Challenge 69: The urban crisis; #7 (Reel 1)

Challenge 69 the urban crisis. The students response. I observe that there are two problems that that seem to be emerging. One is a generation gap that is quite this horrible between the speakers and the young men and women who have come here to hear them and also something of a communications gap. Comments were made by the men and women who came to hear a number of the speakers that we live in a competitive society which is all very true but they failed to understand that one must compete on something close to equal competitive grounds. It isn't fair for a 6 foot 200 pounder to take my young 10 year old son into a ring and proposed to box or to wrestle with him. And I submit to you that the one fifth of all Americans who have to compete with the 80 percent of us that seem to have the full measure of the blessings of this society

are competing not on a very very fair basis at all and I think that that's what challenge 69 is all about. The Wake Forest University a symposium on contemporary American affairs presents challenge 69 the urban crisis. The student's response. This is the seventh in a series of nine programs that seek to focus attention on the problems of American cities. The topic of this program is the role of the business community in meeting the urban crisis. The speaker on today's program Saul David Alinsky has for many years been a community organizer working to make poor people's objectives attainable. He has organized minority power groups in Chicago New York City and Rochester. Here now to speak on the role of the business community in meeting the urban crisis is Saul Alinsky.

Dr. Martin Martin. I must confess that I was a little bit confused when I got off the plane last night because I assumed I was coming to a sudden you know question and. I'm always in the past when I have come south. I've always had a perception to many of the Ku Klux Klan waiting for me and it just didn't happen. So then I looked again to see one of the following group of the John Birch Society would appear on they want I want. So I don't know why they're just not really stubborn or whether you're liking the southern hospitality. I don't like to talk to you very seriously about citing background for us before we get into. A discussion of. The concrete specific issues up to

and in order to do with us in order to deal what has become a common cliche of today just say up like a. Which means to say it like that I have. A problem. Most people assume they don't see it like it is. But on the other hand they think they're saying that I can. In order to do that I'm. Compelled to take you back and history. Very briefly. So that you can see it and its framework. And what of what. It's real meaning from this is. That band of radicals those American radicals. Men like Jefferson. Hamilton Madison and Jay Adams cetera. That carried through the American Revolution and began this nation A-bombs. Were an extraordinary group of people. They were probably about as politically sophisticated and

literate. As almost any band of revolutionaries of the world has ever known. They were men who were widely read and very thoughtful. They were as familiar with the writings of every commentator on every student of politics from Aristotle to Mychal Bell and Hume a lot amount to skew which is all of our Constitution. As present political administrations are with public opinion sampling because they swear a man who are very concerned about what. They were for and where this country was going or in other words what it was all about. And you say it. And all of their writings you say in the debates in the Federalist Papers and you see it in the Hamilton papers you see and. The same in Lee endless volumes of correspondence and Jefferson's correspondence which keep coming off Princeton University's

presses. Profound questions such as how many people really want freedom with what it really means. By a crying response about having to take responsibility for your own decisions and not being able to pass it off to someone else. This is a profound question we're not going to be able to get on to it here today. But what all of the differences. I thought about differences. There were agreed on two major things. One the reason for being. About free and open society. The reason for being of the United States. In terms of its goals. And those goals reason for banking I repeat. I could be found in the complex of general values. That are way up on top. Of the democratic system.

The democratic way the Republican way of government. Whichever way you choose to look at it. As nothing more than a process I devise a political pattern. And evaluated to be the best. The most expedient the most pragmatic way of man trying to achieve these values. I might add too that they were realists. All of these men and as realists they knew that when they made value judgments and when they made the sessions. That they were not going to be doing it. And the starry eyed fashion of so many people do today aren't done all through time. And trying to find an ideal path. They know that OB our judgments as realists I repeat are based and I. Want to say this to agree to it chaps or

activists on the campus Web based like our judgments are based in the arena of conflict in the arena of values and they wind up like they are based on alternatives. You never get the best life never affords you that luxury. But you choose what is best and terms of what other alternatives are present. And on the basis of this method of achieving judgment I putting it another way in a much simplistic way. The old one stone Churchill definition of democracy is quote a lousy way of life. By all means the best way that I know of on this basis you unreservedly choose. The democratic process became. The way apply towards trying to achieve these values. Now these values cannot be stated and very specific

perfet of the times because life is always changing and life is always relative and values are relative as wild. So when you talk about a complex of values you raise the question what are these values. They become a combination. Of. Things that all people have a yarn for and they become words that read freedom equality justice the preciousness of the individual human life. Why do you want to call it the dignity of individuals. They become words that are to be found. And the revolutionary slogans when every man has a reson. And has yearnings to achieve these values which has been the constant fight from the beginning of time and that found in the revolutionary slogans of either liberty fraternity and equality of the French. Or Peace and brad of the Russians are no

taxation without representation of our own. And they're found and I suppose you would say the basic moral principles of all of the major religions of the world not just Judeo Christianity. And they're found. In the political. Traditions and the political rights in our own Bill of Rights. This is a complex about it was up on top of. My main library what one other example you cannot be more than general. Because. When. The American Revolutionaries wrote. The American Constitution what was setting up a whole system of government. And the preamble and stating the reason for all of us they could not be any more specific than to cite. Quotes for the general welfare. Unquote. Because they could not foresee 30 40 50 60 years had let alone a century or two.

No one can and I repeat that these values are constantly shifting qualitatively. And by that specifically if you talk about economic security which has been one of the values. That you might give a figure back 20 years ago that would mean economic security but today would be classified as property. So you don't specify it in times of. Five thousand dollars a year. You simply say economic security. Now these values to those who are committed to a free and open society and committed towards trying to achieve those values these values are not debatable. They cannot be argued. They cannot be discussed. They are accepted as prime articles of faith. This was and this is one of the hang ups in this country I don't know whether you saw it down here about

seven weeks before the Democratic convention in my setting. Democratic Party convention I should sign. This. Columbia Broadcasting System. Confrontation of. Former Governor Wallace of Alabama. And myself. The one which was completely blue was code turned on the moderator of the show at one point. You promise me that if I got on this program with the Lansky that you'd keep my under control. You know I don't know. While I was so upset about it because I had some play I thought I was. I don't think I was attacked until March 1 while it's kept in mind that he was a racist I told him that I had studied him that I bully.

Wasn't Frannie than he was for anything that would get him elected. If you know that morning by being and I'm to graciously be present United States he'd be the damn disintegrations you'd find going up and down the country. But anyway one point one must made that took the possession out of school segregation were put on the ballot in Alabama. And the majority of the people voted on. That it would then be a democratic decision. And. My response was exactly along the line of what I've been saying to you was it that was incredible. That you could not put that on the ballot. That you cannot take any of those higher value as the reason for bang of a free and open society and put them on the ballot. They cannot be debated they cannot be discussed and they cannot be voted upon.

And the moment this the process the so-called democratic process is used to violate one of those high values then we no longer have a democracy. Weve made of the promises a prostitute. Now. This was the reason for banging. And as the reason the bar banged about free and open society or are what we were prior to as the American way. Now what that in mind. And what test all of they so I say founding fathers were great on. This was this was the go. What that in mind. There were some are only agreed upon a second point. I'm back was. That in order to achieve this goal in order to make this way of life work. You don't have to have a situation. Where an. All of the people. Would be

protest the padding as citizens. And that if you ever got a condition whereby a substantial sector of the American people were disenfranchised politically economically socially etc.. That that condition would inevitably become a like number and would begin to bring the whole of my house down. This is the reason why. Jefferson. Was talking so much about getting rid of slavery and in his own autobiography. But you've got to remember the kinds of times he left them. You've got to remember that while he had an earlier draft of the declaration. I don't know how to keep the states united for the revolution I was one of those political concessions that had to be made otherwise to stop with the Banana Revolution. And the Japs and therefore advance from this autobiography a particular date which I

believe was around 1840 or so for. Complete Emancipation. By that time a gradual steps. You gotta keeping this in mind. You have got to keep in mind at that point that if you are. A psycho geisha knows. If you are white crisis which of course is all being redundant. But end that kind of a sane. If you are also committed to a free and open society for yourselves and your children and their children. Which would seemingly be a contradiction but all life is made up of contradictions and people are walking bundles of contradictions. And the arena of life. Consistency. Is neither advice nor Burchill it is just not nonexistent. You only find in classrooms when not on life itself

and most cases consistency is simply a stigmata of stupidity as well. Means you're you're just not shouting right. You're not growing up. But if you are a believer. For freedom and for all of these values and goals and for this free and open society. You must of necessity purely on the pragmatics of the situation you know must of necessity stand for and come to a quality and every level of life and every way and in every form for everybody in this country you cannot. You simply cannot. Comment. If such a way snapped a mile off and complete rights and everything for all people regardless of color. If you have any hope for a free society to continue.

This is the reason why to topple as far back as 1830 far as critical appraisal of this new way of life. As to what the future of democracy was going to beit. Pointed out but if it was going to survive that the next revolution what happened to be the Negro revolution. And this goes back to 1835. I want you to keep back and mind us as far as I'm going to go on the historical basis. If you are profiling equality for all blacks in every way every way every level of. Them. You have got to. If you if your take going to take that possession and you have to take up possession if you are. If you are a free society. If you are pro what you call the American

word. Thus according to every political observer. Throughout. Has been recognized as. The biggest danger that this nation can face and ever has faced are well-placed the future and that is the dropping out the denial the removal of a substantial part of population from being for your service. Well now let's come to today. You talk about. I looked over your program I found myself a little bit surprised. But be representing best most. Anything can happen. You have two major issues today that are confronting the American saying I'm getting awfully tired of hearing about this and crisis etc.. I'm

many of these issues are so twisted and so misunderstood. I get tired of hearing of the word violence. And so many of the words mean so many things are so different to different people. I hear out whites talking about the violence of the riots. And of this of these are violent days we're living at. Well. To me they're not very violent days compared to what we have been living through. I can remember and it's not too long ago where if you want to stop the Mason-Dixon line you couldn't even open your mouth on civil rights without going up the end of an apple tree or having the new spring fashion toss some feathers around on it. And when labor organizers were being shot down all over the place. I haven't had to do today and what I had to do as recently as 25

years ago an organization where I always carried a gun at that time. And the organizational work in Chicago what machine gunning was when the opposition even tried a machine gun to a Catholic bishop from Chicago. Because he was allied with us at the time. But when you talk about violence let me just remind you. That violence takes many forms. And if you think that what we're experiencing today is violence and the burning of some property physical property the loss of lives much the lives bring black lives. I suggest to you a lot of the violence. That our society has fostered on the blacks. Absolutely and comprehensible to the likes. Of the violence of which is the destruction of spirit and destruction the backwardation of your. Your internal spiritual life

Book Festival. Brings back the imagery of the old stereotypes of the Chinese torture of the drop by drop. Can any of we whites even dimly imagine what it must mean to a black mother to. Look at our child when he reaches the age of 5 or 6 and began to tell him that there are certain places he or she cannot go. There's certain things he or she cannot do. What this means. That's the reason why I'm ready for radical Islam. Recount of the episode just after World War II just before the end of World War 2. When so many Americans were trying to figure out what could be the fitting punishment for Hepler this would be for all we know that that is where you were going to have the suicide in the bunker.

And I was a high school contest in the state of Ohio and a black girl wrote. And harassed and the subject was what to do whatever. And her arrest play was to the effect of dress some on a black skin and put them in the United States. I'm. Pretty bad a lot of good legitimate basis for that. But on those. Violence all I'm trying to get across to you covers many many arenas. And not just the O-Port visible violence. That we have been witnessing in the past few years. I'm not going to be talking we go into discussion we can talk about anything but I'm not going to be talking about a number of subjects. Which I'm sure of the speakers well but there are certain points that I want to make certain points that I can make. And I can make them because I am one of the few white men whose record.

And I don't feel a black power and black organizations that are as such that I can make them. Where others are afraid to make them and they happen to be right I'm not going to spend my time on white guilt. I'm so sick of white Americans. What those white master because I'm having all these races when I was up in the suburbs and everybody going up to the Wailing Wall and bouncing their chests and telling about how sorry for everything they've done of Sadr and they're enjoying the masochists and say to share a common enjoyment and what that don't. And. Besides that nothing good. No no way all the solutions ever come out of guilt. You get such solutions which in themselves are problems.

I. Was up mad sayn the lights last it up. We are now and this and I was such a whitish unware around. Where the whites have got to face up to the realities of things. And I had to do the right things for the wrong reasons which is the way the world has always operated. I'd realisation on the part of whites some whites today that the white race happens to be the minority race. On the face of this globe. Which so many people seem to find surprising. I mean that things are changing and they're changing awful fast not going to change and I want no way that I buy is going to stop. It. On the other side. From the white mask yes we have certain things to happen. We have some of these songs we have a good many of these black extremists.

Almost the psychos the white masochists are. On to running into some sort of a situation on that. Cross and some of our demands are presenting a rationale for racism. Which is either going to slow up things like. 10 or 15 you know. The split is going to become worse somewheres. Let me give you an example. The demand for separate black dormitories in the north I don't know where they have it down south because you've always had it down south. But I'm talking about campuses not. I was an appeal to a few weeks ago at O'Hare Airport by a feature writer from the special which is the leading newspaper in Milan Italy.

And the cost of what she asked me to comment on a statement made by the head of the Black Student Union in Northwestern University quotes. For years and years and years we black students have fought for separate black dormitories and until we used violence we couldn't get them unquote. He said I want to use what you have to say about them. I said I don't believe them. He said walk talk about reporters while he played and I know Turner. First I was under. Oath. Now. I'm like I said like you're in a town and you don't know anything at all about what's going on in this country or its background. I'm getting a bit concerned because I think that an American newspaper reporter might very well have put that same question to me. The simple fact is. That if anyone. As recently as five five years ago came up for a separate black dawn of targets anywhere in the Northeast be denounces our racist bigoted segregationists. Kind of society that the fight part of the

blacks. Through the past and whatever separate Dom Atari's was to love. And vent a kind of mythological behest really that just. More. Than anything we've ever experienced in Chicago when I say Chicago I mean that we had a newspaper publisher run them kind of a comical. Chicago Tribune. Took possession and we Americans invented everything in the world. I mean we were used to that not the logical part of history. But what is happening as a consequence I gave a specific example there of the separatism. What is happening as I hone my ash now is beginning to spread through this country among the whites.