UNDERSTANDING THE RIOTS / PART 3 : WITNESS TO RAGE : SURVIVORS : ‘Everybody is pointin’ their finger at everybody.’

It didn’t get very hot over here in Watts, but we didn’t have too much left anyway. We as black people in this community have nothing to protect.

Some of us got our little house and nothing else. If the government decided to put a freeway right through our living room, they’ll put it through and don’t ask no questions.

My post office just got burned on 120th, so I don’t know where my mail is. I came here 33 years ago from Little Rock, Ark., with my five kids. I got on a train on a Monday and Wednesday evening, at 5 o’clock, I got off the train here in Los Angeles. Next Monday morning at 7 o’clock, I went to work at the linen company.

I worked in laundries for 23 years. Had my babies and went right on back to work. And I was good at what I was doing. I was a shirt iron operator. I did the sleeves and the front. And I could iron 150 shirts an hour.

I haven’t had no lights over here since 8 o’clock night before last. The street lights came on sometime this morning, but my house lights are still off. I’m about to lose what I got in my freezer. But the man told me yesterday don’t look for no lights. Because of fires, I guess.

Well they had two or three fires up the street from me. And they knocked over some liquor store and burned up the Korean store on the corner. I’m not angry about that.

Before the Watts riot, you had liquor stores in this community owned by Jews, but black folks worked in them, even ran some of them. But after the Watts riot they left. Now the Koreans run the liquor store and don’t let no black people work in there, and they treat black people like they’re dogs.

I stopped my grandchildren from going to the little Korean store up on the corner. They was talking to them like they was bad. And if the kids go in, like with their pennies and nickels and things, they don’t want to sell them the candy. So, I stopped them from going--especially after the woman shot the little girl in the back of the head. Like my father always said, “One way to stay out of the river is to stay off the bank.”

I wonder whether things will be different now than they were after Watts. The folks who saw the change after Watts were the ones who didn’t live here, who came, got the money, and went back to their own neighborhoods after 5 o’clock in the evening.

Nowadays, it seems to me, the places where the government spends the most money it’s really not doing the community any good. They bring people in, make big salaries for them, and give us the services. They don’t share the money.

The little 15-year-old boy that is selling drugs and stuff, and you got a summer job for him, and he works all the summer for $260. And then for him to get the job, his mama got to have his birth certificate. She got to prove whether she’s on welfare or not. Then they start wanting to take part of that, if she’s on welfare. If he works during the summer, they want to take that out of her check, you see.

So if he can see where he can go make a run and make him $200-$300 a day, so what do you think he’s going to do? He’s going to take the money and make the run. I think it’s a shame that a 15- or even a 20-year-old would have to do that.

I keep four of my grandchildren. Nowadays, welfare’s down to $794 for a family of four. So, the stories about people having children to give them more money is ridiculous. But the governor wants to cut welfare checks right about 25%. If you look at what people get now according to size of family, and the cost of living, they’re not getting enough in the first place.

He wants people to get jobs. What kind of jobs? How many jobs open down at The Times?

I got a couple of kids qualified, that probably could work there. You say there’s a hiring freeze? If they’re freezing at The Times, don’t you think it’s freezing up the street, around the corner? A lot of the old educated, white folk are out of jobs, too, ‘cause the plants are closed down, or they moved them overseas.

I worked in the laundry for 23 years. I had to go on welfare in 1963 because of diabetes. I was on it for seven years. In ‘71, I went back to work, and I just retired from the city in 1987.

I raised six children of my own. They done pretty well. They come up in the housing project.

Everybody is pointin’ their finger at everybody. Welfare is not responsible for the riots. I’ve just been listenin’ to the news. They all come down because this is an election year and everybody’s out there running. They come to the war-torn area, they claim, to see what can be done and nothin’s changed since 1965.

It’s all based on a lot of lies and what looks good on TV and what looks good when you read it in the newspaper. Nobody really takes a good look at what happened and why it happened. So they want to make a racial issue out of it. Well if you look at the situation today we still have racism in this country. I’m tired of seein’ black kids labeled as hoodlums. Now what is a hoodlum and where do the hoodlums come from? Who created the hoodlums? I think the riots sent out the right message, but I don’t think the folks are comprehending the message. You noticed on television the other day when Bill Clinton, who’s the Democratic candidate, when he came to the city, where did he go first? He went to the Koreatown first. He met with those people before he met with the black and Mexican community. Bush done the same thing this morning. He went to Koreatown first before he came to this community.

So no, the message is there, but I don’t think they’re ready to comprehend the message. Those are the people who are in power. I don’t think they’re quite ready yet.