BLACK POWER
209
sary since runaways are held [or parents or sent to a Youth House,
which is not a technical arrest. We have an underground railway and
give the young kids new clothes, some money, and send them off to the
next stop. Last year the runaway rate in the country increased 18 per
cent. White suburban life has become a prison as strong as any ghetto.
Ten thousand of our brothers are in jails across the country for
smoking flowers. Police smash the heads of bongo players in the park.
At liberal gatherings the host says "I am glad you brought your women,
they are prettier than ours" and "you sure can dance." Longhairs are
refused service in some restaurants. In schools they are often forced
to
cut their hair. Once while I was walking in Times Square some black
guys shouted, "When you gonna get a bath?" "None of your business,
Whitey," I shot back. We all had a good laugh. The incident reminded
me of a talk I once had with a black militant who was bringing a
truckload of guns up to Roxbury about a year ago. "What about me,"
I said, "are you going to shoot me?" I was a SNCC worker at the time.
I had spent the past few years organizing in Northern ghettos, teach–
ing Freedom School in the South and helping blacks build an economic
alternative in Mississippi. He took a while to answer because we were
close friends. "Yes, even you," he said. "Maybe if I saw your SNCC
button I wouldn't, but when the shit hits the fan it's hard to see buttons.
I'd just shoot anything white."
It
was then that I decided to let my
hair grow long, and it's been growing ever since. Long hair makes us
the new niggers.
It
gives us high visibility.
It
is a symbol of rejection of
the old order.
It
is the first step towards building a new community.
It is the first step in dropping out. Resistance to the military, careers,
university bullshit, outmoded mores and split-level living is the next.
It
is the beginning of our revolution. Its outward manifestations are strange.
It is not yet understood by most black people. One group is aspiring
up and in, the other down and out. When they meet there is friction
and confusion. That is to be expected, but the friction will pass; the
police will see to that.
Diggers bring eleven trucks of food to Newark during the riot.
Longhairs in Detroit burned cars during that insurrection. Puerto Ricans
and blacks joined massive pot Smoke-Ins in Tompkins Square Park.
Everybody eats the free food served in the parks and gets clothes at
the free stores. The Jade Companions raised money for Rap Brown's
bail fund and the Visiting Mothers, a Puerto Rican group, joined our
protest over the capture of four runaways. Meanwhile, according to the
New York Times
~f
October 5th, the Army demonstrates riot control
tactics to three thousand police officials at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. The
rioters are "dressed as hippies." In Sunnyvale, California, on Christmas
