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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 (Continued on Page 3)