WEBVTT

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I had all these pictures
that didn't end up

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in any of this, these editorial
cartoons of Jack Johnson

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where he's got
these enormous lips

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and he's got a watermelon in
one hand and the title belt

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in the other.

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It was just unbelievable.

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And I had a presentation
where I included some of them,

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and it just bothered me so much
to see them in the world again

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I just took it down.

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So just trust me when I
say how unbelievably racist

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these things were.

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And you see him, he didn't
have any watermelon.

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[LAUGHTER]

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I'm going to read like
maybe three more poems,

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just because these are
things we talked about

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today from Janice's class.

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This poem is called
"The Titanic,"

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and there's an epigraph
to the book that

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comes from Lead
Belly, and it's a part

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of the song "The
Titanic," and it

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says, "Jack Johnson
want to get on board,

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Captain said, I ain't
haulin' no coal.

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Fare thee, Titanic,
fare thee well."

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And so-- oh, I should
read the rest of it.

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"When he heard about
the mighty shock,

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might have seen the man
trying to Eagle Rock.

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Fare thee, Titanic.

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Fare thee well."

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So the Eagle Rock was a dance
that they used to do back then,

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and the idea of the song was
that Jack Johnson's sitting

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on the dock doing this
dance when he finds out

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the Titanic sank
because he wasn't on it.

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"Ticket on the Titanic."

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Etta and I had no intention
of missing the maiden voyage

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of the finest ship built
by man, but Captain Smith

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drew the color line almost as
quickly as Tommy Burns did.

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I expect the line from a
frightened prizefighter,

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but an English sea captain?

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He should be more principled,
especially after I

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offered $4,000 for each ticket.

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Of course, that
color line kept me

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from fighting for Etta's
space on that lifeboat

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when the iceberg hit,
and that's a fight you

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can bet your last
copper I would have won.

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But even after all the
offense I've suffered

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and the indignity of
being refused passage,

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I would have never
danced the Eagle Rock

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after all those people drowned.

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