In Black America; NCBSR with Attorney Thomas N. Todd

and From the Longhorn Radio Network, the University of Texas at Austin, this is in Black America. I think we've been cut off from our history, cut off from our culture, in segregation when we didn't have people who were really our enemies teaching us. We knew something about where we came from, so we understood where we were going, and as a result of that, where we had to go.

Now many of our children have lost that sense of history, and as a result of that, they don't have anything to identify with, so they go anywhere. If you could indeed be anything, then you had, in fact, nothing. So what we've got to do is go back to the basics and say to them that what their culture is, it's not better than anyone else, but it's just as good. So they can identify with that, and they can understand it, and see the importance of education. What America knows, education puts us in a competitive position, so it's always been difficult to get an education because they don't want us to compete. Now they've fostered an anti-intellectual attitude in our community, so our kids are dropping out. We've got to fight that mentality and that mindset to say to them, education is not the perfect answer, but it's better than anything we've found so far. Attorney Thomas Todd Esquire. African Americans have had extreme difficulty maneuvering through the American educational system. Ever since the 17th century, when the First Legal Restriction War enacted against Africans, being educated in this country. In 1983, Dr. Kalino Ford and Florida A&M devised a special model for institutional strategies to increase student retention.

Although many were concerned about African American student retention, there wasn't a national form that specifically addressed the problem. The first conference was designed to address the concerns of historically black colleges and universities regarding the declining participation of African American students in higher education. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. This week, the Knife National Higher Education Conference on Black Student Retention with Attorney Thomas Todd Esquire in Black America. There's no doubt about that civil rights is based on education. We fought to get an opportunity so we could learn, so we could earn and then participate so that this is an extension of civil rights movement. One of the problems we've had is that many people who got the education, took the education, took the money and ran and then come back into the community. We've got to start putting it back. Nobody is going to save this community because we have the best interest and we have the most direct interest. It is our responsibility to deal with it.

This past November, Florida A&M University held its Knife National Higher Education Conference on Black Student Retention in Hollywood, California. The five-day conference brought together college and university administrators, counselors, faculty, staff, students, and concerned citizens to tackle the problems and concerns of minorities on predominantly white campuses this year's conference theme. As in past years, the conference provided a form for the exchange of information and ideas that influenced factors on the retention of African American students in higher education. One of this year's keynote speakers was Attorney Thomas Todd. Attorney Todd is a practicing attorney in Chicago, Illinois. A graduate of Southern University with a bachelor of arts degree in political science, he earned his law degree also from Southern University where he graduated Magna Cum Laude. Attorney Todd was the first full-time African American law professor at Northwestern University's Law School. Attorney Todd's address focused on the plight of the minorities. As a matter of fact, it never crossed my mind not to leave school.

See, Mama, in my house, though my dad was there, my mama was the enforcer, the equalizer, the ex-terminator, the terminator, and the assassin. And so as a result of that, there was no issue about whether I would go to school. And although Mama could not read, she could not read and write, she could read me. And so she knew when something had gone wrong. But that was our retention program. And so all of you have come here today, dealing. You get that? Yeah, you can applaud on that. That was the retention program, just plain and simple. And I want you to know in the case of Clinton, I worked because Mama stood six-born and weighed 285 pounds. So we've come here today to share some time with you. You educate ours and administrators and professors and persons who are dealing with this problem. We've come here to share some time with you because the struggle is not over. Luta Continua, brother Davis, the struggle continues. And what we face now are difficult times and trouble days.

These are tough times and difficult days. But I say to you that what matters now is not just the times in which we live, but how we live in the times. Not just the difficulties we face, but how we face those difficulties. But we must understand over and over again that there is no automatic entitlement syndrome in America. That if you're going to make a new day for these children or for yourself, there is no automatic entitlement syndrome, especially if you are black in America. If you would have a brand new shining hour or brand new day, you must work and work and work and work to make that new day real. That's what we must teach our children. We've come to this conference, this ninth conference, at a very difficult time in America. But I say to you that the most consistent thing in America today, Dr. Ford, is that America is consistently inconsistent. Let me say that again. The most consistent thing in America is that America is consistently inconsistent.

Here is a nation which preaches peace, with which practices war, consistently inconsistent. Here is a nation which attacks welfare recipients in Michigan and in Chicago, while sending hundreds of millions of dollars of international welfare to Russia and to the Baltic States and Eastern Europe, consistently inconsistent. Here is a nation which recruits white immigrants from Europe and gives asylum to Cubans while it sends back Haitians and their little boats calling them economic refugees and not political refugees, consistently inconsistent. Here is a nation which is more concerned about the freedom of one white person in Eastern Europe than is concerned about the 28 to 30 million blacks control by 5 million whites in South Africa, consistently inconsistent. Here is a nation which goes into Somalia on a humanitarian issue to feed hungry people and ends up shooting men, women and children into streets, consistently inconsistent. Here is a nation which says that it wants quality education for its children, that it wants quality education, yet it is willing to pay its athletes and movie stars and entertainers more money in one year than it pays the people who teach its children in a lifetime, consistently inconsistent.

These are difficult times for us as a people. We face crime and unemployment and inadequate housing and homelessness and hunger and inadequate education, and although I don't know whether there is one key to these problems or one key to the solution to these problems, maybe there isn't one key. But as far as I am concerned, the thing that comes closest to solving all of the problems we face is education. That's why Malcolm said it. He believed in education. That's why if we look at the history and we must teach our young people, we must teach them to know the past so they can understand the present and plan for the future. That is the concept of history, know the past so that you can understand the present and plan for the future. We must teach our children in the context of why they should learn, connect them to what education really means, teach them that when black people were slaves in America, that it was against the law to teach a slave to read, punishable by a felony and in some states punishable after three times of a conviction by death.

We should tell our children about that. We should teach them why. We should teach them what Cardi G. Woodson met when he talked about the miseducation of the Negro. Oh, we're going to have a good time today. We're going to have a good time today because we're talking about retaining African American or black children and we're talking about the most important thing in our neighborhood and our communities. You should tell them there's something about this education. There's something powerful about education. Teach them about Cardi G. Woodson. Cardi G. Woodson wrote in 1933 that if you can control a man's thinking, you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think, you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept it inferior status, but he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you don't have to order him to the back door. He will go to the back door.

If there is no back door, he will make a back door. If you control his mind, the miseducation of the Negro. We must say to our children, no just come to school, tell them that there's something marvelous about knowledge. Tell them there's something wonderful about learning. Tell them there is power in knowledge. Tell them there is something about this education. Something about this learning that white folks didn't want us to have. You know what? I've grown up now, and I'm 55 years old, and if I know that white folks don't want me to have it, I want it worse because that must be something good there. And that's what education is. Tell them that in slavery, if a plantation was located next to a swimming hole, tell them it was against the law to teach a slave to swim. Tell them that there is something about education that is empowering. Tell them there's something about education that's radical, and that's liberating. Tell them if you can read and write and interpret for yourself.

No man or no woman can ever enslave your mind. Tell them there's something freeing about education. Education for us has always made the difference. Without education it is difficult. Without education it is almost impossible. But we must teach our children the reality of what's going on. Don't teach them all about mythology. Unless you're teaching the classics and Greek and Roman mythology, don't teach them about the mythology of America. When we talk about history, teach them the truth. What is the first lesson? Every black person in America must learn. You must learn whether you like it or not that race still makes a difference in America. Race still makes a difference. Race to America is what wetness is to water. Take wetness away from water. You may have something else, but you won't have water. Take racism from America. You may have some other nation.

You won't have America. There's not racism. If there's not racism, tell me why that blacks are two and a half times more likely to be turned down for mortgage money than their white counterparts equally qualify. If there's not racism, tell me why black women irrespective of their economic status irrespective of their education are two and a half times more likely to lose their child the first two and a half years than their white counterparts. If there's not racism, tell me if there's not racism, why do we have the highest infant mortality rate, the highest unemployment rate? Why do we have less access to medical care? Why do we have less access? Why do black college graduates make less money than white high school dropouts? Stay with me now. Everywhere you look, every time we look at any category, black people end up on the bottom. I don't know what this act of mess is, because I don't have time to deal with it. But if it's like anything else in America, we will get the worst part first and keep it the longest and end up in the bottom. That's America. That is the American way.

Don't teach our children a mythology. And don't you buy into the mythology too. I'm glad you hear because some of you may be in some other world. I'm going to deal with you in just a moment. We're dealing with black so predominant white campuses, right? Yeah, y'all in another world. We're going to deal with that, but just stay with me for a while. Look at every category. In the last 10 years, blacks were the only ones to lose jobs. We lost 30,000 jobs. Everybody else gained jobs. 100% of the 500 companies last year, 35% of them hired no blacks. 34% hired no Asians. 42% hired no Hispanics and 82% hired no Native Americans. Where is it cultural diversity? Where is the maltract culturalism? Where is the diversity? I started showed just a few weeks ago that whites in America ranked number one in the world in quality of life.

Number one in the world, not just in the nation by the Davis, but in number one in the world. Where will blacks 31? Where will Hispanics 35? Well, if you're in the same country and one group ranks one and one group ranks 31 and 35, obviously the group that's number one is living off the 31st and 35th groups. Oh, I'm so glad I went to Southern University at Historical Black College. I know how to read. I know some of you were looking at me and said, Tom Todd, I heard you 10 years ago, heard you 15 years ago. Still talking about race, race makes a difference, say race makes a difference. It deals, make a difference. And don't lie to our children and say it does not. Now, you may try to hide from it. But these children know I think one reason they drop out is because they don't want to be lied to anymore. Teach our children about the reality. Teach them about the world and teach them about what's going on.

We must relate in some context of reality to our children. Teach them that they're playing in somebody else's game. They write the rules and they keep the score. Oh, you know these universities and let me just say this to you because I was the first full-time black professor at Northwestern. I know you're catching hell. Now, you're lying to each other and you're lying to yourselves but you're catching hell. And you come to these conferences and you say, Ro, I am the assistant to the administrator of the executive of the property block. I say, yeah, I know I have been there. I know what you're doing. You're playing in somebody else's game. They write the rules and they keep the score and they look like you're going to win the game. They change the rules and then they change the game. That's what you must understand. Oh, but as black administrators, you have got to face yourself every day. What happens in that conference room? When you are the only Negro, I mean African America, I mean black, I mean color, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean.

When they ask you the questions when you're by yourself, what do you say? What do you think about that far a come? What do you think about that just a Jackson or that I was shocked or not? What do you think about them? What do you say to your white superior? What answer do you give knowing that in this world we live in when we teach our children the truth that if you won't win, you sin won to get won. But let me just tell those of you who think that you can get ahead by pushing somebody else down one day when they sin one to get won, the one they sin one to get will be you. Say, well, I don't want to get involved in this. After all, I have children in college, I have a mortgage, I have to pay for my car and it's not my fight anyway.

You're wrong because you didn't get there by yourself, didn't get there just because you were smart. You didn't get there. You owe some back to this community. You owe us to stand up. That's your challenge and your responsibility. So what if you lose your job? 13th Amendment outlawed in voluntary servitude, not voluntary servitude. If they can control you with employment, you're not free. I don't care how many degrees you have, you're not free. Somebody else's game, they write the rules and they keep the score, never ceases to amaze me. I read at seven in anthropology that when individuals face a hostile environment, when they face the threat of survival, that individuals came together and they formed families. Then the families came together and formed tribes. Then the tribes came together and formed nations to fight a common enemy.

They tried to survive in a hostile environment. Anthropology said that this made them smart and intelligent and it differentiated between men and the lower form of animal because they knew how to work together to fight a common enemy. They came together. When white folks formed, social clubs, they called it fraternity or sorority or camaraderie because they all come together around a common interest or a common glue. Yet when black students on white campuses, you knew I was coming here, when black students on white campuses come together against a hostile environment, when they come together to deal with a common enemy, when they seek to come together for their own protection, when they grow weary of being called. And if they not called being looked at in the eyes by professors saying, what are you doing here? When they get tired of fraternity pranks like slave auctions, like dressing like the KKK, like the ugly woman contest dressing up like a black woman, when black students get tired of that and when they come together, when they get tired of being called buffalo heads, or when they get tired of being called water buffaloes,

when they get tired of being called jungle bunnies, when white students discharge in your state, in your state of mission, will ask on a radio, why do all black people stay? An answer so that blind white people will know where they are, when black students get tired of that mess, when they get tired of being treated by white professors as if they shouldn't be there in tundra sending and racist attitudes. This one, when they grow weary of pseudo intellectual Negro black colored scholar, who think they've become a part of the university family, when they grow tired of white students writing about how inferior they are, and that they shouldn't be there and they get all the scholarship, when black students or white campuses decide to fight this hostile environment, to fight the common enemy, they don't call it smart. They don't call it intelligent, they call it resegregation and separation and reverse discrimination.

30,000 white students on the campus, 200 Negroes, and the 30,000 students here, well we intimidated by them. Don't let anybody define you, don't let anybody interpret you, you're playing in somebody else's game, oh I used to wonder, brother Jones, every time I saw a picture of a lion, the lion was dead and the lion hunter had his foot on the lion's head. I said this mighty lion hunter must be mighty, no lion can ever win, the lion hunter always wins, and I just wondered over and over again until it occurred to me that the reason every time we see a picture of a dead lion with the white hunters foot on the lion's head, we must realize that the hunter took the picture, that if the lion had taken the picture. Maybe we would have seen the reverse, but that's what you must understand when you listen to the six o'clock and the 10 o'clock news.

When you see the images of black men from Washington DC selling crack cocaine and you don't see the white buyers from the suburban area of Maryland and Virginia buying them, you must understand the lion parable. You must understand that even though blacks are 12% of the population, we make up 40% of the arrest on drugs. Oh, but listen, listen if you sell crack cocaine, which is what they say we mostly sell, you can get five years for just 10 grams, but if you sell pot of cocaine, you must sell 500 times as much. Now we don't import no drugs, we ain't got enough ships and airplanes to import 20 tons of air, let long 20 tons of drugs.

Look at the inconsistency, they say drugs is a billion dollar industry, yet we have a highest unemployment, so we ain't got no money, so who's buying the drugs? Who's using the drugs? We must understand the lion, but we must interpret to our children and we must interpret to ourselves. No, that we don't have enough money to buy all of that, but listen to what a Los Angeles sheriff deputy said. He said, listen to this now, celebrity, how about white celebrity? High-powered executives are not law enforcement priority, since they rather sell drugs and their habits are so private, that the targets are the dealers. They go after the little crack dealer on the street, not that that's wrong, it's wrong to sell drugs anywhere, but don't you believe that we're the only people using drugs, cocaine is used mostly by young white men?

Not young black men, we can't afford to buy pure cocaine. America teeth them about reality. America incocerates more young black men per 100,000 in South Africa. 3,370 for America, 681 for South Africa. This is America, so there's no wonder our children don't want to stay in school. We're not telling them the truth, teach them the truth. Tell them why they should stay in school. Tell them everything about school. You see, black administrators and white who are dealing with black students, we don't come from these nuclear families. Our parents don't read and write some of them, and sometimes we're just one family, one nemat of family. That's why when I went to Southern and went to Southern, we had to take a blue suit. They taught us how to use a blue suit when it was proper. You must teach these children.

You must teach them the challenges of everything about life, teach them how to accept responsibility. Attorney Thomas Todd Esquire, speaking at the Knife National Higher Education Conference on Black Student Retention, held in Hollywood, California. Next week, in Black America, takes you to a rally held last October in support of Texas Assistant Attorney General Gary Blesso. I'm so pleased that with your letters of support, your telephone calls, you're stopping me in the street wherever I've been, you're letting me know that you are praying for me, that you're supporting me, that that has been very good. Because when you are the subject of allegations, as I have been, that really humbles you. That really makes you feel very low. And you have helped me through those times. And I must say that I look out in the crowd today and I see people from DP's Texas, I see people from far west Texas, I see people from the plains, I see people from central Texas, Colleen, San Antonio, I see people from South Texas.

I see a multicultural coalition. If you have a question or comment or suggestions, ask the future in Black America programs, write us, views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or the University of Texas at Austin. Until we have the opportunity again for in Black America's technical producer, Dana White here. I'm John L. Hansen, Jr. Please join us again next week. Cassette copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America cassettes, longhorn radio network, communication building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas 78712. That's in Black America cassettes, longhorn radio network, communication building B, UT Austin, Austin, Texas 78712.

From the center for telecommunication services, the University of Texas at Austin, this is the longhorn radio network. I'm John L. Hansen, Jr. Join me this week on in Black America. Attorney Thomas Todd Esquire this week on in Black America.