Portland Observer, March 2, 1963 Page 3
Gregory: Liberation will not be gained by the condition of our hair
by Landa Duke
Grass root News, N. I T — Comic
relief, political analysis and the dis­
semblance o f historical myths
visited Portland in the form of Dick
Gregory as W illam ette University
honored Black History Month. ‘ ‘ I
don't understand black folks' recent
fascination with dogs. Why do we
need these dogs in the ghetto? To
guard two blouses! Now, you lock
that dog up for three days and then
let it go outside and play with the
children. You will find out what I'm
saying is true. A dog is a dog is a
dog.”
In the late 1990s Gregory came to
the fo re fro n t o f the civil rights
movement. From a track star to a
D ick G reg o ry apeaka to in m a ta a o f O reg o n S te te P e n ite n tie ry .
(P h o to R ich ard J. B ro w n )
stand-up comic, Gregory became a
write-in candidate for the Presiden­
cy in 196« He explains why the fire
o f two decades went out: " T h e
movement is still there. It never
changed. But black folks* priorities
did. Last year in America we did
one-hundred-and-fifty billion dol­
lars worth of cash business with an
economy in shambles. I f we were a
separate nation we would rank fifth
or sixth.
“ When you put that much money
in the hands o f people whom the
system has run crazy they will buy
bubble gum, various kinds o f junk
and doo-wop records. We are in a
society that thinks more about a rt­
ists than liberation. The problem is
we spend all that money on records
and L .P .s . When the come down
comes down we ain't going to run to
the Jackson Five. We spent 62 m il­
lion dollars last year on hair condi­
tioners. Liberation w ill not be
gained by the condition of our hair,
but the condition of our minds.”
Another example o f misplaced
priorities in Gregory's opinion is the
esteem black folks place on black
movie stars and athletes. "Name one
country an athlete ever liberated.
It ’s all a game Poor little Herschel
Walker is so dumb he don't know if
he signed a contract or not. He's
down there in that old racist school
who haven't graduated five black
athletes since 1971. I have to h a lf­
way point the finger at black
women. Somewhere, black women
are going to have to lean over to
their sons and tell them, We are no
longer raising black gladiators for
white racist institutions. Elijah M u ­
hammad never talked about a sports
program. He taught love for self,
your brother and sister. This
worked and not sports.”
Dick Gregory belongs to a very
unique group o f individuals who
didn't sell their beliefs or alter their
principles when it became "uncool"
to involve in the struggle. But boys
like Eldridge Cleaver d id . " T h e
main thing you must remember
about Cleaver is he went to jail for
raping a 68-year-old black woman.
How black folks ever accepted him
in a leadership position was stupid
in the first place. No black person in
his right mind can read Soui On le t
and not know it was w ritten by a
white woman. When that boy left
this country and jum ped bail his
book royalties were never cut o ff.
So, that ought to tell you who he
was."
Gregory was around during the
street violence o f the I960» How
does he feel about the riots that oc­
curred in the '60s "B la c k folks
never explode because o f lack o f
food or no jobs. Every incident in
the '60s where a town went up in
smoke followed the form ula o f a
cop in a ghetto dwelling I f being
poor and hungry made black folks
explode then every town in the na­
tion would be filled with smoke.
What strikes the match is the sense
less killings in a com m unity that
isn't going to tolerate it.”
The mayor's election in Chicago
makes no never mind to him be
cause the battles Brother Washing
ton faces are just beginning. " I wor­
ry about what went down in Chica­
go because something is wrong
when a Republican administration
sends a federal agency into Chicago
to supervise a Democratic primary
where they don’ t give a damn who
wins or not. The Republicans can
depend on white racists leaving the
Democratic party for the first time
to put in a Republican mayor. Un
der no other circumstances does it
make sense that this administration
would send in those many poll
watchers unless it is something big­
ger going on than what they are tell­
ing you.”
Gregory feels once black people
straighten out their priorities our
real power as a group in this country
will exist. "Y ou can't blame Ronald
Reagan for the bad condition of
black folks in this country. People
give you what you demand. I f I saw
how black folks were spending their
money, I wouldn't give you nothing
either. As long as you can keep up
disunity and distrust, they got you.
As long as black folks complain that
the Urban League is too while and
not how white cocaine is, then we
will stay in trouble."
During Dick Gregory's visit in Sa­
lem he managed to make the time to
talk to the brothers down at the Ore­
gon State Penitentiary. " I wonder
how long it will lake black folks and
white folks to see the tricks and
games that have been run on us. I
wish I could say the problem was
white folks. If all white folks disap­
peared from the planet E arth we
would still have the same problems.
If all the black folks disappeared at
this moment white folks would
wake up tomorrow with the same
problems too The problem iw black
folks and while folks being manipu­
lated into being ungodly, unethical
and hooked in to a bunch o f iim s
that neither one o f us believes. I f
you while folks think you are safe
because you are white, you better
look at Kent State. There were no
black folks in the crowd so they
can't even make out like they were
shooting at n....... s and hit white
folks by mistake."
Gregory also analyzed the defeat
o f the E .R .A . and the W om en's
Liberation Movment. " It took the
white woman two hundred years to
locate her oppressor and she found
out she was sleeping with him. I was
so depressed when the E R A. failed
because I figured if that while boy
a in 't willing to liberate his own
mama, I know my mama is in
trouble.”
Dick Gregory left the inmates at
O .S .P . with this message. " Y o u
have the power within yourself to
change. Know what you are looking
at when you look in the mirror. Not
only are you looking at one o f the
finest things in the universe, but you
are the universe. I want to leave you
with these two words: discipline and
unity. If all you in this institution
can come together and love one
another, it w ill be better fo r you
once you leave. You can sit here and
talk about cracker/honky this and
cracker/honky that. But when you
leave here society is going to treat
you all the same; as convicts. You
got to learn to respect one another.
If you can't look at each other and
see that God force that is locked in­
side, then you are in trouble. You
need to get out o f trouble with
love."
Harrington advocates bottom-up control, responsibility
by Bob Lothian
"W e are in a crisis more serious,
more radical and more problematic
than any in the last 100 years,” said
Michael Harrington, national chair­
person of Democratic Socialists of
Anna isa, io a capacity Sunday night
audience at St. Andrews C om m u­
nity Center.
Harrington, author o f The Other
America, a book which influenced
the "W a r on Poverty” of the Ken­
nedy-Johnson years, said the demo­
cratic-socialist alternative involves
"changing the Democratic Parly
from the bottom up” so that it can
be the vehicle for radical reform ne­
cessary to bring America out of the
crisis.
While concentrating on econom­
ics, Harrington also mentioned how
DSA is appealing to and involving
black people. With input from DSA
member Ron Dellums, for instance,
the Congressional Black Caucus has
put together an innovative tax plan
for funding solutions to the prob­
lems faced by poor Americans.
Harrington said his organization
also supplied volunteers to help with
Congressman Harold Washington's
primary election victory over Chica­
go's incumbent mayor Jane Byrne.
" I f Washington loses in Chicago,"
said H arrington, " it will be a tr i­
umph for racism. I f he wins it will
be a new departure for American
politics.”
Washington asked for and re­
ceived D S A ’ s endorsement, said
Harrington, and up to 100 DSA vol­
unteers spent 25 hours or more cam­
paigning. They helped register
100,000 black people, and Harring­
ton said that "bringing those voters
in could transform society."
Harrington said that DSA has re­
cruited more black people in the last
six months than ever before.
He said he was not aware of Port­
land's District 18 election last fall,
however, where a while candidate,
Ed Leek (who introduced Harring­
ton's speech), won against several
black candidates in largcly-black
uisirict 18. " I will not say that in all
situations that one should automati­
cally support a black candidate," he
said, and described a situation in
Chicago where several "b ad ” black
candidates were part o f the Daley
machine.
Most o f H arrington's talk cov­
ered the current economic crisis, a
crisis more serious than than of the
1930s, he said, because the "w orld
economy is being rearranged.”
Enormous trends are responsible
for this rearrangement, he said, in­
cluding internationalization of the
American economy and a transfor­
mation of the world's division of la­
bor.
"Conglomeration” — smaller cor­
porations being swallowed by larger
corporation— is another indication
of the seriousness o f the crisis, he
said. Enormous corporate control
over the economy means that com
panies can foment "s h o rta g e s ,"
raise prices at will and pick up and
leave a community stranded when
market conditions im prove else­
where.
Also, he said, the "h ig h tech
re v o lu tio n " is transform ing the
nature o f work, and causing a de­
cline in living standards by as much
as half for those workers thrown out
of jobs in basic industry now going
into electronics.
The crisis runs deeper than Rea
gan, said Harrington, and just get­
ting him out o f office is not the en­
tire solution. Also, he said, the
blame is not to be laid at the feet of
those on welfare, or foreign work-
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The U.S. is the "meanest country
in the w o rld ," he said, devoting
only 14 percent of its G N P to social
programs, compared with West
Germany's 30 percent. Harrington
said thai American workers need to
realize that Japanese workers are
not responsible for their troubles.
Rather, he said, the real culprits are
the huge conglomerates—General
Motors, IB M , IT T and the oil car­
tels who transfer capital around the
world at will.
What is needed, said Harrington,
is a new politics which offers solu­
tions " to the left o f the possible"
beyond the traditional liberalism of
the Democratic Party. " I think we
have to think radical," he said.
H arrington's group is working
within the Democratic Party, influ­
encing the platform and running the
candidates, even though, in his
words, " if you say that some of the
worst people in the U.S. are demo­
crats I would agree with you— ra ­
cists, union busters, sexists, cold
w a rrio rs ." But it also contains
"some of the best," he said.
" I think we have to be truly
radical," said Harrington, and not
go “ where the people should be, but
where they are.”
High on DSA's list of radical sol­
utions to the crisis is "b ottom -up
planning," he said, which relies on
the intelligence and unlocks the pro­
ductive capacity o f the American
workforce. "W e have to say that in­
vestment is too important to be de­
cided in corporate boardroom s...
the decision making process must be
democratized."
Also necessary is legislation which
requires a company to give its work­
ers and the community two years
notice before closing Irresponsible
companies should lose all tax deduc­
tions and incentives, he said, while
those (hai move into an area of high
unemployment should be given tax
subsidies.
New industries need to be created,
said Harrington, and some old ones
rebuilt. The nation’s railroads could
be made as good as those in Japan
and Europe by the year 2,000, he
said, and millions put to work on
this project alone.
Internationally “ the freeze move­
ment is the most im portant thing
that has happened in a long tim e,"
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said Harrington," becaue it is a ina
jority movement which puls the atti­
tude of "back down" from nuclear
confrontation in the mainstream of
American politics.
When the U.S. supports dictators
like the Shah of Iran and Somoza in
Nicaragua, that is "n atio n al insc-
curity,” said Harrington Real na
tional security would be served by
reaching out to the democratic
movements and governments of La­
tin America and Africa, he said.
Harrington left his audience with
a vision. " W h a t we are trying to
do,"he said, "is increase the control
of those on the bottom over institu­
tions that weigh them down from
the top
an ideal whereby we re­
move all those limits on the human
condition
in which every man,
woman and child will choose their
own hte and not have it p ro ­
grammed for them.”
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