Mailer on Black Power

“[T]hose well-ordered epochs of capitalism which flushed the white wastes down into the black heart are gone — the pipes of civilization are backing up. The irony is that we may even yet need a black vision of existence if civilization is to survive the death chamber it has built for itself. So let us at least recognize the real ground of Black Power — it is ambitious, beautiful, awesome, terrifying, and has to do with nothing so much as the most important questions of us all — What is man? Why are we here? Will we survive?” – Norman Mailer, 'Black Power' (1968)