Al Sharpton Talks Being Angry At His Father For Leaving His Family For His Older, Half Sister
Winfrey: So were you, for a very long time, an angry black man?
Sharpton: Oh, I was very angry. And I was angry not only at society. I was angry at my father. I was angry at some of my mentors. I felt, you know, if I hadn’t lived a middle class life and then went to the ‘hood, I might not have been as angry. But I felt robbed.
Winfrey: Mm.
Sharpton: I felt if I had the right life and y’all took it from me for no reason.
Winfrey: Mm-hmm.
Sharpton: And then humiliated my mother. My mother went from having a new Cadillac every year to scrubbing floors so I’d have a suit to wear to church on Sunday. I was mad about that.
Winfrey: Mm-hmm.
Sharpton: I was mad about that.
Winfrey: And some of that anger is what we saw in your protests.
Sharpton: A lot of that anger was exercising protests.
Winfrey: Yeah.
Sharpton: And exercising a lot of things in life. Because I never stopped and really analyzed and admitted to myself where is all this anger? I mean, when you wake up mad
Winfrey: (Laughter.)
Sharpton: I mean, nothing’s even happened yet. You’re just mad when you wake up. You look at the pillow mad. I mean —
Winfrey: (Laughter.)
Sharpton: At some point you’ve got to stop and say, what am I so angry about?
Winfrey: Yeah.
Sharpton: Because you never really dealt with this pain inside.
