By The Year 2000; Speaking of Young Black Men

<v Vester>All Black men are not dangerous. <v Vester>All Black men are not crooks, robbers, thieves, and <v Vester>whatever else you would hear. They say we are this, they say we are that. <v Vester>We're not dangerous. We're not going to be extinct people. <v Vester>That's a lie. You know? <v Val Zavala>The media speaks of dropout rates, gangs, young men in prison. <v Val Zavala>Tonight, on By the Year 2000, we bypass the stereotypes, and young Black <v Val Zavala>men speak for themselves. <v Narrator>Major funding for By the Year 2000 is provided by the Michael <v Narrator>J. Connell Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation. <v Narrator>Additional funding is provided by Kaiser Permanente working with Southern California <v Narrator>for a healthier tomorrow. <v Narrator>And the Norris Foundation, which is pleased to recognize public television <v Narrator>as an important and vital community resource. <v Narrator>With a supporting grant from the Earth Technology Corporation. <v Val Zavala>There are 13 million African-American men in the United States, and it's a rare

<v Val Zavala>day when there's good news reported about their lives. <v Val Zavala>Newspaper articles and many television broadcasts claim they are approaching extinction <v Val Zavala>because of societal ills and racial wrongs. <v Val Zavala>I'm Val Zavala. <v Joseph Benti>And I'm Joseph Benti. <v Joseph Benti>We've all seen the statistics about young Black men, unemployment rates double those <v Joseph Benti>for whites, higher percentages in American prisons than in South African prisons. <v Joseph Benti>Nearly 50 percent drop out of urban high schools. <v Joseph Benti>As many experts continue to study and analyze and speak for Black America, <v Joseph Benti>we might forget that young African-American men are fully capable of speaking for <v Joseph Benti>themselves. <v Val Zavala>We talked to a sampling of them to get their views on a spectrum of subjects and current <v Val Zavala>events. They're from various socio economic backgrounds and hold a variety of opinions. <v Val Zavala>In the next half hour, 10 Southern California African-American voices will be <v Val Zavala>speaking of young Black men. <v Darryl>[Singing, laughter]

<v Darryl>Originally from South Central Los Angeles, I went to school in San Fernando Valley, part <v Darryl>of the voluntary busing program. <v Darryl>My name is Darryl. I'm a senior majoring in public policy at Stanford University. <v Darryl>And a lot of people ask me what public policy is. It's a major that incorporates <v Darryl>political science, mathematics, statistics and economics. <v Darryl>What it's designed to do is give a student a qualitative and quantitative background <v Darryl>in policymaking and having being raised in South Central Los Angeles <v Darryl>and having gone through the foster care system, I see a lot of needs that I would like to <v Darryl>give myself to implementing and changing policy <v Darryl>from the negative...[Singing] <v Malcolm X>I was raised on this earth

<v Malcolm X>to be a man to be a human being, to be the respected as a human being, to be given the rights of a human being. <v Nazzar>The <v Nazzar>Nation of Islam, use the bowtie because a long tie was symbolizing <v Nazzar>a cross. So they tried to reject theirselves from <v Nazzar>other beliefs, made up their own qualities of dressing. <v Nazzar>So that's where the bowtie sprung up from. My name is Nazzar Abdul Maraqman Abdulaziz <v Nazzar>and I attend Masjid [inaudible] in Inglewood, and I also attend <v Nazzar>Washington high school and I'm 17 years old. <v Nazzar>Yes, mainly, a <v Nazzar>lot of drugs and a lot of gangs over there. <v Nazzar>It's due to the fact is that <v Nazzar>the society that has been destroyed mentally instead of physically <v Nazzar>mainly because the system is the main factor

<v Nazzar>because a lot of Blacks have to go through the systems as far as law, court <v Nazzar>and the county system, more or less made to really to keep the society <v Nazzar>down instead of helping it. <v Nazzar>See the way you come about. <v Albert>When you get a tattoo on, that means you putting a tattoo on your body, and you supposed <v Albert>to love whatever that is, you know. <v Albert>This is a girl's name. I love her still when as I did when I put that on here. <v Albert>The same with with with this one. <v Albert>This is my neighborhood. I love that when I put it on there and I wanted everybody to see <v Albert>it and notice it. You know, DLB, Denver Lane Bloods. <v Albert>That's what I used to be from. <v Albert>UBN - United Blood Nation, that's all I'll say about that. My <v Albert>name is Albert, I'm 24 years old.

<v Albert>I'm from South Central Los Angeles. <v Albert>I'm presently in a county jail for assault with a firearm. <v Albert>The neighborhood was, I I love my neighborhood. <v Albert>I still do today and I did when I was growing up because <v Albert>like, uh, you know, my father, he was well-known in neighborhood. <v Albert>Uh, you know, like he had the business. Everybody come in, you know. <v Albert>He was well respected and I am too now, but in a different type of way, you <v Albert>know, um, what I mean? <v Albert>In a different type of workforce, my father, he he was well respected by, <v Albert>you know, being a nice guy and, you know, fair, honest, straight, you know, straight. <v Albert>I was respected but I had to go get my respect, you know, I had to say. <v Todd>[Car honking] Hi, my name's Todd. I'm 14 years old and I use, I started

<v Todd>I lived in Beverly Hills until I was about 6 years old and then I moved to Encino, which <v Todd>I live now. <v Todd>I grew up in a very normal environment. <v Todd>I mean, the only thing special was that I had a whole bunch of nannies, <v Todd>like six or seven of them. My first real nanny was really pretty and we'd be <v Todd>in car all the time and all those guys would pull up and like wave at her and smile at <v Todd>her and try to put up their number for her. <v Todd>And then when I went on, I had all different kinds. <v Todd>I had a, I had a hippie as a nanny. I had a vegetarian which would give with total <v Todd>herbal. She'd use. <v Todd>She'd never take any medicine, she'd never eat any meat. <v Todd>And that was like a big problem with my dad. <v Todd>Um, I think I remember them discussing over if I should eat <v Todd>meat or not once, and, um, <v Todd>I always wanted to be very rich. <v Todd>Not I mean rich as to the point that I have a great house, a really <v Todd>nice house, not like a multi-million-dollar house, but a really nice house.

<v Todd>Maybe in the one or one to three billion doll- I mean, one to three million dollar house. <v Todd>Um, as I said, I want to I want to be at a state in my life where <v Todd>I don't I could start working right then. <v Todd>And I never have another that's never have to work another minunte in my life. <v Todd>That's what that's how rich I want to be when I get to it. <v Todd>Maybe in my 30s or 40s. <v Nazzar>Until the community is together, <v Nazzar>success is not really, it's it's not really a <v Nazzar>word that I can really express. <v Nazzar>The way I can I would be successful was for when I see my community rise along with me, <v Nazzar>now that's success. <v Darryl>In a lot of ways, um, you do have to sell out quote unquote, <v Darryl>to make it in white America. <v Darryl>And I say that because, you know, <v Darryl>the system in which we exist has been shaped and formulated by

<v Darryl>a Western Eurocentric perspective. <v Albert>You, you know, people if they keep if people would still be selling <v Albert>out, I'm talking Hispanics and Blacks and, you know, minorities. <v Albert>If they keep doing that, then it's only going to be one type <v Albert>of person. I mean, you know, as you know, the world is going to be stereotyped. <v Albert>You know it well, it's this like it's like rap music, you know? <v Albert>There was different and they successful at it, you know, it's making money. <v Albert>You know, they they didn't go out singing country. <v Def Jef>[Music] My name is Def Jef, otherwise known as the poet with a soul. <v Def Jef>[Rapping] I'm a I'm a <v Def Jef>rap artist and I write what I feel. <v Def Jef>So I'm not this this this Black leader who's gonna stand

<v Def Jef>up and like free my people or nothing. <v Def Jef>I'm not Moses, you know what I'm saying, but I'm a rap artist and I choose when I find <v Def Jef>out things that I think are wrong, I write about 'em. <v Darryl>You know, there were there were models for me and people who I looked to <v Darryl>throughout history, people like Martin Luther King and Malcolm X <v Darryl>who have presented, who have espoused.... <v Nazzar>To where as Malcolm X came, you know, to be hope <v Nazzar>for a lot of Blacks. You know, he tried to. <v Nazzar>He was also, uh, one of the Islamic <v Nazzar>world leaders looked upon in United States of America. <v Nazzar>He was a dangerous brother, you know. <v Nazzar>So that's basically. <v Nazzar>I have another one, which is Imam Khomeini, and he was, um, uh, <v Nazzar>one of the imams over in Iran and he taught all Muslims, <v Nazzar>Black, white, Latino, because Muslims are in every race. <v Albert>There was a guy that came to my neighborhood and, uh, he started making

<v Albert>money in my neighborhood. <v Albert>He wasn't no punk, you know. <v Albert>And people thought he was. They think when you start making money, you get soft? <v Albert>But he wasn't. And I knew he wasn't, you know, because I talked to him on many occasions <v Albert>and, um, he had to go out and get his respect, basically. <v Albert>You know, he had. <v Craig>I'm the only child my grandmother raised me and she had eight other kids. <v Craig>We were poor, but, uh, we got you know, we got along. <v Craig>We don't remember a day of us starving, but we were poor. <v Craig>My grandmother, she's a very, very humble woman. <v Craig>She's not argumentative. <v Craig>But if you need your butt whipped, you gonna get your butt whipped. <v Craig>My name is Craig. I originally from Birmingham, Alabama. <v Craig>I come here to South Central Los Angeles. <v Craig>I've been here about 20 some odd years, um, I lived in the projects <v Craig>for all those years and enjoyed it, actually. <v Craig>I would say that that that that coming up through through the projects,

<v Craig>I was, um, we had a lot of good people that lived in it, that lived in the area. <v Craig>You can for you to go hungry, uh, would be your fault because you can always go to <v Craig>a neighbor's house and get you something to eat. <v Todd>I mean, I just grew up in a totally white neighborhood. I, uh, all <v Todd>my all my friends were white. I had really only Black people <v Todd>I knew were my aunts, my uncles and my relatives, and that's I'd seen them more maybe <v Todd>once a month. I go to their house in Pasadena and go hang out with them for a while. <v Nazzar>But in L.A. or as far as in America, we have, as far as <v Nazzar>Black women, they want to take on an independent role, you know? <v Nazzar>I want to work for theyself. They want to demand, uh, <v Nazzar>rules, or, or, different rights for an independent <v Nazzar>woman to where as when a man comes together with them, they they have to <v Nazzar>learn to cut them rules off, or them ways off in order to work together. <v Nazzar>And, um, it might take letting the man lead,

<v Nazzar>you know. So I think our women have to realize that when they get married, <v Nazzar>the man should automatically be the leader. <v Darryl>My brother Quincy, um, who's five years younger than me at the time, he was a year and a <v Darryl>half, um, back when my mother's male companion, um, physically <v Darryl>abused him. <v Darryl>And so, and if I can recount that experience, it was more you know, <v Darryl>we were summoned in to take a bath, and I think, um, my mother's companion <v Darryl>had been, um, high on whatever drugs he was using. <v Darryl>And so when we got in the house, he was, his temper was already flared, and what he did <v Darryl>was just ran a tub of hot water, um, completely hot water. <v Darryl>And he just took my brother's clothes off and put him in the tub. <v Darryl>And all I remember is just a screamy of of Quincy, a <v Darryl>year and a half, you know, 18 months is not very old. <v Darryl>And, and, be, taking him out of the tub and setting him on the table and seeing the <v Darryl>skin on his legs kind of peeling off because of being burned scald, um, that's

<v Darryl>a that's an experience I'll never forget. <v Darryl>And as a result of that abuse. <v Drill sergeant>About face. <v Anthony>The uniforms. I always love the uniforms and I <v Anthony>always wanted to be one of those soldiers, they say put it out there helping to <v Anthony>make this country a better place. Fight for freedom. My name is Anthony. <v Anthony>I'm 17 years old. <v Anthony>I'm a commanding office in JROTC at Locke High. <v Anthony>And after high school, I plan on going into the military. <v Anthony>And I plan on leaving in probably the summertime. <v Anthony>Colin Powell. <v Anthony>He's a great guy. <v Anthony>He's always involved with the troops. <v Anthony>He's always visiting Saudi Arabia. <v Anthony>And it's nice because it's about time that the high ranking officers got off that stool

<v Anthony>and came down to the lower guys and at least shook their hands and say, hi, you know, <v Anthony>you're doing a great job. <v Def Jef>When you got Black people in the military saying, yeah, we gonna go over and <v Def Jef>kick his ass and all of that, they just brainwashed by Uncle Sam, you know, USMC, Uncle <v Def Jef>Sam's misguided children, you know what I'm saying, because we've been dealt, you <v Def Jef>know, you have to you have to agree we've been dealt a raw deal by the government, you <v Def Jef>know what I'm saying. We haven't been dealt a raw deal by the white man. <v Def Jef>The white man is cool. The white man who live next door to you, he most of, most of the <v Def Jef>times he's cool, when I say, it's the white power structure of the country <v Def Jef>that has brainwashed us into... <v Nazzar>As far as Blacks and the military, I don't view the Blacks as being wrong <v Nazzar>because that's the only door they have to enter once they get out <v Nazzar>high school. You have these low, they have minimum wage jobs <v Nazzar>that are not enough to to make it. <v Nazzar>We know a 100 dollars or 200 dollars every 2 weeks is not enough to make it in this <v Nazzar>world.

<v Todd>Hey, I went last weekend I went to a place where they have guns <v Todd>and what they do is you fill with about marble size paint balls with little <v Todd>paint in them and they shoot about 300 feet per second. <v Todd>And what you do is you go into those big forces, it's capture the flag. <v Todd>And you try to grab the flag and bring it back to your territory without getting shot. <v Todd>And while we are sitting in the ground, it was very scary for me to realize that <v Todd>this could be really a war. It really scared me every time I've gone. <v Todd>I've only gone twice. <v Vester>My name is Vester. I come from Los Angeles. <v Vester>I go to a Los Angeles city school. <v Vester>I've come from a very large family, a family of 12. <v Vester>My first role model is my father. <v Vester>Him being a pastor of a church and having 12 children, you know <v Vester>going out there, working hard everyday was not something easy to come home <v Vester>to and then have 12 screaming children run around the house breaking things and have

<v Vester>to go back and parent all the time. <v Craig>Coming through the projects, we were definitely raised in a holiness <v Craig>type of church. So we we on Sundays and Wednesdays and Monday nights, we just <v Craig>go to we would go to church. <v Craig>Um, man, I miss those those those were those were the best days. <v Craig>I used to have fun at church. [Laughter] <v Def Jef>When I grew up, my grandmother was a Jehovah's Witness and I did, uh, take <v Def Jef>time to study what the Jehovah's witness believe. <v Def Jef>My father was a Muslim, so I did take time to listen to what the Muslims believe. <v Def Jef>And my mother was Catholic. <v Todd>Because the religion is that when your mom is Jewish, you become Jewish. <v Todd>I chose to have a bar mitzvah because it was something that I felt I needed <v Todd>to have something in my life. I mean, I had a contribution. <v Todd>My favorite things were to have play soccer. <v Todd>And I took a big commitment to that. But I felt that I had like a really, really <v Todd>important commitment to something that I could remember through my whole entire life. <v Todd>That is something that was really special. <v Todd>So I started to study Judiasm. <v Nazzar>I grew up as a Muslim, <v Nazzar>okay?

<v Nazzar>I was in a Nation of Islam, and, um, <v Nazzar>basically, it was pretty strong in the household, <v Nazzar>as far as when I was younger. <v Nazzar>But it got lighter and, you know, pretty much broke up <v Nazzar>and that that guidance wasn't there, so I looked for other <v Nazzar>means of, uh, looking up to, you know, certain people with gangs. <v Nazzar>They were like a brother to me, you know, so that they pretty much got me <v Nazzar>up into it. So it had to be some stronger to get me out of it. <v Nazzar>In Islam, you know, was it. <v Def Jef>Religion was the basis of slavery. <v Def Jef>When in the 1500s, when the slaves came from Africa, <v Def Jef>they took the information to the pope said, look what we found, and the pope was like, <v Def Jef>yo, go with it. <v Def Jef>You know what I'm saying, you have my blessing to do this, to make this money this big, <v Def Jef>you know money rich money rich scheme. <v Def Jef>So religion is crazy. <v Robert>My friends, the majority of my friends are, um, they're

<v Robert>white, but that's simply because that's just simply because <v Robert>they are not because I just chose them for those reasons. <v Robert>And, um, it's not like I just branch to like only white friends or whatever <v Robert>because I'm like, racist against my own race. But it's because it's just because we have <v Robert>things in common. My name is Robert. <v Robert>I'm 17 and, um, I attend Beverly Hills High School. <v Robert>I live with my mother, my stepfather, my sister and my <v Robert>stepbrother. <v Robert>Um, let's see, where I live is Ladera Heights. <v Robert>Racism, I've I've experienced racism, but not to a large <v Robert>scale. It's like racism is more subtle, like it will come out <v Robert>like in conversation. They'll say, something like this. <v Robert>Oh, no offense. No offense. But I had this joke. Well, of course, I'm going <v Robert>to take offense. Oh, OK. OK. Now, that you've said, no offense. <v Robert>Never mind, know what I mean like, you know, that sort of thing. <v Robert>They'll like try to cover it up and then do something, or they'll become buddy buddy with

<v Robert>me. Say, yo, what's up or something like that, and it's like, OK, you can just say hi or <v Robert>something like that. But I mean, it's just <v Robert>it's more subtle. It's not just blatant where they'll just call you out, hey boy. <v Robert>I mean, it's like more subtle, where, it's um that they'll they'll <v Robert>like try to relate. <v Robert>But they're always border lining offense all the time when they try to relate, they're <v Robert>borderline. <v Darryl>The beauty standard in America, you know, and does it focus so much on this white <v Darryl>standard of beauty? But what about Black women or other people who can't who who <v Darryl>obviously can't attain blonde hair and blue eyes? <v Darryl>Except through artificial means. <v Todd>Some kids asked me at school, are you mixed? <v Todd>And I say, yes, I have absolutely no problem talking about that. <v Todd>Um, I've I've thought about it a lot to the difference of me. <v Todd>I mean, that my mom was my mom was white my dad was Black. <v Todd>I mean, I have no problem with that.

<v Todd>Of, and no, it's actually it's sorta it's sometimes <v Todd>I mean, I feel like a person right in the middle. <v Todd>I'm not, I mean... <v Def Jef>Affirmative action, isn't that where you have to hire? <v Def Jef>I think that's cool. You know what I'm saying? <v Def Jef>Yo, so many so much blood, sweat, and tears <v Def Jef>that we've paid to be in this country. Yeah! <v Def Jef>Affirmative action. I don't know the drawbacks of it, though, but I think it's cool. <v Def Jef>You know, safe to say you you have to hire this person because he's Black. <v Def Jef>Why not? <v Vester>I went to Knotts Berry Farm with, uh, my church group, and when I got there, <v Vester>me and my friends were walking around, so we was walking, going this way, and the <v Vester>peoples coming this way at us and there was a couple of people, and was one man, he's <v Vester>like, you know I could feel the the tension on him you know, he walks past me, he's like <v Vester>like, he's scared of me, you know? <v Vester>Does that and he goes way around you know, you can feel them things, <v Vester>you know? Then there was a lady that came by, she had her purse and she was coming on <v Vester>my side, coming this way, and she had her purse on the same side.

<v Vester>And she no, I can I can feel the same thing coming from her. <v Vester>She's like like she's scared of me or something. <v Vester>So she moved her purse and she's like, you no walking, and I just go, boo! <v Vester>You know? And no, she's like, ahh. <v Vester>You know, so, you know it's like just you know just it just made me just do that, cause it's like, <v Vester>well, you don't have to be afraid of me. <v Vester>I'm not nobody dangerous, I'm not gonna pull out a gun, and say hey give me your purse. <v Vester>No, I'm not. <v Mark>I guess I can kind of say that my life started in 1987, although I <v Mark>was born in 1965 on July 31, <v Mark>I was walking out 32nd street market. <v Mark>A young man stopped me and asked me for my help. <v Mark>I was faced looking down the barrel of the 12 gage double barrel shotgun <v Mark>and he said, You better have $100, man. $100. <v Mark>You better have at least a hundred dollars. <v Mark>I threw all the change out of my pocket. I had change coins and he shot me.

<v Mark>He ran. <v Mark>And here I am today with one leg handicap, a victim of gang violence. <v Mark>My name is Mark. I'm 25. <v Mark>Recent graduate of USC, originally from New Haven, Connecticut, and probably the son <v Mark>of Floyd Little, a former Denver Bronco and Hall of Famer. <v Mark>I formed my own nonprofit organization called Fight the Good Fight. <v Mark>And I'm real serious about letting kids know what <v Mark>gang violence is all about, why it's not good for them. <v Albert>I think if it was whites killing whites it'd be a big thing. <v Albert>I think it would be National Guards on every corner. <v Def Jef>See, the police in Beverly Hills are different from the police in Watts. <v Def Jef>The police in Beverly Hills, they'll say hey Joe going bowling tonight? <v Def Jef>The police in Watts are like yo, get out the car. You know what I'm saying? <v Def Jef>You know, when you stop me for a traffic light, it's not routine to make me kiss the <v Def Jef>concrete and kneel on the ground and people riding past me and this happens to me

<v Def Jef>all the time. And I'm a respected rap artist. <v Def Jef>You know, it's like, you know, when I'm driving down the street, if I did something <v Def Jef>wrong, just, why can't you just question me about what I did or come see my license and <v Def Jef>registration? I'm not gonna give you any problems. <v Darryl>Black on Black crime in the inner city, it's no different than what we see in South <v Darryl>Africa in Black on Black fighting. <v Darryl>And that a lot of that has been created and inspired, <v Darryl>incited by the powers that be. <v Nazzar>The police have the habit of doing this as far as <v Nazzar>getting gang members out of gang, <v Nazzar>gang um hoods as far as speaking , and dropping them in the enemy <v Nazzar>territory, you know? <v Nazzar>You know, that results to easy killing them or beating them up. <v Anthony>You get to become paranoid after a while after so much media hype. <v Anthony>Cause it's like, well, if you drive on the street and you see someone, a Black guy in a <v Anthony>nice car and there's music on and go, well, he's a gang banger, so

<v Anthony>let me get away from before you start shooting. <v Vester>All Black men are not dangerous. <v Vester>All Black men are not crooks, robbers, thieves and <v Vester>whatever else you would hear. <v Def Jef>You're the media, right? Well, nothing personal, but the news, I think the news <v Def Jef>are the biggest advocates of violence because, you know, if I <v Def Jef>tell you a story. OK. <v Def Jef>And I'll tell you the story graphically, you're going to go [gasps]. So in the news, <v Def Jef>they have a person sitting in a chair. <v Def Jef>And if it's a gangland killing, they'll have a little graphic box right by the person's <v Def Jef>head with bl-, with killing written in blood like someone wrote it in blood to make <v Def Jef>it very graphic, to make the public say, wow. <v Vester>We had a peace march at my school. <v Vester>They don't come down there to see things like that. <v Vester>You know, they just come down there to see, well, if a gang killer went there or who got <v Vester>robbed.

<v Craig>They're in the closet, the gay people, they're in a church singing in the church. <v Craig>Giving them praise every Sunday, but yet still they still deny it. <v Craig>A lot of churches will still deny it. <v Vester>I myself know wouldn't want to get to know, next <v Vester>to no one gay or anything but knowing that's a sin before God and God doesn't <v Vester>like homosexuality. Homosexuality, is a sin. That's a sin before God. <v Craig>I knew I was a Black gay man when I was in high school, but I never acted upon <v Craig>it. It was never something that I'd act upon. <v Craig>But it was when I became more self-aware of who I <v Craig>am when I was about 21. <v Craig>Then that's when I chose, that's when I made a decision. <v Todd>A law was passed 2 days ago that said you can legalize your relationship with <v Todd>being gay or lesbian. <v Todd>And I have no problems with it. I mean, I feel that everybody has a right to <v Todd>to like whoever they want to like, but to show it in public, <v Todd>that's the 1 thing that bothers me. <v Craig>2 men or 2 women can love each other just the same as a man and a woman.

<v Craig>There's no difference. Love is love. <v Craig>You know, whether you like to play with play-dough while I like to play with rocks. <v Craig>Love is love. There's no different. <v Robert>5 years I'll be in graduate school. <v Todd>You said something about an Ivy League school. <v Todd>Hopefully I'll try to get into one of those. <v Nazzar>Probably take on college just once you get out of high school because you need more <v Nazzar>knowledge. <v Darryl>If there are more Black men in jail than their Black men on college campuses, <v Darryl>then that's a path to self-destruction. <v Vester>They say we're this. They say we're that. <v Vester>We're not dangerous. We're not going to be an extinct people. <v Anthony>When I come back out of the military, I was planning on being a police officer. <v Albert>I'm gonna stay in South Central. They're going to have to actually run me out of there. <v Albert>You know, police then told me, you know, straight <v Albert>leave town. I'm going nowhere. <v Albert>I'll be there. <v Def Jef>I would like to be successful, but still <v Def Jef>5 years is not a very long time, and I don't see me being comfortable at all in 5 years.

<v Def Jef>I see me being 5 years older than what I am. <v Mark>We have to begin to change the tide and we have to begin to pull ourselves up, <v Mark>which we are doing very proudly and begin to achieve on our own, which we <v Mark>are doing, and just say, hey, the system is set up against me. <v Mark>Yes, I am in danger not only in the workforce, but in the family structure and <v Mark>that I've got to begin to change this. <v Mark>And I like to think that that's happening. <v Val Zavala>Next week, By the Year 2000 updates a previous report on euthanasia. <v Val Zavala>There is a new urgency to this controversy coming from AIDS patients. <v Joseph Benti>Many desperate for death are opting for assisted suicide. <v Joseph Benti>By current societal standards, that's murder. <v Joseph Benti>Many say the time has come to change those standards. <v Joseph Benti>Join us next week for The Last Rite. <v Narrator>Major funding for by the year 2000 is provided by the Michael <v Narrator>J. Connell Foundation and the James Irvine Foundation.

<v Narrator>Additional funding is provided by Kaiser Permanente working with Southern California <v Narrator>for a healthier tomorrow and the Norris Foundation, <v Narrator>which is pleased to recognize public television as an important and vital community <v Narrator>resource.