Ishmael Reed Quote

A black boxer's career is the perfect metaphor for the career of a black male. Every day is like being in the gym, sparring with impersonal opponents as one faces the rudeness and hostility that a black male must confront in the United States, where he is the object of both fear and fascination.

Writin' is fightin': thirty-seven years of boxing on paper (ed. Scribner, 1988)