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Thirty years later, the nightmare still existed. West describes his futile attempt to flag a taxi on a September afternoon in New York City. Nine drivers passed him by; the tenth stopped, but only to offer his services to a white woman. The scenario is shocking for several reasons. The first is because of what we know about West from his description of the day's activities to that point. He had traveled to New York City from affluent Princeton. He is obviously a learned man, and one whose expertise in his field is recognized, because he references his university lectures. Ironically, he taught courses in both Afro-American Cultural Studies and European Cultural Studies. West parked his "rather elegant" car in a good neighborhood so that he could take a taxi to Harlem, where presumably his car would not be safe. He was on his way to be photographed for the cover of his book. It is clear that this is not an average man. He is highly intelligent, highly educated and highly accomplished. One assumes, because he was coming from a university lecture, because he was prepared to have his photo taken, and because he was planning an evening out with his wife, that he was well groomed and well-dressed. None of that mattered as he sought a taxi on a New York afternoon -- the cab driver only saw the color of his skin.

The anecdote is shocking not just because of who West is, but where the event occurred. He was not a black man trying to get a taxi in Birmingham or Biloxi in 1963; this was New York City in the 1990s, a sophisticated, racially and culturally diverse metropolis where one might be surprised that such racial prejudice existed. Yet, West experienced it.

In that afternoon, West was reminded of other injustices he and his son had suffered, "ugly racial memories" of things that had occurred in the city of Princeton and en route from New York to the Berkshires, places where one would expect that enlightenment and tolerance would be manifest. The event of the afternoon made West reflect on greater racial injustices, including the beating of Rodney King and the victims of the FBI's COINTELPRO efforts a generation before. West's treatment that afternoon renewed his resolve to "meet the formidable challenges posed by Plato and DuBois." The challenges, as he saw them, were to speak out, educate people and improve their lives, and eradicate white supremacy. As he points out, "it is an everyday matter of life and death." Race matters as long as there is prejudice. Race matters as long as people are dealt with harshly or unfairly because of the color of their skin.