In Black America; Tony Brown's Journal, Part 2

Jakob I love you two, bla bla You are just You can join me I'm John Hanson. Join me this week on in Black America. We present an address given by Tony Brown of Tony Brown's journal. You are the best educated generation of blacks we have ever produced. You have to come to grips with what you're going to do with your life. Tony Brown's syndicated television producer and host this week on in Black America. This is in Black America. Reflections of the black experience in American society.

I hope you know of the Tuskegee Airmen called Tuskegee Airmen because they all trained at Tuskegee Airfield Tuskegee Institute. They had character ladies and gentlemen. As a result of what they did, they partially desegregated the armed forces, a white woman named Mary White Ovington. In January of 1909, conceived the NAACP in her mind in New York and got four other whites and started the greatest civil rights movement ever begun in America. A woman named Adam E. Wells-Barnett, a black journalist, reminded us resistance to tyranny is obedience to God. Frederick Douglass told us, you may not get all you paid for in life, but you'll certainly pay for all you get. Ladies and gentlemen, I did not describe race,

I described character, and that's the bottom line of what our lives are about. You are the best educated generation of blacks we have ever produced. You have to come to grips with what you're going to do with your life. For 16 years, Tony Brown has chronicled the ongoing story of the black experience to millions of Americans via public television. His program, Tony Brown's Journal, enjoys the highest national audience rating in the syndicated talk and education category. In addition to his weekly syndicated television program, he writes a syndicated weekly column, which is published in more than 150 black newspapers around the country. Mr. Brown also lectures as often as 200 times a year. He also publishes a full color quarterly magazine entitled Tony Brown's Journal. Tony Brown is the founding dean of the School of Communication at Howard University in Washington, DC. I'm John Hanson and this week, Tony Brown, producer and host of Tony Brown's

Journal in Black America. Your life must be a life of service. You must give back what you've been given and perhaps more. That calling will take care of racism. That calling will take care of ignorance. Racism or hatred of any other group is at best some type of insidious, incipient disease. There's nothing to be recommended to anyone who feels the need to put upon another personal group because of their circumstance of sex, geographic location or racial origin or religious orientation. And ladies and gentlemen, that's the task we have before us. I invite some of you who would like to be involved in what we're doing and the magazine we have will tell you,

I have a card here called the Freedom Card. I have some here if you'd like to sign them and I'll take them back. We're asking one million blacks to sign up to buy from other black businesses around the country. There's no obligation to it. According to Tony Brown, freedom for blacks will not and cannot come from whites. Frankly, it is not theirs to give. Freedom for Afro-Americans will only come from their ability to control their own economic destiny. Recently, Tony Brown has started a campaign to promote economic development and unity among blacks. He points out that black Americans earned $200 billion each year and yet spent only 6.6 percent of that amount, 12.3 billion with black owned businesses. Mr. Brown, the producer and host of a longest-running black public affairs program in television history, is the founding dean of the School of Communication at Howard University. Tony Brown began his journalism career as a part-time writer for the Detroit Courier. In the 1960s, when Detroit was engulfed in racial tension,

a group of white Wayne State University students raised money and asked him to produce a series on the burning and the dramatic story. In the 1970s, he was offered and accepted the challenge to produce a PBS show entitled Black Journal. In 1978, the program began bearing his name. Recently, Tony Brown addressed a second annual University of Texas Black Alumni reunion. Mr. Brown declined our request for an interview, but he did give his permission to record his presentation. The following is part two of that presentation. If you're unwilling to take your money and buy your freedom, then leave Ronald Reagan alone. All we've done is made a scapegoat out of this white man. Whether he likes us or not has nothing to do with anything. You can be free in spite of everybody else in a society if you use your own wealth. Ask the Jews, ask the Koreans and the Chinese. People don't like them either, but they respect them, because they use their wealth. If we took our money, spent it in our own neighborhoods,

supported our own businesses, created our own enterprise, Ronald Reagan would be here tonight, making the damnedest Black History Month speech you ever heard in your life. No ladies and gentlemen, the only color of freedom in America is green. And all we need to do is to take the $200 billion we have and use it intelligently and we will have it. And let me say this, take this off of God. We've made a religion out of blaming God for being in poverty. God wants us to be like this, because you're unhappy if you have money. We'll get ours in heaven. God never had any plans like that. Don't put that on God. If God did not want us to have what other people have, he wouldn't have done for us what he has done. He's done more for us than any other group in this country. We've come from a greater distance than anyone has. We've gone from 100% illiteracy to almost 50% literacy in 50 years. And at one time, we were up to maybe 80% literacy. We have come from a greater distance. We earned $200 billion

last year. God gave us $200 billion. You think he would have given it to us if he didn't want us to have what other people have? But we took 95% of it and gave it to everybody else. And then we blame God for poverty. No, it's not God. It's not God. It's not Ronald Reagan. It's not white people. It's not white conservatives. It's not racism. As bad as racism is, it can be stopped if you use your wealth. It is us. And until we go to another level of consciousness and understand what freedom truly is, we'll never have it. Freedom isn't sitting beside anybody. This nonsense, we have about putting a black child on the yellow bus and shipping him or her 100 miles across town to sit next to this white child. And he's good superior. White jeans jumping his black body and the black childers to read, white and count is nothing but white racism. The only thing you'll get sitting next to a white person is a virus. And until you understand what freedom is, if we took our wealth and helped one another, white folks would be going to court, bus and white folks to come into black

neighborhoods to get an education. No ladies and gentlemen, you can't have a legacy of poverty and inferiority and expect other people to accept you. We got this little cute notion in the black community that if you don't discuss these things, white people won't know about it. They got more computers than we will ever have. They know that we're not helping ourselves. They know we are disrespecting our women. They know we have abandoned our families. They know we're using dope. They know we go to college and head for the car room in the pool hall. They know only one out of every 250 black athletes at a white university graduates. They know we're running nothing but sports plantations and exploding black men over six feet tall. They set up the system. They are the University of Georgia. Only six black athletes have graduated since 1976. No black basketball player has ever graduated from Memphis State. Only three out of every ten black students at a white

university gets an undergraduate degree. They know all of this. We're not keeping any secrets from them. I don't care what white people understand and I don't care what they know. Our relationship and dialogue has to be with one another. The bottom line is what are we going to do about these things? What are we going to do jump up and down at home coming at the University of Texas and not paying any attention to what happens at graduation? The only thing that matters, the only thing that matters my brothers and sisters is if when you came here you came here to graduate and the only thing you want to be involved in and the only major all of you should have is graduation. And bottom line is you failed if you didn't graduate. You can blame racism. You can blame the clan. You can blame the president. You can blame everybody you want to blame. But we've always had to overcome adversity. Ladies and gentlemen, they didn't try to lynch this young man over here a hundred years ago.

In 1890, they lynched him. And they lynched us every day. It wasn't an attempt and we still finished college. We still became millionaires. We still invented things. We still became great. And your legacy is not to become a generation of winers thinking somehow racism is stronger than you. It is not. It is only when you buy into its strength that it has any. It's just like old Dracula. He can't come out in the sunlight if you hold your cross up to him. He's got to hide back in the dark and get in his box. And that's what racism is. You stand up to it, ladies and gentlemen, and it doesn't have a chance. You think it has power and it'll have you second guessing yourself day and night. No, take a good look at your past. That's where your strength will come from. Take a good look at what has gone on before and you'll know the stock that borne you. And let me ask you scholars, students and alumni, three American history questions. And please keep in mind that these are American history questions. And you do know,

as George Santiana said, he who does not understand history is doomed to repeat it. Number one, name three African American heroes of the American Revolutionary War. Number two, what African American laid out our nation's capital. Number three, who chopped down the cherry tree and could not tell a lie. Now, if you only got number three correct, you probably received an A in high school history. And if you received an A in high school history, you are an expert in his story. Not history, his story. And his story is the glue. Now, you think I'm coming down on the black Greeks? I'm not. I'm one of them. As a matter of fact, in 4,500 BC, Africans migrated from the Sahara region, Old Palestine and Old Libya across

intercrete and into what you know today is Greece, established the nation of Greece, and the nation of black tribes, a variety of them, were under the banner of the Poleskians. They were the Odyssey, the Iliant, they were Socrates, they brought the secrets from Egypt that you find today and you read about in Greek mythology. And when you read about the Amazons, who were the Amazons? The Amazons were symbols of African matrilineal tribes that lived where on the black sea. And ladies and gentlemen, it was not until 500 BC that the Kergans or the Aryan group conquered Greece. We are more legitimately Greek than the people you identify as a day is Greek, yet somehow we believe there's an inconsistency in being black and Greek because we've been taught that the relationship or we relate always to a white culture when in effect that is absolutely

not true. And let's look at what's true in America. You see, I love America. I love America because I know America's history. I know that the first American to die in the Revolutionary War was a black man named Chris Pizzatics. I know that our nation's capital, Washington, D.C. was laid out by young black scientific genius named Benjamin Bannaker, who memorized the plans for Washington. When Pierre-Land Font became upset with Jefferson and took the plans back to France, I know that Dr. Daniel Hill Williams performed the first successful open-heart surgery in Chicago in 1893. I know that Garrity Morgan invented the electric traffic sign to stop signal, not to stop black cars or black people in black cars, but so we could all have a system of street safety. And a doctor, a black doctor Dr. Charles Drew gave the world blood plasma that has saved millions of lives and will save billions of lives in the future. And ladies and gentlemen, Hank Aaron is not the all-time black home run hitter in baseball. Hank Aaron is the all-time home run hitter in

baseball. Now, let us go to Europe. History tells us that Europe is the history of Caucasians and Europe is the beginning of human history. Ladies and gentlemen, in four 11 A.D. Moors, Africans, navigated from Africa with compasses, sailed across the water, conquered Spain, and took the bagpipes into Scotland when the Spaniards believed, if you went too far out in the water, you fell off the end of the world. Alexander Sugik pushkin, a black Russian, created the syntax for the Russian language. And when you studied the three musketeers in French literature, they told you that Alexander Dumas wrote it, and they told you he was a Frenchman. But did they tell you he was a black Frenchman? And you've conceded classical music to Caucasians. And when you read about Beethoven, who played the piano with three and composed at six, you must know that he was called on the newspapers of his time, the moor for black, a bond for Germany. And the citizens of Greece and Rome did not look like Charlton, Heston, and Kirk Douglas. Go to Norway,

the northern part of Europe. The ultraviolet rays of the sun are very weak. Therefore, the skin is not dark, it doesn't eat melanin to protect it. The nostrils develop long and narrow because the air is dry and cold. Take this phenotype, this physical type to the Sudan, and 125 degree in day heat. Over X thousands of years, the skin must become dark and develop melanin to protect it from the ultraviolet rays of the sun. The nostrils must become wide to breathe a thick air, and the hair will become good like mine. God never picked any race. God never picked any group to lord over anybody else. That's our madness. Your hair is curly, kinky, or straight as he chose. He placed your eyes the exact number of centimeters on either side of your nose. Your nostrils are wide for breathing and your lips are thick for kissing. Everything about us is absolutely

imperfection. The only thing out of step with what's going on is the madness we have learned called race and racism. Never let anybody take your humanness from you. Your spiritual side, ladies and gentlemen, is as strong and in some cases stronger than any other part of you. And for somebody to divorce you from it and to give you a so-called race, they have taken the essence of your being. And we must be very careful that racism not ravish that which is most important to us. And that's our own inner core. We came on this earth for one reason and one reason only to do God's will. That's the only reason we were born. And ladies and gentlemen, in order to do that, we must have a strong sense of ourselves and in this country, a very strong sense of our history. And what else do they put upon us? You students here are reminded quite a bit that you speak a black dialect. And because you speak a dialect, there's something wrong with

your native intelligence. You don't learn at the same rate that other people do. Now that's nothing but another form of oppression. Everybody in America has a dialect. Because everyone in America with the exception of the Native American is an immigrant. And our immigrant four parents brought with them their original language. And each first generation immigrant keeps the syntax of the language and drops the English words into the slots. For example, the German speaker will not say, give me liberty or give me death. The German speaker will say, give me the liberty or give me the death. A proper noun takes a proper adjective. The Frenchman in converting to English said, what? Zeman. The African coming primarily from the western part of Africa, where there was no the T.A. sound converting to the man said, the demand. But don't say demand. Say Zeman, that's cute, isn't it? See, both speakers were adapting to the new world language and we elevated Zeman and denigrated demand. Go to S-O-U-T-H Carolina and what will you get? South Carolina. Go to certain

parts of Texas and you will turn left, right here. You see, there are 11 dialects and all your dialect is is the symbolic arrangement of every experience that every member of your group is ever had. That's all it is. You and your language are the same. If I assault your language, I've assaulted you. If I reject your language, I've rejected you. A white woman said to me, once I've seen you on television, Mr. Brown, and you're so intelligent, but you have a Southern accent. I said, yes, ma'am, and if you'd been raised in the South, you'd have a Southern accent. Now, at that moment, I could have not been me. I could have tried to be whoever she thought I should be, whoever that is. I don't have any way to get in touch with him, though. And you look very careful. When they tell you you have a dialect and if you're black, you do have a dialect. Your dialect is the residual language of your forefathers and foremothers. That's all it is.

Everybody has one. There are 11 of them. Now, if there are 11 dialects, what is the so-called standard dialect? The standard dialect is the dialect of the group with the most money and power. Namely, white Anglo-Saxon Protestants. If blacks had as much wealth as wasps, Walter Cromkite would have to speak the way I speak to be on television. Instead of me speaking, the way he speaks to be on television. But I'd like to say to all of you, I recommend highly, particularly to you students, that you speak, read, and write, standard English very, very well. I recommend it highly for food, clothing, and shelter. It is not whether or not you speak a dialect. It is how you and where you use it. It is when it is appropriate to use it. That's the only thing we're discussing. There's no such thing as black English because there's no such thing as white English. There are variations to the usage of the language. For an example, I am now

using intentionally the standard dialect, and I'm using it to convince you I'm intelligent. You see, I am bi-dilectal. I use both dialects. I switch. For an example, when I'm with the president of the network and we're negotiating a movie, when he comes in a room, I don't say, hey, baby, what's happening? I say, good morning, Mr. President. Have a nice day. Makes him feel safe. I didn't go there to be his black experience. I went there for commercial reasons. Now, when I'm with the tribe, a little later over the quorum club that what it is, a little later, have you ever seen two black men greet one another? How you doing? How you doing? What's happening? What's happening? We never answer. Because we can look at each other. I know what he's doing. I can look at him until we go right on into the thing. Our culture has

bridged it. And then if you look at other groups, for an example, if you go to the north-eastern part of the United States, in New York, the pop-to-cai, in Boston, the pop-to-cai, I'm a hob at yacht. Now, that's called the Post-Focalic R. Words ending in R, preceded by Vowel. They drop the R. It tells you about the history of people from the north-eastern part of the United States. That's all it is. And you can find anybody's background about the words they select, the arrangement and the syntax of their language, and their enunciation and pronunciation. It's the history of your region. Now, these are dialects, but because they are residuals of languages, they have legitimate rules. And they are in effect languages. For an example, you've heard the black people say B's that way sometime. Some of you look like you may have heard that. Well, now, that's called the continue to B. The continue to B. You see, when it B's that way sometime, is that way temporarily? But when it B that way, is that way all the time? And then if you listen very carefully, a black child may say to a teacher, I have three sister,

sister. The teacher, if enlightened, will not assault the child. The teacher will say, I understand what you mean. However, I would recommend that in certain situations, you say, I have three sisters, particularly if you're trying to get a job. But because the child's dialect is a language and it has rules, it has said to the teacher, dummy, I said three, why say sisters? That's redundant. See, so it's a matter of knowing how to use it. If you notice carefully how we also know how to mix oral and non-oral, look carefully at a culturally pluralistic society. And a culturally pluralistic society, we borrow from other groups, particularly efficient means of communications. And you can watch, I was with a brother at St. Louis University was sitting here and he looked down to his friend, he said, hey Charles,

what's happening? Charles responded. He said, I hear you. And then you gave skin last year down here, right? This was, where is it this year? High five, right? And we don't know where it's going next year, until the side of behind the back. But we do know we're evolving the language. I saw an announcer, a network TV saying an executive at IBM was ripped off. Where'd he get ripped off? He got it from us, because we were ripped off and it worked his way into the English language. And you can look carefully, remember this, the old black power salute, all Reagan and all of him in the Senate, they got this now, it's gone. And 50 years from now, we won't know where skin came from. I saw a white 90s grandson in the airport in Atlanta giving skin, they were just skinning, giving up skin. But you will, you heard the term golly g, you ever heard a black person use it? Now you laugh, but golly g is a term that was conceived and used exclusively in the black

community prior to the Civil War. And it's like a lot of the other terms today, they will be gone over and we won't know what happened. For example, I was in Washington DC one night, a truly majority city. And I was, and I was watching TV and there was a, the, the weatherman came on, a white man, very professional, very good. And you know how you have to do in TV, you have to establish a rapport with all these millions of people in order to get your ratings up. So he came on and it was a very windy evening, he made the announcement, tonight ladies and gentlemen, Hawk came into DC. And I know he got to it, I know he got two or three on the cost from brothers right home baby, get out and do it today. Because he came back with a special weather bulletin. Tonight ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Hawkins came in from Chicago. Now that's using culture. You look very carefully in America. You look very carefully at what's

going on. I mean take a very good hard look at this country. You're not dancing the way they dance, they're dancing like you. You're not singing their music, they're singing your music. You're not wearing one glove, they're wearing one glove. When are we going to wake up and see the same beauty in this African culture that the rest of the country sees and emulates and adores? And my brothers and sisters, I hope you're getting all the information that you can at this university. God knows I hope you got good grades and I hope you're very bright. But if you don't have your sense of blackness and your African together, you aren't going to do very well. And don't let anybody scare you. You don't have to be anti anybody else to be pro yourself. You're not anti white if you are pro black. And for you black males, when you come out, walk softly. This country is scared to death of you.

And it is ready to sandbag you and get rid of you in every conceivable way. Racism has been evolved in this country to nothing but black male genocide. That is the bottom line. So if you get your security together, have it, keep it cool until you get the wrinkles out of your stomach and get your own business, then get good and black. But don't get black until you don't let them know who you are until you got your thing together because they do not want you around if you are confident and well prepared and they will use everything they can against you. You've got to see yourself as though you're some undercover agent. You do. You've got to be careful. You've got to be better than prepared than most other folks and you've got to have a strong sense of your own culture and yourself. Or you will not get through this land mine that they've got set up. But the bottom line, if you ever get a little weary and if we're black, you've got to get a little tired. Just remember this African proverb. It's not what you call me. It's what I answer to.

Tony Brown, syndicated television producer and host of Tony Brown's Journal. If you have a comment or suggestions asked to a future in Black America programs, write us, the address is in Black America, Longhorn Radio Network, UT Austin, Austin Texas, 787-12. For in Black America's technical producer Cliff Hargrove, I'm John Hanson. Join us next week. You've been listening to In Black America, Reflections of the Black Experience in American Society. In Black America is produced and distributed by the Center for Telecommunication Services at UT Austin and does not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Texas at Austin or this station. This is The Longhorn Radio Network.