DOES THE MOVEMENT HARBOR A KLOSET

I did not invent racism, and I know that no one in the Greater New York Area started it either, but the perpetuation of this way of life and its advantages are not on my side. For that reason, I feel that the solution to this problem of white racism should begin with white people.

My question is, when do you start studying your racism, because when you do, then I can come out to play with you. The racism in the lesbian community is the same as the stuff in academia, in corporate politics, in government and business, in Bloomingdale's and on the streets. The same racist ways of doing things separate us. That is the reason why Third World people stay away, and if white women want to get beyond that question, they have the tools for doing it. The same techniques that. are used to deal with sexism can be applied to racism.

If white women want to deal with racism, they most certainly do not need me to direct the discussion. I would like to see a workshop entitled, "How Have We Benefited From Racism?" or "Consciousness Raising Group Being Formed: Dealing with your anger at growing up in a racist society."

A persistent question that white minorities come up with is, "I am a My foremothers slaved in this country to make something, and besides, look at Beverly Johnson and all the scholarship money and affirmative action programs." answer to that is, look at your own experience as a

and see parallels; and then take another look and acknowledge that your foremothers and my foremother did not have the same opportunities.

As for Beverly Johnson, being the token on the cover of Vogue means that the chances of there being another one anytime soon are very, very slim. All the supposed affirmative action that has many people feeling gypped has somehow managed to widen the economic gap between the races. "Affirmative Action" has pushed third world women farther down the ladder, third world men on top of us; white women top them; and white men have all the goodies. Third World people are supposed to be benefiting in dollars and cents, but the facts show that we still have next to nothing.

Racism is an age old buffer for the fact of life that we are all cheated out of our hard-earned money. If anyone is ever going to discuss racism, she is going to have to talk about money. The admission price to the friendly neighborhood bar on West 4th Street has plenty to do with the underlying reality of racism. I do not "hate the white man" or want to kill at the thought of "rich white people". I frankly do not go around thinking about white people. I do think about paying my rent, my kids, going to school, and how my friends are keeping. Whatever energies I have, I have to put them out for surviving on a day to day basis. I have to pay the bills and part of any typing job is having to get along with white people. If my white co-workers did not make it necessary for me to spend energy fending off their racism, I would be more inclined to struggle with them on other matters.

I do not need all racists to die instantly, but I do want the money I am prevented from getting because of racism. Most of the people I deal with are struggling with a piddling check from their 9 5 or from the state. That takes a lot of effort, so people are very discriminating about where they choose to spend their energy and those few extra cents.

If we want to talk about uniting women, opening remarks have to take on the oppressor's nature.. Minority women (by race, economic status, affectional preference or what have you) have been ripped and conned over and over because an honest groundwork is never laid out. Politics has to be worked with coalitions, but before coalitions can work, majority people white people -have to do their homework,.. ➡

Page 4/What She Wants/March, 1978

This means a lot of groups meeting for a long time, not just at a once-a-year conference. Racism and it could be any oppression you want to name is the racist's problem. It is white people's work to take care of it.

This sounds strange to hear and hard to get to, but take an example. In a race with the Bionic Woman, I will lose, not because of any inadequacy on my part. She is at an advantage because she is bionic. I am not "underdeveloped"; in fact, I am traditionally very well educated. I am overqualified for my job, and know how to go about running my life. When a bionic woman deludes herself into thinking that she is just average, that creates the problem. That is what it is with majority persons. They forget that the advantages are theirs.

This situation used to be called, "The Negro Problem". The name "racism" corrects the focus, but the point still has not come all the way home.

There is nothing wrong within me. I am not the one with the underlying problem. White people have to study their own implants, their advantages in the race. How can I tell you about what it is to be bionic? I don't have an implant. That is your home. work to examine and root out in order for us to meet half way.

The lack of third world visibility is a function of needing to be with ourselves. We need each other as measuring points and mirrors. We do not have museums with black people that show us what we really look like. We have to be together to know who we are in living color and to reinforce ourselves after the drain of survival work. We are also involved in our liberation work. Do not assume that people are not busy because you do not see them in your part of town. Most people are loaded with work and we do not have a lot of time for other things. We choose to hang with each other for our needs, not for the sake of being separate.

Interview WITH

The following interview with Joan Little was conducted by a Liberation News Service staff member in Brooklyn, New York, on February 7. At the time of the interview, Little was fighting extradition back to North Carolina from New York City.

In the interview, Little talks about some of the experiences that drove her to flee North Carolina and to fight against being shipped back to complete her jail term there. She tells what it was like growing up in the South and describes the harassment she faced from prison officials after she was acquitted of charges of murdering a white prison guard.

On February 22, two weeks after this interview was conducted, New York Governor Hugh Carey signed the extradition papers for Little's return to North Carolina.

What was it like growing up in the South as a Black woman?

Growing up in Washington (North Carolina) really was very prejudiced. It was prejudiced in growing up and it's that way now.

The school system didn't even become integrated until three or four years ago. It used to be so down.

Joan

They had Washington High School for whites and P. S. Jones High School for blacks. And they used to do things like take all the new books and send them to Washington High School first. Then the next year or later they would send the same books to P.S. Jones.

When they did integrate, what they did was change the school's name (of P.S. Jones) all the way around. The school was named after this black man. Then they changed it to Washington Elementary School. A lot of black people got upset behind that because they were erasing the black heritage, and that school had been there for so long. Just because they integrated, the whites came over and gave it the name they wanted to. And we had been asking for a gym for a long time and they said the school system didn't have any money. Then when they integrated the school we got a brand new gym and everything.

When you grow up in an environment you adapt to it and you don't know the true meanings of what is really happening because you're so used to looking at what you see around you all the time. In Washington, during the murder trial the older black people sat around and said, "We support Joan. It was wrong that this came down.... .." But you think they would stand up to one of those white folks and say that? No, they stand a chance of getting their house blown up or anything! They know they got to live there and if it gets back downtown, they're going to be harassed and what not.

What really changed my mind, what really helped me see what racism was, was when my mother sent me out of Washington when I was nine and sent me up here into New York to visit my father. I was so naive, if I saw a white woman or a man I would just immediately submit to them.

Hey, this is all that I had seen. I remember my mommy going out to clean house and when they came to pick her up, this white woman would come and she was like this big woman. And the black woman that cleans the house, she can't get in the front seat, she got to sit in the back. This immediately shows that, "Hey, you are my worker." It's another form of slave labor, you understand.

And when I came up here, my father took me downtown to Brooklyn on Dekalb Avenue and I saw these caucasians and blacks hooked up together, I was staring at them and my father kept hunching me and saying, "Don't do that." I said, "What are they doing together?" And he said, "This is New York City and that happens every day." I said, "Something that happens every day? You mean the police ain't going to come and arrest them for it?"

I stayed up here three years and when I went back