Politics & Power Quote by Paul Robeson

Robeson’s genius here is how he refuses the script of the hearing and writes a new one in real time. The line starts like a lawyerly correction - “This is the basis” - then snaps into an accusation: the state wants to make “Communist” the only relevant word, a convenient label that turns dissent into pathology. He rejects the bait. The point isn’t whether he passes some ideological loyalty test; it’s that the test itself is a distraction from the country’s real indictment: Black people “still” being treated as second-class citizens.

The subtext is combative and surgical. Robeson, a celebrity and a global figure, leverages his visibility to make the room uncomfortable. “I am not being tried for whether I am a Communist” implies the outcome is predetermined; the process is punishment, not inquiry. By shifting to “fighting for the rights of my people,” he reframes his politics as a moral obligation rooted in lived experience rather than party affiliation. That “my people” is doing heavy lifting: it claims solidarity, but also asserts authority. He’s not speculating about America; he’s testifying.

Context matters: this comes from the McCarthy era’s machinery of intimidation, when HUAC hearings blurred law, spectacle, and career destruction. Robeson had his passport revoked, his concerts sabotaged, his income strangled. The final phrase - “this United States of America” - lands like a bitter stamp on an official document, forcing the country to hear its own name attached to its own contradictions.