thumbnail of NET Journal; 260; Dick Gregory Is Alive and Well
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The following program is from NET, the public television network. About a year ago in Chicago, I was walking down the street, downtown in the loop. About 10 o'clock in the evening, a white cat walking down the sidewalk. He see me coming. He jumped all the way off the sidewalk and get in the gutter. Scared to death. He said, Mr. You're not going to bother me, are you? I said, no, my man, I'm Dick Gregory, I'm dedicated committed to non-violence. He said, you mean you are V. Dick Gregory? You don't care no gun or no life? I said, no. He said, you don't do no shooting a cut. I said, no.
He said, well, stick him up, nigga. I feel when I was in the nightclub making $5,000 a week, I was very insulted. Not only people, but newspaper articles talking about how much my humor was helping to solve problems and how I was bridging the gap of understanding and I can't say that it was not. All I can say is that I had no intentions when I walked up on the nightclub stage to solve problems. I was up there as a comedian to pay my rent and so I felt that in order to get involved and really, you know, book a system and clean it up and make a democracy work was not on the nightclub stage. So I came out and I marched and I layered marches and when I was leading marches I wasn't being funny and when I went up on the nightclub stage I didn't go up to protest and I looked
around one day and I found this strength of emerging youth that was asked in questions and wanted to get involved. So today I spent 98% of my time on the college circuit because the young kids in America today is probably the most morally dedicated, committed group of young folks that have a living history of this country and I feel that this is the only place for me to be at this present time. I grew up seeing things in the ghetto that most white Americans don't even know exists and then they scream about black folks should respect the police and we have to laugh at that because if they was in the black ghetto and we're seeing the things that happen to us in that black ghetto and the things that we have to see they couldn't have respect for that policeman and also it seems to be something that a lot of people fail to understand
that when the civil rights movement started there was a passionate resentment for the police not because he was any worse not because not a fact there's less police brutality now since the civil rights movement than it was before but the problem is to grow up in a black community in America and all your life see the whole of the prostitute, the pimper and the dope push and the cop and this dope push that's really a detriment to not only the black community but to any community and not being molested by the police and then I look at a black civil rights worker come in my community to uplift me and he gets all this static from the police you know the cops is watching them they knocking them down they making a rest look at that one father groppie father groppie is in jail because he tried to lead black folks to a better way of life why don't they arrest the pimps the whores and the hustlers in Milwaukee so we look around and we see a system that don't do anything
good for me at all you know in the 1968 civil rights bill that was passed the housing bill they also tacked on to that bill a segment called the the anti-ride section which you can't cross the state line and if you look at America how much he's used the anti-ride section the eight kids is on trial in Chicago was busted under that new civil rights bill with the anti-ride section the the weatherman that came to Chicago to demonstrate a couple of weeks ago they are being investigated on it so we look at white folks that can take a civil rights bill in the part that would do me the most good as far as enforcing housing they're not that stuck on but the part that can put somebody in jail for either rallying behind my cars or trying to bust a system this is the part that they're using and so you know black folks more and more is getting you know for menacely alienated with the system
and and and many people don't seem to understand what we're talking about mainly because many people don't understand what black folks is going through now we're looking for five hundred right not many kids going to be there right come on come on sit down on the floor let's go well you have a question to ask first that each one of you had to ask one question before you could leave think about it and then tell me what would it be under the natural stars come out let's go back to slavery right we came here we had natural kinky hair right then we start combing our hair so it could look like the slave master right now my woman
went to the beauty Paul and got a hot comb on her hair to straighten it out so it could look like the master's wife right now we in trouble right because anytime I want to emulate and look like the people who have misused me then we in trouble so what happened yet young black folks like stokely and rap that was hip enough to know we needed an identity that identity was not with the man up on the hill that identity was not with a cat like that identity was not with how far you can hit baseball that identity was not where you lived that identity was not how many days you made in school that identity was with self right here with self then all the ones we start talking about black is beautiful black is beautiful we had the kind of act of thing we've heard so long that black was not beautiful it's a blue black lie it was always a black lie you know it's always a black mark it means
something bad so nothing black ever meant anything good and so consequently we talked about an identity accepted me as I am a man looked around me and found out my nose was wider than here he started putting me down saying my nose was funny but man couldn't breathe without taking in air so the wider my nose just mean we taking more ad in him now he's the one should feel up tight that nature kind of shell change you know and if you don't bleed that's important you go to hospital gym and you go to a white hospital then cats got them big oxygen tens four hundred dollars for the oxygen we don't need that most they got to do it plug up one on the hospital it's just got him a thing and he getting too much hand you know and so then we start talking about what is beautiful about us we talk about the natureistic characteristics we talk about the way we talk we talk about the way we communicate we look at white television and we can't communicate with it look at the weather man you know the white weather man he comes on he talks about the the the weather and Oklahoma well most black open ghetto he's going to Oklahoma I got to have a black cat to give me my ghetto news because I
don't want to hear nothing about no humidity it's bad I want to hear nothing about no bra I'm a meter you know I don't hear nothing about no wind velocity because I get that through the hole in the back wind I know about the wind velocity you know but we talk about communication with this black thing we we can't communicate it's one of the problems you have in your school you know nine times out of ten you know all black school but you read Jane in the third reader about some old white girl that's giving honey to a dog or giving a stake and nine times out of ten the way she's feeding the dog is moating you're going to have for dinner now that books good down in the white neighborhood where they get in the whole of school to eat she it becomes a nice story but it can alienate poe folks looking at Jane in the third reader feed that dog it alienated me when I was in school looking at white kids kissed them animals and knew how they felt about me tomorrow I want to go to Birmingham I will not go as a black man I was a human being before when I went in Alabama
it was always as a black man I had to be conscious that I was black with my life or death I would get spit at because I was black I would know that I couldn't get in a cab because I was black and I knew if I got killed in the south it would be because I was I was black and so when the clan realized that you know that we had black people was ready to die they were not enough guns they were not enough clansmen and the world was not enough crazy to stand by and look at black people get wiped out until you willing to make a commitment I am willing to die for a right I am willing to die to read the world of a wrong and replace it with a right there are a lot of people basically we'll play games with you and so I think you know the real true you of me growing the Alabama tomorrow to the University to speak
is to say thanks to the many people that was killed in Alabama I look forward and I wouldn't be fair if I said I didn't look forward to going to the University of Alabama as much as I look forward to going to Harvard and Yale and why you son don't know University I look forward to go because of what we went through in Alabama because of George Wallace I look forward to go to to re-dedicate myself to say what a difference a day do make you know that when you are armed with a strong moral commitment that one man with courage is the majority that you don't need a crowd we never had a crowd in the civil rights struggle we've always had one man to pop up somewhere and so it's just like making another trip now you know there are no fears there are no hang ups you know and tomorrow I'll get on the plane and I'll go there and it'll be just like going to any other college in America
with the one exception is the fact that you know George Wallace did stand in front of the schoolhouse door and say you know there'll be no black folks no and this college is longs on the line you're burning here in the flight then going to Alabama and George and Mississippi and Tennessee it was there was a tremendous fright that would come over me not a fright that would make me afraid to go a fright that
made me know I had to go but in the morning I'll be getting on the plane to go to Alabama before I would you know would kiss the kids I'd wake them up before I leave I would really kind of say goodbye like it could have been the last time the university told us that you'd be coming in okay don't you can spare a minute here I think it's too I think the civil rights movement have changed into a human rights movement which is better for all concern because now we're talking about the problem of the Indians
for a week in the Mexican and for the first time of the poor white I think it's very important I think now we're talking about rule America because until we solve the problems in rule America we never solve the problems in urban America you participated last week to be a non-moratorium in any way yes I did what do you think of such demonstrations well I think it's going to have a lot of effects on Nixon Nixon said it wouldn't but I think if president want to know how these young kids can affect the president I suggest him to call the AVLBJ ranch and ask that boy how much effect that young kids have on this YouTube they used to arrest me soon I got off the plane here oh man I used to come down here I was going to ask you something while it goes up how
to do you know the south is so slow it's going to be an interesting thing I was wondering is there is the south doing it progressing faster now in the north or what the question is you say is the south progressing more now you think the north as far as the racial situation I think I think it's have to because they never had the hypocrisy that existed in the north I mean you know everybody knew there was racial segregated schools in the south Chicago spent two million dollars doing a survey to find out the same thing in a black person could have told them for free and so you know the honesty that have existed in the south means that the south you know can solve its problems much quicker than the north can you
see even there's a lot of sincere people that would like to solve the problem in the north but just really don't believe it exists because they thought racism was a Alabama problem they thought racism was a Mississippi problem when racism was an American problem and so consequently this is what you know SNCC said when it said white kids to get out the civil rights movement you know it was it was a southern thing you know we got tired of young white kids coming to Georgia Alabama Mississippi bugging this racist redneck cracker when he couldn't take a nigga home with him in the suburbs New York and the suburbs she called go to the suburbs of Boston so what we were saying was before you ever come down here and healing each of your southern white races brother you know take a black cat home which involved your mom and dad you know the biggest breakthrough for black folks in the history of America happened a few years ago in the state of Texas we got our first color hurricane
Bula you can you integrate that big breeze baby so I guess little by little when you look around you looking the right places we doing all right you can't turn no channel on television today without seeing something black and it's about time I got some damn sick and tired looking at that white dog fly through that white woman's kitchen every time I turn on television there she goes Mars there's a white dog in your kitchen I say if there's one time I can turn on television hear my sister run across yelling Bula baby that's a black crow on the biscuits so if you were looking at television you got to admit we you know we doing all right matter fact last year we got our first black cowboy any of you ever
dig that show the what's the name of it the y'all cares you can tell by the name of it it's us on stand next year we're gonna get us another black cowboy so the first black cowboy has somebody to kill I don't I don't mean it like that now they let the black cowboy kill white cowboy even nine then you see whenever it becomes the black cowboys turn to kill a white cowboy the script writers really got to go through some changes you see they have to dirty up this white cat so bad and when the black cat gun him down everybody will accept it you know I caught one of them shows when the black cat killed the white cowboy this white cat had just finished raping a blind paraplegic salvation army worker 18 months I had gone out of my way to explain the white folks with black power was I mean
even when I couldn't find white folks I call them up on the telephone hello you white they explain to you with black power and and and black folks just felt after that tremendous heart transplant operation you remember the first one in South Africa with a black cat gave up his heart to the white cat the longest heart that pumped the longest in the history of heart transplant that's black power and let me be honest you know black folks all over the world was tickled to death when we found out the black brother was gonna give up his heart to a white cat because you see we've been known for years that basically there's really nothing wrong with white folks that have changed your heart wouldn't straighten out let me say to you black folks in America do not hate white folks because you got some niggas hate turnips basically black folks in America do not hate white folks we hate
this stinking white racist system with these stinking white racist institutions not you United States Constitution that gives a man freedom of expression gives you a right to hate me individual racism we're not worried about this damn institutionalized racism that's choking us to death and that's what we gonna deal with United States Constitution that gives a man freedom of speech gives a man a right to call me a nigger but it better not drop no rope around my neck never again freedom of expression give a man a right not to like me because I'm black give him a right not to want me
to live next door to him and he got a right to exercise when I'm moving in he can move out but he better not stop me from moving in that's what we talking about as a right as a human being I got a right to sit up on this platform and look down and be sickened up to believe that everybody sit not there it's goal real is damn thing you can do by but when I come down try to put y'all in cages baby and I'm in trouble that's the right I do not have so we say that we do not hate white folks you know I guess it's just white people's ego in America that makes themselves believe they are problem but really white folks as far as our problem is so insignificant now all white people in America could disappear today leave nothing here but black folks Mexican Indians and Puerto Ricans and if we still had to take these old funny tests you make us take to get into these institutions we
still couldn't get in you wouldn't be here we don't hate white folks we hate the stinking white racist system these stinking white racist institutions but we want you to know we hold in all white folks responsible for that's what black folks is talking about today this white racist institution a white racist system that keep me locking the black ghetto all my life and I got to develop a different culture to survive with the rats and the roaches and when I break out and come to your institution you asked me the wrong test you don't ask me about the ghetto you asked me about the Eiffel Tower that's why black folks are saying in America if you can't develop the right test for me don't give me none at all you know the Indian is up on the reservation app because he wants to be there because Americans keep him up
there now that Indian came off the reservation in the morning to go to your college you give him a test that ain't got a damn thing to do with life on the Indian reservation young just see you know Kimmasovian what's Abraham Lincoln's mother's name what the hell I didn't care about Abraham Lincoln's mamma maybe we'd understand if all Americans had to take the Indian test for you to go to school he's supposed he drove you up on the reservation and ask you what was sitting bulls great grandma's name it's be a dumb country wouldn't it hard to believe we can be much dumber than we are it's not only do we lock the Indian up on the reservation we control his education we so dumb we got nerve enough to teach the Indian that Columbus discovered America you have a big job probably the biggest job you young folks have I do not advocate destroying the capitalistic system but I say to you youngsters
you better work like hell to beat the capitalists into their rightful position which is behind the United States Constitution and not in front of it it's a big job this country do not function under the democratic process this country is not governed by the United States Constitution its country is controlled and governed by the capitalists the sad thing about that as long as the capitalists are ahead of the constitution it means in America we will always put our emphasis on property rights instead of putting emphasis on human rights so you got a big job if you want to change the system the name all your grievances at the capitalists don't use the constitution because the capitalists don't give a damn about the constitution the only reason they like the flag is because they make it your youngsters got a big job what do we tell you young folks in America 18 years old you
old enough to go to war and die for your country but you not old enough to vote and I meet so many young folks around time I've got to go to war and die 18 I want to write the vote of 18 don't be no damn fool if you got to go to war and die 18 you better fight to get the right to start voting at 17 this group is you young folks are if you ever get the right to start voting at 17 won't be no wars when you get 18 last year when I was a presidential candidate I let the whole world know had I been elected to the president I wasn't going in the war and be it now no I was just going to pass a bill saying we
can draft these old fools up to 75 years old and send them to be it now I wouldn't kill them are you young folks send them old fools over there but they're to save us a lot of money on that medicare youngsters must organize you want that war over and be it now but I know big thing once you youngsters get organized in a capitalistic system organized across this country and in in young folks aside you're not going to get a haircut till the war is over and be it now the barbers will go to Washington DC where they raise us and make that boy in that war so I say to you young folks you got a big job say you today be sure and watch all of us old fools and particularly watch your mom and daddy
because you got to sleep with them don't you answer them now you don't somebody come out of your house today knock on the door your mother father say who is it or say government inspector so yeah what do you want say we want your dog or your cat say what so yeah we just got a bill pushed through we send in pets to Vietnam I don't have to tell you how much hell your mom and daddy would raise if somebody tried to send that dog to Vietnam look be a shootout on the front lawn that's really not funny when you stop and think you live in a country today where your mom and daddy would raise more hell if somebody tried to send that dog to Vietnam then it raised over you going to Vietnam that's scary so I say to you young says you got a lot of questions you got to ask one of the most important questions you young folks got to ask it's a simple question but an important
question and that question is if democracy is as good as we tell you it is then why to hell are we running all over the world trying to ram it down people's throat with a gun in the day you young folks work to make this democracy work right that's today we can bring the guns home because you see anything good you don't have to force on people they will steal it I say to you young says you have a big job probably the most important thing I'll say to you all day is what I'm about to say to you young says now I hope you youngsters you not make the same mistake us old fools made when it was I turned to go to these colleges and universities we were so busy going to school to learn how to make a living we forgot
to learn how to live don't make that mistake I promise you if you go this any other institution for four years and just learn how to make a living you haven't got a guarantee you can get a job and keep one when you get out you spend your four beautiful years at these colleges and universities learning how to live I guarantee you making a living will be the simplest thing on the world for you to do barn nine oh I meet so many people say I'm going to wait a college so I'm learning how to be somebody hell you was born somebody if you dumb enough to let somebody teach you have to be somebody else that makes you two people got what sigma frauds has happened to you when you become two folks I hope you youngsters understand that all these institutions ever need to do is bring out of you what nature
put in you and we'll solve all the problems confronting man youngsters got a big job let me ask you young people to do me a favor one day this week stop off in the library and copy down the Declaration of Independence don't read it just copy it you know how to copy without reading don't you sure you do here's the favor I want you to do for me when you copy down the Declaration of Independence keep it with you 24 hours a day never be cut without that Declaration and here's my favor when the ride season open up again oh yeah this system even give us a ride season you live through August this season we didn't show and the whole establishment got upset where were you we had to tank waiting for you there's George Wallace how come you think they didn't ride he said you know the niggas is ladies and shifters they just got tired I tell you where we was this past ride season
we got tired of stealing all the more bad no good products so this July through August we decided to go underground and study the consumer reports so when the ride season open up again we ain't stealing no more motor rollers baby here's the favor I want you to do for me when the ride season open up again I want you to run home and get with your parents and you black kids you go home and get with your parents too because you got some black folks living in them houses which you think more degenerate more corrupt than the clue club plan could ever think and you do know what I'm talking
about when you get home take your television set and put in the middle of the room turn on the evening news because they're gonna they're gonna show them niggas riding and looting and sucking it to the time and we turn on the evening news turn on hunting them brinkly because they get close-ups they get such close-ups you recognize your kin folks they don't put down law I didn't know he was in detra after you get your television set in the middle of the room at that point when you get the evening news on what is showing them black folks riding and burning time at that point I want you to go upstairs and get your parents and bring them down and put them right in front of that television set where they can see them niggas looting and burning and listen to them you've heard them before just listen to them listen to them good and then my favorite is this after you heard them talking enough I want you to go up and turn the sound off the television so then fools can't see nothing but them niggas burning and looting the town and at that point
my favorite is I'd like for you to take out your Declaration of Independence get way back behind them parents and while they looking at them niggas burn I'd like for you to read the Declaration of Independence as loud as you can and maybe for the first time then fools will understand what they look in at we hold these truths to be self-evidence that all men are created equal and endowed by the creator with certain and alellable rights that win these rights are destroyed over long periods of time it is your duty to destroy our abolish that government I know at first them old fools is going to assume there was some message Malcolm X left for rap brown but I'm sure with a minimum amount of persuasion you'd be able to teach him that
that was their beloved Declaration of Independence that one with that mistake on it that one where y'all forgot the right for white only and you know black folks read it we done enough to read this thing we don't put white only on it we're done enough to believe that was for all Americans but we know it's not because when we do what it's they do you know white folks wrote this you know that don't you yeah we know nothing to do with this we would appreciate if you white folks would get this Declaration of Independence out of our black community since it's not for us don't even bother us with it get it out of our black community and right after that we'd appreciate if you come get your little lily white stinkin white boy history book out my black ghetto because they know where in the world the nigga can behave himself after reading your white history huh not that history book of y'all you ever read it a history book that tells me y'all landed at the flimuth rock and shot and murdered your way all the way across to California now you as a negative behavior you can't be real you still still enough to believe you can grab niggas
into your army tonight send them the forth binning jarge to teach him how to be gorillas send them to Vietnam killing farmers to liberate another farm and think that nigga ain't gonna come on one day and kill you to liberate his man man you got to be out your man it would appreciate if you get that white boy history book out my community that book that everybody wants to talk about a nigga is a hoot and a criminal and I read your white history tells me you came to these shores and discovered a country that was already occupied now who the criminal how are you going to discover something that's not only occupied but being used at the time as like me and my old lady walking out of here today and you and your lady sitting in your brand new automobile and my lady said gee honey that's a beautiful automobile I show where she was always not saying well let's discover it so we wish you to get that white history out our community maybe we could behave and when you take it out reading sometimes we don't leave you read your history
give me liberty or give me death who said that rap brown didn't know what the stuff we call Michael says in your history book don't shoot do you see the whites of their eyes you see maybe if you read your history you'd understand me people run around saying black folks are the half respect for the police we can't have respectful police after reading your white history because we see what you didn't have respect for the police isn't your history book says in the early days when the British was the police a white boy by the name of Paul Rivera wrote to the white community and say get a gun white folks the police is coming you all do understand them white panthers don't you and then the ride started out and they get to break and winters and steal and television says
taking them home and everybody said we hoodling we steal television doing the ride I don't know how you can accuse me that when I read your history say not only did you get on that stranger's ship you dumped all his tea in the water what you hell you mad about because the niggas got enough sense to take it home with so I'll say you youngsters got a big job briefly before I leave you this afternoon let me briefly discuss what you black attitudes in America and Lord know we got some attitudes and thank God it's about time and all honestly we don't know what it is we've been doing in America in the last two years to alienate you white folks but whatever it is we've been doing we gonna keep on doing yeah we noticed there's been more integration in the last six months than ever in the history of America we don't understand what it is about white man's physical and psychological makeup as long as niggas was running down the street singing
we shall overcome and praying to that Jesus boy being polite you couldn't get enough dynamite to throw in our churches you couldn't whoop and put enough of our leaders in jail and all the ones we've changed our attitude and just look like white folks in behavior you ain't less than niggas two years we don't know what it is about your makeup that the more we tighten you up the better you behave so we think we ain't gonna do but tighten you all the way up now white America tells us to be non-violent you know what an insult that is the only nation on the face of this earth that's dropped an atom bomb on another human being is now asking us to behave we say to white America if you love non-violence prove it to us don't do nothing for us because we prove we're burning time down but get up on that Indian reservation and liberate your red brother because you can't find a better example of non-violence over the last 75 years in that American Indian what happened to your appetite for non-violence that Indian want a better way of life in the morning he got to understand he didn't with such
a racist insane nation until you make up people up through the muzzle of a gun she gonna keep your nigger oh that Indian want a better way of life more than all he got to do is get out in Arizona on the by the out tomorrow morning catch white folk driving down the expressway and star shooting at him bow and yelling red power on whitey go home when that Indian tell you to go home he told me about the big trip baby and guess is sure that Indian get to raise and hell in the morning just here tomorrow night them sneaking reds and you turn on television make Sunday and look at me depressed they'll be interviewing some old uncle Tom Tom Indian now to be saying everything the old foos want to hear hang this him now me like a heap of reservation problem come from them young bucks them stokely running horses and wrap light clouds long as that Indian keep coming off that reservation and burning and getting him some blonde scouts and rape some of you white ladies
oh you get upset but you listen to all that Indian raising up hell this year next year you every Indian you're talking to you so I say we tired of these insults nobody know how bad insults non-volunteers to black man than me because I'm so dedicated to non-volunteers I had become a vegetarian too because I believe that gosh you're not kill covers animals too but that's my hang up now don't I don't go around preaching vegetarianism I would never knock a snake off your plate I never want you to put one on mine I don't go around preaching non-volunteers I would find more satisfaction in being killed by man and killing that man myself that's my hang up though if a man was going to kill my wife from seven kids I don't know where I could stop him will be to kill him and injure him I would not but I do not have a right to say you you got to sit by let somebody wipe out your family that
would be the route I would choose and I have a right to choose that route I would hope one day that you youngsters would create an atmosphere will we solve all our problems without killing since 1900 man has killed 90 million people in wars and if that's not enough people to kill the proof we can't sound about killing then nothing else and so I say that we tired of these insults and all we doing really is reacting to these insults now people come up to us and say how come y'all don't want to be called covered no more I come y'all don't want to be called Negro so you call us anything you want to call us but it's safer to use the word black we don't mean to put white folks in no imposition but we looked around and noticed you didn't play no games with yourself why playing with us a Jew leaves Israel today
and come to my country he's a Jew in Israel he stays a Jew when he gets him an Italian leave Italy to come to America he's an Italian over there he stays an Italian when he gets him he's John L. Irish they left Ireland it was Irish men over there they stayed Irish men when they got here we noticed you haven't played no games with yourself we both made the same trip across that Atlantic we left Africa Africans but when we got here we got to be not was a new person colourful don't play no more games with us now call me color nothing you want to play some games call yourself tear folks and so we sang we tired of these insults somewhere America got to understand she's dealing with a different black man today 20 and 30 years ago black folks in America had an empty stomach today black folks in America have a full stomach but a hungry mind and a hungry mind will not
tolerate the same thing an empty stomach did an empty stomachs deal on smell and hungry minds deal on sound and all at once this country don't sound right to us anymore five years ago four white bars burned up their draft card and within two weeks time the Senate and Congress had passed an anti draft card burning bill we haven't been able to get him to pass an anti lynching bill in a hundred years this country just told me she thinks more of a piece of cardboard she thinks of my black mommy I'm bringing to her knees for that you tell me I got to get a fair housing bill to live anywhere in my country I want to live what kind of animals are you had a white red neck rushing crack a broad stallings daughter known communist and a known Russian you ain't supposed to like neither one of them you didn't make that broad get no fair housing bill to come to my country and live anywhere she want to live why do I need widening or you got a you got a record that's where everybody laughing that's you all over the world you pass one law and say I I can't pee in the street you pass another law
and say I can't pee in the toilet when I pee in my pants you say I stink now who the fuck so you youngsters got a big job yeah I'm got much time straighten out this sick country course dig nixon show you how sick the country has a country with two hundred million people in it he get ready to pick a high mall upstanding man for the supreme court and he can't come up with nobody but a heinous worth and the sad part about it got nerve enough sad part about it got nerve enough to say a heinous worth is the most moral honest man I know and I believe that he probably is there you white kids got big job
was your mom and dad is writing a check for you going bounce 20 years from now it's a new world today are you kids coming in really white neighborhoods and these old food telling y'all about you can't integrate you can't do that 20 years from now in this world make a different chance gonna be in trouble be in trouble 10 years ago if I was working in the automobile plant detraughting one of them racers red neck crackers call me a nigger and I punch him dead in his nose you know they would have fired me but today they got to be careful about what kind of white cats they hide because they know if you call me a nigger today I might burn down the automobile plant down so for the first time white folks got to be careful about what white folks see this thing's going the other way now that's what black folks is talking about we tired of these insults oh there's a lot of white folks that believe a nigger is distinct and it's smelly it's creature ever walked the face of this earth that's a groovy hang up as long as you keep it in your own head
I'm not here today to convince you niggers don't stink I say do your own research check the records at the cosmetics industry see how many more time billions of dollars a year you white folks in America spent on deodorant and check them deodorant commercials on television see if you ever see a black arm pit and then figure it out for yourself if niggers in America is doing all the stinkin and white folks is buying all the deodorant who really stinks in my country so we said we tired of these insults oh there's a lot of white folks in this country sticking up to believe because I was born black and they was born white I'm inferior to them that's a good hang up as long as you keep it in your head and at same white cat that tell you I'm inferior to him
because I'm black and he's white he'd be the first one to tell you if I go to bed tonight with a Irish woman Italian woman a Jewish woman I can go to bed with any woman on the face of this earth and give her a baby he'd be the first one to tell you that baby gonna be a nigger my sister can go to bed with any man on the face of this earth and get a baby the baby's gonna be her is that inferior stock to you do we say we tired of these insults now white Americans tell us education's y'all's problem that ain't nothing but a cheap whitey cop out of education was the problem the Jews would own this country education is the problem you ever stop to think one day how many millions of people would be dead today on the face of this earth if it were not for blood plasma are you aware of the fact that a black American by the name of Charlie Drew infinite blood plasma that don't take my word for I check it out in your library are you also aware of the
fact that Charlie Drew bled to death and in Atlanta judge your hospital waiting room after an automobile accident because they didn't accept niggers education is my problem the man with the wisdom and the educational genius to get blood plasma to the world died from the lack of his own invention and education they have a damn thing to do with it I guess I can truthfully say that I spend about 98 percent of my time today on college campuses and for a reason a simple reason is that you young folks in America today is probably the most morally dedicated honest committed group of young people has ever lived in the history of this country born none now hope young folks in America don't have to continue to read these old right wing crack of control newspapers to find out who you are or what you all about
24 hours a day we lie to you youngsters and what's the number one lie we tell you young folks today well I don't have to tell you here 24 hours a day number one lie we tell you youngsters we say the number one problem confront in America today is the problem of air pollution the number one problem confront in America today is the problem of mall pollution this is the most morally polluted degenerate insane nation on the face of this earth born none and you young folks in America have the important job of giving America her sanity back so I say to you this evening you youngsters got a big job of course you're getting a lot of help I hope you understand how strong you are young kids prove that last year to democratic convention 15 000 hippies and hippies showed up
Chicago to change the system in the whole country went crazy it's a very important word showed up in Chicago to change a system so they got upset over change the system oh they want everybody to believe they got upset cause those kids was coming to Chicago to tear up the town you white broke no bed in that for the last 10 years white kids in this country been going to four lot of Dale Florida every spring break getting drunk tan up the whole town and ain't nobody got up tight over they just say well boys will be boys 15 000 hippies and hippies came to Chicago to change the system and that's what everybody got tight over the best thing ever happened for you young folks was democratic convention being held in Chicago because she woke up a lot of you young fools and nothing any worse to me than a young
fool because you got so long to be one all they woke you up three days after the democratic convention was over the whole establishment tried to convince you that you did not see what you saw on television it said it didn't happen it said the press created it you know it's cosegan and the rest of them food Russians and Moscow was dealing with the world as insane as America you know they could beat that Czechoslovakia rap just get on worldwide television say you didn't see it y'all said it didn't happen say we admit we sent little miniature tanks to the Czech border for the kids to play with and the cameraman blew them up to make them look like real live tanks but I tell you the old fools in Moscow rushes making the same mistake these old fools making America
they plot they little sick degenerate strategies and after they plot it they only take into consideration the reaction of the old fools and they never considered a reaction of you young kids bombs you and in russians knew they was going to hit the Czech border with them Russian tanks they knew the old Czechs was going run like hell I could just see them now be cool y'all we can live under any form of government but it never dawned on them at the young Czechoslovakia they would run not from the tanks they had run to the tanks and meet them on the Czech border and those pictures that came out of them young kids putting swats to because all those tanks gave people courage all over the world same mistake these old fools in America would make a Sunday morning you woke up and they got a tank in front of every church would allow speakers in and about to get talk going to church in America ever again it's going to be machine gun to death they know what the reaction of your mom and dad is going to be I can get him now well Jesus is everywhere we can stay home and what they don't know if they put tanks in front of every church Sunday morning in America come
Sunday morning young folks that had never been to church in their life Sunday morning would decide to go again let me say thank you very much may God bless you may need to have fun thank you we hold these troops to be self-evident that all me and I created equal and endowed our creator with certain and animal rights and when these rights are destroyed of a long period of time it is your duty to destroy our
abolish that government you you you the public television network
Series
NET Journal
Episode Number
260
Episode
Dick Gregory Is Alive and Well
Producing Organization
National Educational Television and Radio Center
Contributing Organization
Library of Congress (Washington, District of Columbia)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/512-qj77s7jv10
NOLA Code
DGAW
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Description
Episode Description
1 hour piece produced in 1970 by NET. It was originally shot in black and white.
Episode Description
The uncompromising satire of America's best-known black comedian comes to television when NET Journal presents "Dick Gregory is Alive and Well." The program is an hour-long view of Gregory, built around an ironic address on racism which he gave before a mixed audience last summer at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. While preparing for that performance Gregory recalls his early days as a comedian when he was "just up there to pay my rent," as well as the first years of the civil-rights movement when he began touring college campuses to employ "the strength of emerging youth" in a struggle against racism. He talks about the fear he felt before an appearance in the South: "I'd wake the kids and kiss them; I'd say goodbye like it could be the last time." And landing at an Alabama airport also brought reminiscences: "I used to get buster here as soon as I got off the plane ... 500 state police would be waiting." Much of the address Gregory gave in Tuscaloosa was subsequently recorded in an album titled "Dick Gregory: The Light Side, The Dark Side." His attack against racism and what he calls the moral pollution of the country included jibes at American history texts: "We're so numb we got nerve enough to teach the Indians that Columbus discovered America." And TV commercials, "I'm tired of hearing, Marge there's a white dove in your kitchen. How about hearing, Beulah, baby, there's a black crow on the biscuits." And to Northern liberal students he says: "Before you come down here and alienate your Southern racist brothers, take a black kid home with you and bug your mommy and daddy." Gregory hits constantly at a white society that shuts black people out and yet expects them to conform to its rules. In this vein he explains why the past year's "riot season" was so quite: "We got tired of stealing those bad products. This year we went underground to study the consumer reports. So this season when the riot season opens again we ain't gonna be stealing no Motorolas." On the subject of "Negro" versus "black" Gregory says: "Call us whatever you want, but it's safer for you to call us black." When other nationalities came to America they retained their identities, he says, but when Africans were brought here they became Negro or colored. "Don't play games with us, play games with yourself," he advises. "Call yourself clear folks." NET Journal -- "Dick Gregory is Alive and Well" is an NET production. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)
Episode Description
This record is part of the Comedy section of the Soul of Black Identity special collection.
Broadcast Date
1970-01-05
Asset type
Episode
Genres
Event Coverage
Topics
Performing Arts
Social Issues
Race and Ethnicity
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:58:58
Embed Code
Copy and paste this HTML to include AAPB content on your blog or webpage.
Credits
Executive Producer: McCarthy, Harry
Guest: Gregory, Dick
Producer: Moses, Harry
Producing Organization: National Educational Television and Radio Center
AAPB Contributor Holdings
Indiana University Libraries Moving Image Archive
Identifier: [request film based on title] (Indiana University)
Format: 16mm film
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2001316-1 (MAVIS Item ID)
Format: 2 inch videotape
Generation: Master
Duration: 0:58:38
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2001316-3 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Copy: Access
Color: Color
Library of Congress
Identifier: 2001316-2 (MAVIS Item ID)
Generation: Master
Color: Color
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Citations
Chicago: “NET Journal; 260; Dick Gregory Is Alive and Well,” 1970-01-05, Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-qj77s7jv10.
MLA: “NET Journal; 260; Dick Gregory Is Alive and Well.” 1970-01-05. Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-qj77s7jv10>.
APA: NET Journal; 260; Dick Gregory Is Alive and Well. Boston, MA: Library of Congress, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-512-qj77s7jv10