Newspaper Page Text
Spelman
Spotlight
THE VOICE OF BLACK WOMANHOOD
VOLUME XXXII NO. 2
Atlanta, Georgia
October, 1988
Interview With Tony Brown
Reveals Economic Independence
As Key To Freedom
By M. Joette Harland
What started out as a meeting at Mrs.
Winner’s “on a mission,” ended in one of
the most thought-provoking days I have
known. Some way or another, I had man
aged up until now to be for the most part,
unacquainted with Tony Brown. I had
heard of Tony Brown’s Journal and had
even seen a few of his shows, but he was
not someone I watched on television on a
regular basis. Because of the excitement
of some of the students due to his ex
pected speech in the M.L.K. Chapel at
Morehouse College, I got more excited. I
was eager to see what he was all about
and had anticipated his arrival for some
time prior to his speech.
A group of students, many of whom
were members of the NAACP chapter at
Morehouse, packed into two cars to get
Mr. Brown at the airport. When we first
got there, he had not arrived. As the mi
nutes passed, the anticipation mounted.
When the moment finally came, passen
gers were getting off the plane. With
them, I noticed a man short in stature,
who was slender and casually dressed.
Although my eyes were fixed a little
higher to see a taller man, and trained to
expect a man in a suit, I immediately
knew who Tony Brown was when I saw
him. I had seen him on press releases all
week, and on his show as well. The other
students and I introduced ourselves.
As we walked through the concourse
onto the airport shuttle and to the car, we
all talked a great deal about many issues
including the economic independence and
mental independence of African-Amer
icans. In admiration, I listened to the
loud, clear, articulate voice which
seemed to command everyone’s attention
around us. As we got closer to the car, I
got very nervous. I had committed myself
along with another student, to interview
ing Mr. Brown in the car and at the hotel.
By the time we began to interview him,
however, I became more at ease in the
company of the down-to-earth, easily ap
proachable, and very brilliant man. I
found that he does not have abilities that
far exceed the abilities of other African-
Americans. He thinks - just uses plain old
common sense - something that not all of
us make a usual practice of. He simply
uses what he has - his mind - and he does
a good job of it. Here is some of what
Tony Brown had to say:
Q. How does your Buy Freedom plan
work?
A. We call it Buy Freedom because
many of us are interested in working
for acceptance and we wanted to
distinguish what freedom is. Free
dom is controlling your neighborhood.
Freedom is feeding yourself. Freedom
is determining who the public officials
are who represent you. Freedom is
determining how the money is spent
and the bank where you deposit your
money. I want to elevate our stmggle
to freedom, not a civil rights struggle.
We won the civil rights stmggle. Our
problem now is not staying in a hotel,
being able to fly on an airplane, or
buying a home. Our problem now is
having the money to do these things.
Wealth is equal to power, and power is
equal to freedom in all forms. If you
don’t have wealth, you won’t have
power. And if you don’t have power,
you won’t have freedom.
Q. In the future, how would you like your
show to be? Will there be any
changes? What do you expect it to be
like in future years?
A. I have been on national television for
eighteen years. I am going into my
nineteenth season. I have never done
the same thing two years in a row. I
always will with whatever subject I
deal with, whether it is AIDS, what is
in the movies, economic development,
family - there will always be an
aspect of that subject which deals with
how that subject impacts on us uni
quely as a people.
Q. Will Tony Brown’s Journal enable
minorities and expecially minority
students to help in the production of
your show?
A. No. I do not hire minorities. I am not
a minority. I am Black. The very
minute you call yourself a minority,
you are calling yourself a nigger.
White people have taught us to think
that we are eighty percent of the
world population. I hire Black people.
All of my staff is Black.
Q. In lieu of your exemplary concern for
African-Americans, what do you see
yourself doing through your leader
ship in future years?
A. I really do not see myself as a leader,
although I think anyone who serves
leads. I am not trying to sound altru
istic. All of us are human. We all
need comfort. We all need some
applause and recognition. But I really
have an aviding faith in the fact that
my people have tremendous resources
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