v
ed
ea
•
e
o e
elf co
elf-co ce
become overly
important to u
ceando r
clothe
intervi ed for
n hours' ortun ly it w
. The interviewer ked
ut thi I ian national woo
lived in the S for m time and
had been put in pri nth re for orne­
thing that never happe� her role in
my edly. She has n
in pri n ince 1982.
Can you ima ine omebody doing
33 years hind for upposedly
rentin car? Wow I
Her hali porters are trying to
get her tra ferred and t Italian
gov mment id that they are
willing to have her transferred under
th' in emational provi ion that ays
ica1ly that pri ners who are con­
victed of a crime in one country can
be returned to th ir own country.
Even though she has rved eleven
years, there' till a lot 0 time left. She
had two bou with cancer of the
uterus.
It reminds m of when I w in
prison. I w one of the three women
that w placed in the maximum secu­
rity unit in that prison, which w just
really designed to destroy everything
in m . Everything was painted whit ,
you know. It w me area in
total isotation. It w bad the
Lexington unit.
•
But people are brain-w he<1,
looking t television and movies that
they don't want little normal ki hens
that come in an apartment. They want
8 kitchen with an i land in the middle
and po hanging down because tele­
vi ion h haped what they think they
sbould have. We are all d meancd
in every way when it com to our elf
confidence and our If -coreept that
cloth become overly important to
us.
All oppr ed people because of a
lack of power have to constantly
prove that we can look harp, that we
can look good. We are consumer­
plagued. It' not enough just to have a
pair of tennis roes, they have to ha
ad igner name and you have to pay
$150 for them. You have to analyze
that.
Q: Have we, because of wanting to
be integrated into American society,
now beco as materialistic as any­
one else?
And we are not going to get any
loans; we don't own any land; we
don't have anybody that is going
give any insurance. We haVe a hard
tim in terms of all pects 0 the
fin �
With the mentality 0 co umer­
ism, we can't even set up a mom-and-
pop busin bees soon
omebody mak a hund red dollars in
their little b i , instead of rein­
v ting it, they're out buying hundred
dollar neakers, double video and all
kinds of garbage. You can't build any­
thing ed on a mentality that eo­
courag youto pend. You can t
for your kids' education. Our "middle
cl " hat little is left of it-can­
not afford to educate their children.
t afford to send their ki
coli e.
So you have teachers, dodo ,and
lawyers whose kids have no ibil-
ity of getting into college.
In order to keep up the little life
tyle, driving around in the little car,
and having the kitchen with the c0p­
per pots and all of the other junk that
the televi ion convin us that we
need, the middle cl kids' parents
are saying "Well, you koow, you
have to do it yourself, or get cOOI­
arsbip, or whatever. It
Instead 0 us thinking in terms of
computers, or in terms of buying
things that we need that are going to
�p us, we are j t jammed up ilUl
real consumer quicksand that's really
killing us.
Q: Do ou feel that African people
are being used b the oppressor to
justify the judicial sy tem, i. e., by
using us as the prosecutors, judges,
and 0 forth?
T : I think thi j the kind
of model that they are trying to build
in th U.S. It i th ame kind of model
they are trying to project in South
Africa.
If you can have Black instrumen
o the press core, then Black folk are
not upposed to prot t against the
opp or.
Just long you have 8 Bl
ut front, peopl believe that' Bl
Power.
I figure that African people are
going to have to become more politi­
cally sophisticated. I mean we have to
ay, "Now wait a minute, we are not
crumb natche and crumb eaters,
and crumbs will not fill us."
The fact that you are Black i im­
. portant of course. But having Black
official that are not responsive to our
needs is no better than having a white
that i not responsive to our needs.
So what we want are Black offi­
cials that are responsive to our needs
and answerable to our community,
and we w n't accept anything 1 . It
depends on us. Now look, if we are
electing th e people to office, we
expect them to respond to us, not to
ay "Now, later for you, I'm Black,
you know." W like Wilson Goode.
He got into office and dropped a bomb
Q: WIu:u is your position on crime
and violence in the United Sates?
TA: The violence in the
Sta is incredible; it just keeps g t­
ting higher and higher, doesn't it?You
can understand it, can't you? I mean
it's not just one oppn ed group; ev -
rybody across th board i suffering.
The kinds of crim that poor people
commit are different from the crim
that people who have access to the
White House are able to commit.
I mean the whole tructure of the
Government i based on one or an­
other kind of organized crime. And
the kinds of crimes that poor people
can commit are limited b ed on the
fact that they have to fewer
resources.
T : Y . That is something
that we don't fight against the con-
-sumption, the consumerism. If some­
body can buy a pair of tenni sboes for
$10 and willingly pays someone $150
for omething that 100 alm t the
same and serves the same purpose
you're not dealing with a full deck.
That kind of consumerism eontribut
to furthering our opp ion because
if your mind is hooked up on your
tenni h or whatever is the fash­
ion, and your whole energy is hooked
ple-minded.Tbey say "Vote for Clin­
ton because h 's going to help us."
And people get off into trusting peo­
ple, like they re crazy, like they don't
understand. Voting against someone,
as opposed to voting for omeone, is
not that difficult for people to under­
stand. Thi i an arena of truggle.
You struggle for territory sometimes,
Sometim you truggle for power.
Sometimes you truggte for time.
We have to tart becoming more
conceptually sophi ticated and not
complicate the terminology. Just put
it in irnple, every-day language eve­
rybody can understand.
The electoral process is a battle­
ground. You got to learn the rules in
order to play the game but the game
will not free us. We have to be more
involved in clectiors, but it' a part 0
our truggle-an important part
are demonstrations, as i organizing
on all different levels. I think that what
our reality call 'for now i organiza­
tion where we are being quasbed.
We got t organize our cbools=­
not private chool because we don't
have the resources. But we're going to
have to do omething--after cbool,
in church, or on Saturday, Sunday,
Friday aftemoon-in order to give
our children orne kind of immuniza­
tion to protect them a ainst the total
ideological, hi torical contamination
that happens t them in the chool.
They are told they have no hi tory,
they're white-w hed. They're given
valu ,not only in chool, but al 0 on
televi ion, that are Just totally d tru-
live t themselves human beings.
They undermine their potential,
and they undermine thems Iv a
race. 1..00 at t ap peras. We
have a lot people who want a ho e
like that and want a car like that. They
name their children after characters in
the ap peras, I me3Q th m tcom­
monnam .
on a constant level. (N( that we're
putting political pressure to challeng
the overall immorality, it's 0 incred­
ible.
Somebody nt me a tape of Black
folks playing in a soap, and you have
these Black folks-cops married to
each other-and they re talking like
thi , "Janie, how do you think Mark is
going to r t to Stella leaving rum?"
figure that frican
people are going to
ha e to become more
politically ophi ticated.
Q: Why do you think that people
fed less threatened by white collar
crime?
on a Black neighborhood and burned
it down, killing 11 people, and five of
whom were kids.
AS ATA: Well, the white collar
crime d touch them, but it big cor­
poration are ponsible for 0 many
deatbs. Like all th e landl rd in
,New York that were r ponsible for
burni th buildings. Thousands of
people died in tho e buildings in th e
fires. It was a crim perpetrated by
these people using po r people to
carry it out they can collect the
insurance money, People died, but it'
not n in the same light because
th people woo are doing it are not
portrayed the same way in the pr
Q: Do you think it's going to be
difficult to convince African people
that electing Black officials is not
enough to change the reality of the
African community in America?
,
up into buying thi garb g , and you
really think It omething that h
value. then you don't have tim or
energy to concentrate on things that
are important, like tudyinz, like
truggling agai t your opp IOn,
like leamm kills.
I mean conversations totally ou Ide
th context of rea1life in the United
Stat or any kind of real trugglc that
i bing waged.
They all pronounce their"T "and
the endings f their words. TheY wear
th e tired clot that don't reflect
th rhythm 0 ur people. They talk in
way that no dy human talks in, eer- Q: Do you think that we're looking
tainly not i you grew up Blac in, at too much television; andif so, what
America. Th whole image here' effectdoyoufalit' having on people
that we m e it, we're okay. You in the U'Ss?
kn w, we' re this ruee Black cop cou­
ple, and we h ve th e nice white
fnends. I remember they had Dianne
Carroll' on DaB and tuf like this.
They are Ilin id . they are elhn
an irna that our people have no ac-
to.
, When I w a kid, you'd go into
omeo ' ho e and if it was clean,
if it was decent, if they had clean
It' going out of f hion me-
what, but look at the hug chains that
we wear--and I mean me of them
are so big they look like lave chai .
They are made out gold, they tic
them around their nee , and they Tis
thei,r liv beca e if you wal around
with that tuff on, m dy i going
to try to teal it from you. So you're
pending hundreds of dollars on
om thing that could po ibly end
your hfe and you think that' the
thing. that thi , rational.
TA: I don't think that it' ,
uch a difficult idea. We just have to
tell people that if you participate in an
election, you are not going to change '
everything.
For example, when th mayor of
New Yorkjlravid Dinkins] was run­
ning for election, a lot of progressive
people did WOi Ie around hi campaign.
But they unde tood that we're voting
f r him to break thi machin that
K h has ot. But they gave people
the impres ion that David Dinkins
w a Black man and he w going to
do thi -and thi -and thi -and thi .
Q: Recently, ther have been a
number of tel i ion pe ials hawing
the effect of racism in t reo typing
African people a b in rim ina Ls, Do
you think tit e pedals are having
any effect in changing n gati atti­
tudes toward frican people?
Q: Speaking of oap operas, can
you r pond to the effect of the US.
mass media in destroying the minds of
our children and our culture?
: People, are becoming
television zombi . I don't trunk that
W have even tatted to analyze bow
d trucnve It I to a people. I hear
people talk a ut ttin up a busi-
, and thi i popular now among
orne people to talk about the need or
Black fol to tart i
People talk a out entrepreneur-
EXTW EK:
As a a on
religion.
I think we hav to clear on how
we talk, We have elections, and we're
in truggle,just like in any other arena
of stru Ie. We d n t alway have to
vote for som di;, metim w
ATA: Even though they put
on a program like "Sixty Minut "
talking aboutth reality, that' only