I think the potential is going to be more for people doing things themselves more than relying on the courts. And also, the situation in terms of the growing gap between those who have and those who don’t is not limited to blacks. Technological changes are putting not only low-skilled working people out of work, but increasingly highly skilled professional people as well. That’s certainly not limited to blacks. And at some point our government at every level is going to have to start addressing these things. And it will then be the role of blacks and their leadership to insure that they don’t get left out entirely. CSQ: What are your views on Louis Farrakhan? Bell: In the black communities, some of us have known Farrakhan, or known of him, for twenty years. And it was only the media that kind of built things. One of the things he complained about bitterly—I’m not going to defend every statement he’s made—but I certainly would defend the . fact that an awful lot of the statements that he’s made have been ripped out of context. The whole thrust of the media has not been toward objectivity, but look at what this dangerous person has said now. But based on how black people have been treated in this country, white folk need to fall down on their knees every night and thank their god that there aren’t a hundred thousand Farrakhans running about in this society. Instead of trying to shuff one off, they need to wonder what they can do to change the conditions that make it possible, and necessary, for people like Farrakhan to rise up. The main root problem for blacks in America is white folks. Not everybody, but the whole structure that—by the time the well-meaning white parents tell their five-year-old child that all people are the same without regard to race, color, religion, it’s too late. Simply because of what the child has seen on television, pictures he’s seen in the papers. Who are the people who come in and are treated well in that household? Who comes in and does the scrubbing of the floors? It’s too late. It’s almost like the natural order of things and any departure from that is an abnormality. And I told my faculty , * r- * when I came,"You might want to think this over,” because to have a black person in charge of a mainly white institution was abnormal in the society. So it’s not the Farrakhan’s we have to look at. It’s all of the processes of racism that are still here. So a part of the opposition says, “How does he dare? Who does he think he is?" Because he’s black. Because basically he’s telling the truth. The group that he split off from with the Muslims had an awful lot of success with prisoners by first recognizing that the blacks’ most serious problem is self- hate, and getting them to lift out the hate from themselves and transpose it over on white people. Now that’s not the ideal for many of us, but I have to tell that it worked. And until someone comes up with something better, the Farrakhans are going to have an awful lot of followers. I just don’t think we have forever to move toward a meaningful resolution of our racial problems. We need to have Jesse Jackson, if not as Secretary of State, as some kind of special secretary of state right now. Now I know they say, who are those crazy Arabs and those crazy starving Africans? What threat—why do we have to treat them in other than a patronizing, domineering way? People who are down are not always going to be down. Why should we treat the Central Americans the way humans should be treated? Legitimate governments in Cuba and Nicaragua. Why shouldn’t we undermine them the way we’ve been doing for a hundred years, to be perfectly frank? And the fact is that the times have changed and there just isn’t very much recognition of it. The country has to hope that when they finally recognize that blacks like Jesse Jackson, who are still willing to represent this country and do in regard to these third world countries virtually what no white can do, that when they finally come to realize how valuable they are, that the Jesse Jacksons still want to play that role. It all seems crazy now, but I think in a very few years it will not be so crazy. Marcia Mint Danab is a radio producer living in Eugene. This exclusive interview is her first contribution to the CSQ. Richard J. Brown is a free-lance photographer living in Portland. Many of these photos originally appeared in the Portland Observor. 885 McKinley • Eugene, Oregon 97402 Sweet Dreams Futon. Six-inch thick Japanese beds, all cotton or with two- inch foam cores. Send $2 for our catalogue of sweet dreams at sweet prices. Or come visit! 400 SW 2nd. Portland 97204 516 15th Ave. East, Seattle 98112 Hours: Mon-Fri I l-6/Thurs 11-7/Sat 11-5 N ORT H MM E 5 T FUTON C O M P A N V 22 Clinton St. Quarterly
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NTc4NTAz