By JOE WILUAMS III
I T' n w boo . dynami
Th Ie Opinion i raw, hon t,
real.
Thi book hould become
mandatory r ad ing for 11
American. It hould be dis­
cu ed among school children, in
pri ons, in gov rnment quar­
te , nd studied in police pre­
cincts. The lee Opinion is a
guideline for America' urvival.
While it cost 17.95, while
there are waiting I' ts t local
librari ,we must develop way
and m ns to ge thi book into
the hand of every youth
trapped i naid the ghetto,
every gang-banger, every con­
vict locked behind bars.
Even with its forward lan­
guage, preachers rnu t r d this
book. If they love Black youth, if
. they car ,they mu t go through
the pain of reading this book.
They mu tread nd listen, 'and
understand; this book is a warn­
ing! It i a way out of th mad­
ness! It is not a nice m ge.
However, we ar not trapped in
a nice ituation.
This book should open up a
new social front for struggle.
Out .of this book new leadership
and ideas can emerge. Ignore it
if you will, but history has spo­
ken through Ice T:
Why am I sojazzed about this
book? 1 think it's because of its
hon ty. I think that Ice T be­
Ii v in Y y
thought h har . I w a few
mistak in the book, but I found
my elf drawn into the boo
more-so beeau of its hortcom­
ing. Here was a-new, new type,
of social activist. He didn't care
about how statistics would back
"I didn't write the boo to rna e
you lik me, though I hope you
do. I WTO Ice Opinion in n
tt mpt to i pir conve a­
tion."
And w will n in con r­
tion Ice T. We must. We can­
not turn our back on uch
t tement a, "Wh n you're
down in that hol , you have
real different view of right nd
wrong. In th gh tto, the cop .
th dogcatcher. Once h ' 20 his
net on you, you're ?one. You have
no way out. So when you
him, you're immediately scared
bees if he's the dog catcher,
you're the do�."
ICE T GOES on to explain
that throughout the
history of America,
the police have
never been
friends
to Black
People.
"There
has never
been a­
Black leader in the History of
America who's n a friend to
the police .... ," Ice T tated.
Ice T understands the finan­
cial reality of the ghetto, he ex­
plains, "South Central is not a
Black community, it's a poor
community. You live there
•
you're Black. II
I mentioned that Ice T i 80
stoned-faced bees he is 80 -
rious about the struggle, but he
does have his moments of witty
humor, "That' why you all
those sneakers when you go to
Filmmaker pike Lee
criticize hateful pop 'culture
UT OR most part,
encouraged students to ag­
gr ively pursue the line of
wor th y really want, rather
than doing omething ju t to
pl their parents.
roy u' t S I ru 01·
now, but you'r be
In th ret world, n that's no
jok ," h rod, utioning u­
den to "start making p para-
ions now, .C8 th a n't
giving way jo
BUT, ICE T is no j t in­
sightful nd witty in this boo
h lso offe trong d of
lity, "Th whol th ry i to
r down thi on big Indian
r rv tion called th Blac
gh tto. Th government' n ver
gonna put that h- pital in th
they k p promi ing. They are
never gonna change the police'
attitude or pu p in the ou ide
money ... "
Ice T tal about how gan
offer ultimate control. He tated
that for a person without any­
thingjust getting that for a min­
ute' "very intoxicating." "Gang
membe are out there trying to
control their little world. It's
only a little tiny place. It may not
look like much to you - an alley,
a street - but it' like a country
to them."
He goes on to tate some of
the gangs' basic characteristics:
The Crips wear blue, the Brims
wear red. The Cripe call you cuz.
The Brims call you blood. The
Crip has his left ear pierced. The
Brim has his right r pierced.
Ice T also talked about how soci­
ety shouldn't take gang warfare
lightly. lilt' gonna take a big
truce. W gonna ta e negotia-
tion • and it-', on t.
money."
Ice T 1 abou me pra i-.-
cal ubjects �hat always m to
get swept under the rug of 1-
ity. He tells, "The prison system
is one of the biggest corporations
in America right now. Incarcer­
ating people is big money." And,
"If you eliminate crime in cer­
tain areas, you lay off police offi­
cers." I wonder why the cops
don't like this dude?
WELL, IT DON'T end there.
He goes on to talk about how
brothers misuse siste (and
some sisters, brothers). He tal
about pimps and rap and x
and the future.
Go out today and buy this
book, read 'it, pass it on. Ice T is
HOT.
U 0 16
books, th m t popular of which
l By Any Other Name',
&&"�&"£j. 0
long tim wa tru
er, a critical thin er, a
mer, a vision ry, who told
th truth without worrying
about how th "right" or "left"
felt abou him. And of
hi boldn , he h pl
new insights on the tabl .
We have not n thi type of
"f hn .. in th ixti . If it
was the sixti , Ice T would have
been a hero of th st t warri­
ors, the Black Panthe , thos
locked into welfare, the unem­
ployed and the homel . Ice T
h given th gh tto youth a
strong voice. Th sy tem
may be able to ignore
th militant voi
of Hip-Hop
rappers,
but t.hey
cannot
ignore
thi
book.
It is
payoff time, and The Ice Opinion
is the blank-check. It is pay up
or perish.
After reading this book, I now
understand why Ice T 100 so
stone-faced. It's because he' a
erious, very eriou brother,
ho d n't anythin funny
about our eq,pdl i n in Am
urthermore, he has (' i do­
ing something bout the oppres-
ion we face. In th book, he
tal about how he employs
gang membe and ex-cons in
hi new company, RhymeSyndi­
cate Records. Ice T is the H. Rap
Brown of the nineti . He stated,
�n.IJ.I:.II[U, a (AP) - Film­
maker Spike Lee ripped into
American pop culture at a recent
local college appearance, slam­
ming his industry for glamoriz­
ing violence against women
Lee, whose films include
"Malcolm X, II liDo the Right
Thing," and "Jungle Fever,"
criticized those parts of pop eul­
ture, particularly music known
as "gangsta rap," which h said
encoura young Black men to
disrespect and mistreat women.
Condemning the street jargon
tha is common in rap music, Lee
told an audience of about 1,000
students at Salem State College
that, "The way I was raised, I
wa never told that Black
women are bitch sand ho's
(whor s)."
also ridiculed a magazin
articl that suggested that using
th terms toward women actu­
ally empowers th m.
"I'm not going to stand on th
stage and be Tipper Gore, II Lee .
said, referring to the wife of Vi 00
President AI Gore who led he
drive to put warning labels on
records with adult themes. "But
�h r is such a thing as good
taste, It he added to a round of
applau e.
DR. AL-MANSOUR
v il ble throughout th tour
Dr Al-Mansour will off r so­
lutions to om ofth rils fac­
ing th Black community.
Among them are: -
Black m 1 -[1 mal rela-
ntm
h