In 1975, African-American feminist activist and author of Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Beloved, Toni Morrison, delivered an address at Portland State as part of a public lecture series on the American Dream. Her address was a reflection on the ways in which narratives about black people that are crafted by white supremacist media are designed to distract black liberation and creative initiatives.

In it, she contends that this mainstream media offers anti-black news and opinions that have no intellectual or moral integrity. Black people are then forced to respond to the falsehoods. They focus on explaining rather than on freeing themselves. An excerpt from the address reads: “The function, the very serious function of racism, is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being...