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Friends of Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) clippings, 1965-1966

1965-03-15 "NOW! Friends of SNCC Newsletter" Page 2

Monday, March 15, 1965/SNCC Newsletter _ NOW!

in the class room
learning of compassion
the radiator hissing 
-seymour gray

A SNCC Interview with Bertram Pape

Snicker: What do you think of the racial situation in the U.S. today? 
Pape: Beastly!
Snicker: What do you mean by “beastly?”
Pape: I mean there’s not enough fighting and violence
Snicker: Do you advocate violence? 
Pape: Nor particularly. I just feel they should kill each other off so that there would be more room for me to roam in the wilderness. 
Snicker: Who do you mean by “each other?”
Pape: I mean the good people and the bad people, and their struggle against each other. That is to say, the civilized man against the uncivilized man. And besides, if I could revert to the state I was in – namely cannibalism – I would eat them. If you ask me it’s all garbage. 
Snicker: Why eat them?
Pape: Why you eat them because that’s exactly what they wouldn’t do. And if you’re going to alienate them you should do it right. In eating them you mock them in their greed – their civilized cannibalism. And it’s just that greed, that cannibalism, that augments their beastly prejudices. 
Snicker: Do you equate yourself with the Negro? 
Pape: As far as I’m concerned there’s only one race – the animal race. 
Good people, that is, those that wonder, and the bad people, the sedimentary ones are only descriptive catagories under the One Race. And anybody that doesn’t believe in the One Race should be eaten.
Snicker: How do you think the Negro should react to this unfortunate situation? 
Pape: That question shows that you feel there is a difference between the Negro and the White. There isn’t, the Negro is just as greedy and beastly as the White is, so his situation is no more unfortunate than is the Whites.
Snicker: I meant to ask about the plight of the Negro of the slum, as opposed to the bourgeoisie Negro. 
Pape: They should run up a bunch of bog bill on credit and skip town.
Snicker: But where can the Negro run to? 
Pape: The next town, where he changes his name and runs up some more bills.
 Snicker: Don’t you think this would isolate the Negro even more from the main stream of American Life? 
Pape: Well if the Negro still wants to associate with “main stream of American life” who needs him. 
Snicker: What if he can’t feed his family?
Pape: Desert them. Let the tax payer feed them.
Snicker: Taxes will go up!
Pape: Good! Let’s tax them completely out of existence, who cares, bladder water on them all.
Snicker: Won’t this increase prejudice?
Pape: You must think Negroes arn’t people. Negroes have the same greedy drives as whites and they wouldn’t think of following my suggestions. I don’t think there can be any distinction made between the black bourgeoisie and the white middle class. And the only thing wrong with the poor Negro and the poor white is that they don’t get together enough. 
Snicker: Don’t you think the Negro has been kept from getting together with the white? 
Pape: All I have to say about it is that my dog is black and he eats off my plate and if the Negro wants to eat off the whiteman’s plate and can’t, then it’s good enough for him.
Snicker: Then again, where can the Negro go? 
Pape: He’ll go to the woods with the white beatdowns. And his family will live off of the white man, who’ll be working so hard to support his family and the Negroes family he won’t have time to discriminate. We’ll all be one big happy family. And in conclusion I want to say: - Negroes for America! Or, todays black will be tomorrows white. Good day.

the swaying willow
a branch touches my brow
one-too-many leaves 
-seymour gray

The Bulletin Board 
The next Friends of SNCC meeting will probably be held on March 23, and will feature a panel discussion by a group of faculty members on “Civil Rights and the Economic System,” a discussion centering about whether equality can be attained without radical changes in the present economic system. Watch “campus notes” in The Daily Iowan for exact date and time.
Friends of SNCC is currently planning a campaign to support the challenge of the Freedom Democratic Party to the regular Mississippi Congressmen. Three Iowa Democratic Congressmen (Smith, Culver, and Banstra) did not support the FDP during the vote on the “Fairness Resolution” in the opening session of the House of Representatives. Efforts will center on influencing these three Representatives by mans of letters and petitions to be circulated throughout the state. The challenge is currently in process, and is expected to become before the house for a vote in June or July.
Christus House is planning a folk-song event for the last part od March, to raise funds for SNCC. Watch for details. 

The Nigger
Continued
streets, would never have occurred to Kinf or Wilkins) to the NAACP it means a social breakthrough that would allow Negroes to eat as “nice” restaurants. To SNCC “Freedom Now” means mass power, the power to be a determining force in the whole of the American political and economic system of this country as it stands and therefore the systems must change. The middle class Negro and the white liberal alike must realize that up to now they have led a movement with largely middle class asperations – this has changed. The movement belongs to the nigger and it will be his act that totally and irrevocably changes the entire complexion of the movement. The white liberal and the Negro have attempted to assure that discrimination be done solely in the basis of class. If this is all the movement could hope for then it most assuredly would be destined to failure. 
The nigger unlike the Negro sees no future in worshiping Ghandi and/ or the dogma of nonviolence. The nigger is not fooled by platitudes because he sees no beauty in them and so the tactic of nonviolence is seen for just that – a tactic. And if he choses to use it at all it will be discarded as soon as he sees a more expedient means of achieving this ends. There seems to be an element of latent racism in the strange fact that the white man so zealously grants the Negro exclusive right to what he calls the highest order of human society, i.e., nonviolence. But the minute he wants something, i.e., “sees something worth fighting for,” he’s up with the chauvinisms, handing you a gun, me a gun etc., so that we can “fight for what’s right.” A classic example of this can be seen in the present Viet Nam conflict. The white man better realize that if he will fight for what he wants so will the black man. And the black man wants Freedom Now!

Mulslims
Other nationalists 
CORE, SNCC, the Urban League
King, Abernathy, Gray
All these and others
All these organizations and others
They pull in so many directions
Yet little is done in “good” Selma. 

I remember a young girl of 14
Her name was Selma, the prostitute,
Wino
And pusher of America
-Dan Cheeks

Saving...

Monday, March 15, 1965/SNCC Newsletter _ NOW! in the class room learning of compassion the radiator hissing -seymour gray A SNCC Interview with Bertram Pape Snicker: What do you think of the racial situation in the U.S. today? Pape: Beastly! Snicker: What do you mean by “beastly?” Pape: I mean there’s not enough fighting and violence Snicker: Do you advocate violence? Pape: Nor particularly. I just feel they should kill each other off so that there would be more room for me to roam in the wilderness. Snicker: Who do you mean by “each other?” Pape: I mean the good people and the bad people, and their struggle against each other. That is to say, the civilized man against the uncivilized man. And besides, if I could revert to the state I was in – namely cannibalism – I would eat them. If you ask me it’s all garbage. Snicker: Why eat them? Pape: Why you eat them because that’s exactly what they wouldn’t do. And if you’re going to alienate them you should do it right. In eating them you mock them in their greed – their civilized cannibalism. And it’s just that greed, that cannibalism, that augments their beastly prejudices. Snicker: Do you equate yourself with the Negro? Pape: As far as I’m concerned there’s only one race – the animal race. Good people, that is, those that wonder, and the bad people, the sedimentary ones are only descriptive catagories under the One Race. And anybody that doesn’t believe in the One Race should be eaten. Snicker: How do you think the Negro should react to this unfortunate situation? Pape: That question shows that you feel there is a difference between the Negro and the White. There isn’t, the Negro is just as greedy and beastly as the White is, so his situation is no more unfortunate than is the Whites. Snicker: I meant to ask about the plight of the Negro of the slum, as opposed to the bourgeoisie Negro. Pape: They should run up a bunch of bog bill on credit and skip town. Snicker: But where can the Negro run to? Pape: The next town, where he changes his name and runs up some more bills. Snicker: Don’t you think this would isolate the Negro even more from the main stream of American Life? Pape: Well if the Negro still wants to associate with “main stream of American life” who needs him. Snicker: What if he can’t feed his family? Pape: Desert them. Let the tax payer feed them. Snicker: Taxes will go up! Pape: Good! Let’s tax them completely out of existence, who cares, bladder water on them all. Snicker: Won’t this increase prejudice? Pape: You must think Negroes arn’t people. Negroes have the same greedy drives as whites and they wouldn’t think of following my suggestions. I don’t think there can be any distinction made between the black bourgeoisie and the white middle class. And the only thing wrong with the poor Negro and the poor white is that they don’t get together enough. Snicker: Don’t you think the Negro has been kept from getting together with the white? Pape: All I have to say about it is that my dog is black and he eats off my plate and if the Negro wants to eat off the whiteman’s plate and can’t, then it’s good enough for him. Snicker: Then again, where can the Negro go? Pape: He’ll go to the woods with the white beatdowns. And his family will live off of the white man, who’ll be working so hard to support his family and the Negroes family he won’t have time to discriminate. We’ll all be one big happy family. And in conclusion I want to say: - Negroes for America! Or, todays black will be tomorrows white. Good day. the swaying willow a branch touches my brow one-too-many leaves -seymour gray The Bulletin Board The next Friends of SNCC meeting will probably be held on March 23, and will feature a panel discussion by a group of faculty members on “Civil Rights and the Economic System,” a discussion centering about whether equality can be attained without radical changes in the present economic system. Watch “campus notes” in The Daily Iowan for exact date and time. Friends of SNCC is currently planning a campaign to support the challenge of the Freedom Democratic Party to the regular Mississippi Congressmen. Three Iowa Democratic Congressmen (Smith, Culver, and Banstra) did not support the FDP during the vote on the “Fairness Resolution” in the opening session of the House of Representatives. Efforts will center on influencing these three Representatives by mans of letters and petitions to be circulated throughout the state. The challenge is currently in process, and is expected to become before the house for a vote in June or July. Christus House is planning a folk-song event for the last part od March, to raise funds for SNCC. Watch for details. The Nigger Continued streets, would never have occurred to Kinf or Wilkins) to the NAACP it means a social breakthrough that would allow Negroes to eat as “nice” restaurants. To SNCC “Freedom Now” means mass power, the power to be a determining force in the whole of the American political and economic system of this country as it stands and therefore the systems must change. The middle class Negro and the white liberal alike must realize that up to now they have led a movement with largely middle class asperations – this has changed. The movement belongs to the nigger and it will be his act that totally and irrevocably changes the entire complexion of the movement. The white liberal and the Negro have attempted to assure that discrimination be done solely in the basis of class. If this is all the movement could hope for then it most assuredly would be destined to failure. The nigger unlike the Negro sees no future in worshiping Ghandi and/ or the dogma of nonviolence. The nigger is not fooled by platitudes because he sees no beauty in them and so the tactic of nonviolence is seen for just that – a tactic. And if he choses to use it at all it will be discarded as soon as he sees a more expedient means of achieving this ends. There seems to be an element of latent racism in the strange fact that the white man so zealously grants the Negro exclusive right to what he calls the highest order of human society, i.e., nonviolence. But the minute he wants something, i.e., “sees something worth fighting for,” he’s up with the chauvinisms, handing you a gun, me a gun etc., so that we can “fight for what’s right.” A classic example of this can be seen in the present Viet Nam conflict. The white man better realize that if he will fight for what he wants so will the black man. And the black man wants Freedom Now! Mulslims Other nationalists CORE, SNCC, the Urban League King, Abernathy, Gray All these and others All these organizations and others They pull in so many directions Yet little is done in “good” Selma. I remember a young girl of 14 Her name was Selma, the prostitute, Wino And pusher of America -Dan Cheeks