I believe he asked her on thoughts on racism.
Woman: Yes I do Charlie, but let me tell you that's the wrong question.
Charlie: OK,what is the right question?
Woman: How do you feel? Not you Charlie, but don't you understand the people who do this thing who practice racism are bereaved. There is something distorted about the psyche. It is a huge waste and it is a corruption and a distortion. It's like a profound neurosis that nobody examines for what it is.
It feels crazy. It is crazy, and it has just as much of a deleterious effect on white people and possibly equal as it does black people. I always knew that I had the moral high ground, all of my life. I always thought that those people who said I couldn't come into the drug store or had to sit in these funny places...
Charlie: You felt more morally secure than they were?
Woman: I did and I thought that they knew that I knew that they were inferior to me. Morally, I always thought that. My parents always thought that.
Charlie: You said your father was racist because he always felt like he was superior.
Woman: That's right. He always felt superior, and that was a form of defensive racism.
If the racist white person, and I don't mean if the person is examining his consciousness, doesn't understand that he or she is also a race, it's also constructed. It's also made and it also have some serviceability. When you take it away, if I take your race away, there you are all strung out and then all you have got is your little self.
What is that? What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart? Do you still like yourself? These are the questions. Part of it is, yes the victim, how terrible it has been for black people.
Charlie: Were you ever like that?
Woman: I'm not a victim. I refuse to be one.
Charlie: The victim is the other person who is morally inferior? I can hold onto racism for his or her own self esteem issue.
Woman: That's a serious question. If you can only be tall because somebody is on their knees than you have a serious problem. My feeling is white people have a very, very serious problem. They should start thinking about what they can do about it. Take me out of it.
Charlie: Then give white people some free advice.
Woman: They are all in my books.
