.
I have never felt so proud to be BLACK!! She stood up for ALL BLACK people in the face of an entitled white women if not all white people.
❤️
So soft spoken yet she put her point across very loud and clear! 💯 Rest In Peace🌅
The audacity of that question was trumped by her ignorance of not even understanding how racist it was after being checked my Toni.
white people get forced to diversify their stories all the time
Oh but you missed it then. The interviewer knew exactly what she was doing. Otherwise she would not have said, "and being used to being in the center" @2:17.
"We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives." - Toni Morrison
Nobel Prize acceptance speech, December 10, 1993
Rest In Power.
This yt woman is so intimidated and JEALOUS of Toni Morrison, whew chile! 😂🤦🏾♂️
yup
So so jealous
you can see the jealousy in her blue eyes while Toni talks about the Nobel's laureate feeling... white people scaries me sometimes
The devil wears a smirk and a navy blue blouse. Toni Morrison is absolutely captivating and powerful in this.
They may be black and white, but the world isn't that simple. Toni used this as a teaching moment for Jana's well meaning, but oblivious question, and Jana expanded her perspective in real-time. Both women: highly intelligent and have integrity. Toni obviously knew she had Jana's respect.
It is sad that these women ended the interview with mutual respect, but you, and many others, must see the person who made one ignorant error, as the devil. Toni obviously didn't perceive Jana that way. Toni clearly had more wisdom and awareness than that. She knew that Jana definitely wasn't smirking. That was her little smile when she was following someone,with appreciation,. I think Toni would have treated Jana differently, and the interview would have ended differently, if Toni didn't believe Jana was fully receptive and willingly moving into the mainstream Toni created.
By the way, have you seen Jana's attempt to interview Robin Williams? She failed hilariously!
I love how she CORRECTED the interviewer on her language and approach to the "issue" of her writing for and about black perspectives as a black woman herself. She handled that so fiercely yet elegantly. She didn't cry about it or make it over-dramatic... she simply gave her an analogy to think about and compare logically.... nothing but love and respect for Ms. Morrison.
Absolutely...
sugarfreemars ...and she had every right to be reactive as she wanted and dramatic. It isn't up to whites to decide the appropriate response. What satisfies them as far as our collective or individual approach. Toni responded the way she judged was appropriate for HER. Baldwin would've been a tad bit more brutal perhaps , whilst maintaining his legendary vernacular.
@@yama5182 🤜🏾 the nerve to applaud her reaction based on her expectations on how blacks should react to indignant white supremacist trope.
If she wanted to get dramatic she had every right to be. She didnt give the analogy to allow the interviewer to think logically, she gave it to show the absolute stupidity and absurdism of her question!!
Ms. Chelly Lumpkins Exactly...and notice her wording..."She didn't CRY about it become OVERLY-DRAMATIC...😡🙄 As if, we need to respond in a tone that THEY can accept or deem appropriate...in a way not too bothersome...😒 Toni said JUST enough...and she got a blank stare...and knew it was fruitless to attempt to engage her racist question further...
Only someone of Toni's grace and wisdom could have answered such an ignorant interviewer with this amount of tranquility and insight. Toni truly was one of a kind! The world is a much sadder place now that she's gone, but her work will forever remain to teach and enlighten us.
Rest in paradise Queen, you will live forever in our hearts. I cannot believe you're gone.
all i have to say to this is
SHUT DOWN!!!!!!!!
The way Toni shut down the reporter like that filled my soul with humanity!
Jesus! Her face when she said you have marginalized whites!!!! Lol Toni is the best!
The interviewer's question was an example of her ignorance to her own white privilege. Toni is always asked when she will stop writing about and for Black people and when she will write for and about whites. James Joyce was never asked when he would stop writing for and about Irish people. She has made this point throughout her entire career. She writes outside of the white gaze. I know that this interview is older, but I hope interviewers are not still asking her this question.
Well they're definitely not asking that now.
You don't think the interviewer asked the question not because she believed it, but because she knew it was in the minds of some in the audience, and wanted to give Ms Morrison the opportunity to address it? That's what good interviewers do.
The interviewer's name is Jana Wendt and to those saying she's sneering and jealous, that's just her face. She was considered a beautiful and intimidating trail blazing woman in the 80s and 90s.
thejobloshow ya think?
white people get forced to diversify their stories all the time
@@Henry-kz4gn yet theyre still in the center
Sips water as too say " You still want this smoke ?!!"
Toni corrected the interviewer so much so that the interviewer had to publicly recover in shame on camera.
Ah Miss Morrison! No words can describe the sheer majesty of your work! No words!
I love Toni Morrison, I could listen to her speak all day, RIP, beautiful lady.
i don’t think the interviewer received the message toni was trying to get across in the end. she was trying to cover up her racism instead of trying to understand
She didn't want to comprehend or understand. The intereviewer realized that it wasn't the answer she was looking for and hurried along so she didn't have to deal with herself
Oh no, she understood
The interview did mess up, 100% no doubt, but I think some people are misinterpreting the interviewer's response to being called out. She realizes her error, and she acknowledges it when she adds to Toni's thought and says "...and being USED to being in the mainstream." She responded in a way that an open-minded, ignorant person who is confronted like this for the first time might react. (And I use ignorant here not in a derogatory way but in a factual way.) There's something characteristically British to me about her response: It's understated, but she is aware of and does acknowledge her error. She is also clearly embarrassed, and rightfully so.
Yes, Toni didn't owe her this teaching moment and shouldn't have been put in this position in the first place, but she reacted beautifully and graciously. She was a blessing. And the interviewer looked, to me, like she thought long and hard about this interaction after it was over. She was still processing it in the moment, though. I think we as an audience could take a lesson from Toni and give the interviewer a little more grace here. The interviewer stuck her foot in it, Toni set her straight, and the interviewer seemed to take it to heart. I don't think we need to rub her face in it.
Some of her follow-up questions still indicate she's working through a lifetime of ignorance. I can't be the only one watching this video who can relate to that, surely?
Anyway, just my two cents. I love listening to Toni's old interviews. She was so incisive--truly a genius.
I love her grace. Thank you for your wisdom, Toni Morrison. Thank you.
when she gulped after Toni said that she knew she fucked up. I think sometimes some whites will truly try and be caught off guard when we articulately get them together.
💜 Toni Morrison is brilliant in this interview as she is loved by countless...
My shero for many years. All her books line my shelves!
I'd argue its HERo not HEro
this is one iconic interview, tell the truth!
Eloquent,beautiful and calmly dangerous I love it! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾
What an admirable writer! She responds so eloquently when the interviewer asks her the racist question.
She has a unique strength in her writings but when she speaks she is absolute power!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️
Love this interview. The interviewer did not acknowledge her offensive queries; she did not understand how racist her questions are!
Although she didn't acknowledge it, I got a sense that she understood the absurdity of her question and learned something after it.
Totally-what is most amazing to me is that this ridiculous nazi would even have the opportunity to sit in front of such a brilliant genius.
Maya Raghavan A
The mental delusion of false privilege and entitlement displayed.
omg, i can't believe the interviewer. she's so not getting the point
YES TONI!!!
i met this great woman once, but was so in awe of her greatness i couldn't speak!
The interviewers gulp after 1:56 lmaoooooo
The interviewer is Jana Wendt, very famous in Australia in her time, now retired and completely out of the public eye.
That is great to hear. May she pave the way for all her fellow nazis to get out as well
Maya Raghavan 🤣
David Sanderson God & Karma.
Maya Raghavan 🤣🤣🤣
She needs to unretire so we can verbally bury her racist ass again!😠
4:05 - Interviewer has RBSF. How ingenuine she seems....RIP Toni. You rocked them with your stellar vocabulary and tear-down style. This reporter is still trying to figure out what Toni meant at 1:57 ...smh.
hi! what's RBSF mean? i have no idea and've never come across that acronym
Resting b***h smiley face. 😂
Love that Toni Morrison challenges this interviewer! She is such an inspiration.
I just love hearing her speak, it’s so soothing.
The arrogance of this interviewer is so typical, and sickening.
William Ashanti Hobbs it makes me so angry that some white people are so patronising under the guise of being benevolent and they are usually highly intellectual too
Rest well! Thank you for everything!
i love her vocabulary
RIP Toni Morrison 🕊❤️
She speaks but they don't understand. She is so brilliantly composed and calculating in her responses to questions because she understands the weight of every single word she says. How could she possibly write from the point of view, or about white people- she is not white. Well she could but like she said, why would she want to. She turned the ashes of the past into beauty canvassing it with her words. Her writing is genuine, her work is her. You cannot separate an artist from the art? What she is known for is not writing from the white gaze. Or did you miss that? This is why we love Toni. She writes for us.
Poor interviewer, do your homework and you wont look stupid!!! Love Ms. Morrison, My Absolute Shero!!
I'm so damn proud and full of admiration for Ms Morrison!
Her shade is so dignified ahhhh 🤗
Toni Checked the shit out of this woman with class
Toni Morrison holds a very graceful court here 🙏🏽😍
The Sip Of Water after the obviously racist question said it all. Much respect Professor Morrison ♥️
This was my gospel in the morning. Thank you, Momma.
This is who I look up to. Beautiful elegant and eloquently spoken.
That look, that look. It told it all. The journalist is trying to best Toni in conversation. With the sip, the look she let her know she was of nothing to her. Toni, so classy in her answers. Love this.
Why do people keep asking her when she will write about white people? So condescending towards such grace.
She is amazing! ❤
The look on Jana's face when told "you have no idea how powerfully racist that question is" sums up the absolute entitled attitude she has!! If looks could kill😳🤣🤣
Journalist: Steps into a minefield at 1:45
2:45 when she sipped that water the minefield was fully activated.
Well that's her MO regardless of guest #ProbingTheBear
Incredibly gracious, a smackdown worthy of a Mike Tyson punch without being verbally nasty. The Creator needed Toni; we are all the poorer for her loss. Guess I'm going book shopping now... Rest in Power and Peace, Queen Toni
For the last week I’ve wallowed in documentaries about great American writers such as John Steinbeck, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald (The Great Gatby), William Faulkner, Susan Sontag and a few others. This kind of feverish thirst comes upon me once or twice a year where I glorify the writer’s life and all that it entails. I am totally consumed and in a creative space that I relish. It wasn’t until this week that I began to look at the lives of Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, James Baldwin and Amiri Baraka (Leroi Jones) and suddenly I hear Toni Morrison passes away. There was something mystical about experiencing her death while I was in this creative space. I’ve always adored her stories and the videos documenting her writings. I told myself that I would meet her one day. When I heard of her death I was stunned. I felt a tremendous loss. R.I.Love Toni Morrison
She’s so brilliant and brave and clear.
Absolutely epic.
Man...i love this woman. So peacefully strong decisive clear
Interviewer jealous of Toni Morrisons gift and the Nobel...you could see it in her eyes.
Caught that too...naked and aggressive about it too
Me too , I don’t want her to have to speak with such people .
Zero dislikes... should tell you something
The look in this interviewers eyes, complete disregard of the IMPACT of her pathetic comments, her eyes are saying ‘Toni, are you done?’ 😒
yeah she's racist and crazy. A lot of blue eyed people lack compassion for black people
I love that she asked it. It shows so much
There was so much tension in this interview
Here 2021 still inspired !!!
I came to know of this interview because the racist remark of the interviewer has made it famous. However, that is not a big deal to me. That is what white people do--all day, every day--it's not shocking. What captures me is Ms. Morrison's responses. I am riveted by her beauty. Her literal beauty and the beauty of her spirit and mind. Her statement on how she wrote at the border and everyone came to her is a lesson for the ages.
I love the gracefulness of Toni Morrison
The interviewer has a very sarcastic body language.
That interviewer is so arrogant
foofie To be White is to be arrogant . For they see themselves as human par excellence and at the apex of the human family.
@Fanta Graham Basically
Toni’s face and body language is so done with her. 😂😂😂😂
This interviewer is seething with hatred! Probably wondering how in the HELL did the Written Word gate keepers let this one through. The interviewer is/was an Australian journalist and for her types, a Toni Morrison might as well be a Russian. Well done Toni for HANDLING her.
Cocoa Puff Seething with hatred? As evidenced by?
Fanta Graham ROUND....OF...APPLAUSE AND a standing ovation Fanta !! How you conjured the energy to illustrate CERTAIN aspects of the "white gaze" is in a word: commendable!!! PS...Here's one you left off: the condescending smile that hurts ones cheeks later and during the arduous process of maintaining it toward those you despise....
Ms. Morrison gathered her together real quick.
Glad Mrs Morrison addressed the interviewer’s patronising nature. Thank you, Mrs Morrison. RIP!
Hovering above it all is one inescapable fact: Toni Morrison is the greatest American novelist who ever wrote.
I like the interview. She was defensive or rather she gave herself time to process Toni’s answers and then respond with inquiry rather than descent.
TM taking her interviewer to SCHOOL, and kindly and patiently instructing her on some basic facts of the human condition. One can only hope the interviewer has enough sense (and sensibility) to absorb even a fraction of what she's being gifted with. The irony being of course, such gifts are but mere crumbs from prodigiously bounteous table laden with TM's knowledge, wisdom and emotional centeredness.
the white gaze
She read her with such class!!!❤❤❤
Rest in paradise Queen
I just admire how intelligent this woman is and how she responded to the lady interviewing her. Even though her questions had a negative undertone to it.
IG brought me here lol. I had to see more of this interview! I'm blown away. I've never even heard of this lady.
She was simply the best 👌🏿❤
What’s sooooo interesting about this interview is that Toni was telling the interviewer exactly what happens and the interviewer did exactly what Toni was referring to. I almost thought this clip was fake at first because I was thinking surely she heard what Toni just said lol.
And the parallel of black music was brilliant. Black people do tend to think that the beauty of what they have is not legitimate until it goes mainstream rather than continuing to blossom in its own soil and still very much become attractive to everyone.
And the comparison of being a Russian writer was also brilliant. Wow!
Her passing left such a profound hush…❤️
Her face was so full of distain for Toni.
i wanna fight this interviewer. lol. Ya'll listen. I AM UPSET.
Take a note from the Sistah Elder's page , see the grace the calm the eloquent manner in which she addressed the interviewer? Without even raising her voice she SHREDDED the notion that her writing should depict anyone other than who she deems significant. Easy Baby. I feel ya but theres sooooo much more to learn in this clip than laying hands. PEACE
kim corbin Preach & Teach Chile! It totally wrecks their wickedly pompous world when we don't respond to their juvenile jabs with an outburst of emotional anger but exceed them with intelligence and composure...hehehe.
@@solemandd67 Nice but I would still wanna *beat huh ASS!*
Love this woman!! RIP!
I can understand how the question made sense as a question from Jana Wendt's perspective. It his her job to question to find the parameters. It was definitely not intended to be racist. Jana was born of Czechoslovakian parents. Her standpoint was different. Jana's response was absolutely acknowledging Toni's perspective, and owning her bias, without disrupting Toni's flow, and the focus on Toni's writing. Jana, the consumate professional, made a mistake, and acknowledged it without taking the focus off Toni.
Toni handled the unintentional insult with direct authenticity, but without rage. Because she knew it was not intended as an insult, but ignorance. Instead of reacting, she chose to use that exchange as a teaching moment. She knew she had a completely receptive student. The mutual respect was palpable. Jana definitely would have walked out of that interview not quite the same as when she walked in!
I feel privileged to have been witness to this powerful exchange between two women with intelligence and integrity, with Jana learning from Toni and expanding her perspective in real-time.
Girl …. Please. Like she stated the interviewer would have never asked a white author. Will you change your perspective and incorporate black people. Because as she stated white people AROUND THE WORLD (not just America, because apparently only America houses racist) center themselves, and when they aren’t it’s a problem. Even though these same white people gatekeep their community.
Love how Toni Morrison holds her gaze and posture in front of that racist white gaze and entitled interviewer 😇👍🏾🙏🏽
She's A Woman 👠 Worthy Of Being Heard... Her Books Being Read..n..Her Integrity Examine 🎉🎉🎉🎉♀️