1980s NEWS
INSERT INTERVIEW CONTINUED:
Robert Lipsyte:
Greg, Well, what what's the the interface in terms of whose responsibility? I mean, you're talking about the CIA and the White House? What about individual responsibility to clean up their own act?
Dick Gregory:
This is why a show like this is so good. You know, we've been misused in this country for so long. People, that the one good thing about an America is, we know our place, we can run around and talk about being free and laugh about being free. But we know we've been a mess with the CIA. I mean, here, The New York Times and The Washington Post, they can run stories, but to this day, that Pan Am Flight 103 that was blown out of the sky, the American people have been told it was eight CIA agents on that plane that died. We know about 35 students from Syracuse was on the plane, which was kind of outrageous to me, because that same night, the plane crashedm Syracuse played a basketball game.
Robert Lipsyte:
Well, Who told you that there were eight CIA agents on board that?
Dick Gregory:
Well, I heard it from looking at the Foreign Press. But thank God, the Pittsburgh Press -the morning paper in Pittsburgh is the first one that broke the story. It's like the the the what was it, the Houston Post was the first.
Robert Lipsyte:
So what does it mean to you?
Dick Gregory :
It means that as long as big time powerful people is doing it, we are wimps, we will sit back and tolerate it. I'm 57. I as a youngster, I went to the movies to see Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront about how the Mafia had taken over the New York docks. I'm 57 years old, now, they still got the New York docks, and the FBI haven't come in here to take them back. And the American people haven't demanded it, because, you know, when we mess with the Mafia, they will kill you. And as long as is weak folks, as long as is poor folks, we'll mess with them when it becomes powerful. But let me say this, education is not power. Money is not power. Information is power. And the more information the American people get, the more they'll be outraged. And the more they will channel that into making changes.
Robert Lipsyte:
Where are they going to get this information from?
Dick Gregory:
Shows like this. I mean, we can we can inform people now with television, like never before in the history of the planet. For instance, I mean, I remember there was a time that if you loved a teacher, you would take her a apple. And now if you hate a teacher, you take a apple with all those chemicals in it. I mean, your teacher see you walking in with a Apple that teacher flunk you! And so, but last year, we found out that they were putting chemicals on apples that was killing us. And the federal government said to the industry, we'll give you a year, and the people rose up and said UhUh we'll wait a year for we buy the apples, and they took it out immediately.
Robert Lipsyte :
What are some of the things we need to know?
Dick Gregory:
We now we need to know basically about the human body the beauty of the human body. We need to know that in order for me to sit here and hate you because you white that takes the negative electron to do that. negative electrons put acid on my brain
Robert Lipsyte :
I find that very abstract. I don't get that.
Dick Gregory:
Well, most folks find it abstract because we so comfortable with. But once you realize, well let me break it down. Let me get down. If I came in today with a pocket full of horse manure to throw on you because you white and I don't like you, whose pockets stunk are they yours or mine. Okay, now I've had this horse manure in my pocket for three days. I've been around my wife, my family and my friends, okay, they have had to smell the nastiness of this filth that I'm harboring for you. Now even when I throw it on you immediately you're going to take it off. So let me back up. horsemanure in my pocket to throw on you because I hate you makes my pocket stink. The same way is hatred I have in my brain for you because I hate you makes my mind stink, and my family is exposed to a stinky mind the same way they expose to a stinky pocket. And if I had a choice of a stinky pocket or stinky mind, I take the stinky pocket because I can throw this coat away. And so the number one problem that we are confronted with, we should really start learning about. You see the problem is, we hear about racism. We hear about sexism, but we don't know what effect it has on the human body. But if someone actually told me that in order for me to step on your head, to keep you down, you determine how far this left legs gonna move, I might think twice before I try to hold you down. See, we listened to words for so long. And, and I think now we are ready to be a information nation. And I will tell you that 10 years from now, the shows we will be seeing on television won't be what we looking at now, won't be all this silliness, it's going to be information. And the network's are going to stand in line to fight to see who, because once I get empowered with information, I mean, I would love to be able to turn on a cable station
Robert Lipsyte:
What's going to change that. I mean, people seem to prefer entertainment.