Ten O'Clock News

[tone] ...back home, and Mandela was able to get free. And Makatina and Mandela and Boesak and Tutu began to fight for affirmative action, for reparations to offset negative action. And then we have a demonstration just this big against affirmative action because of no regard for years of negative action and abuse. I don't stand here as no ordinary speaker because in my lifetime I know apartheid. First hand, American style, I grew up looking at signs on buses, saying colored seat from the rear, and white seat from the front, if ignored punishable by

law. I grew up in South Carolina, not South Africa, South Carolina, where it was illegal for a black teacher to make the same amount of money as a white teacher, where it was illegal for a black child to be as literate as a white child, where it was illegal for blacks to buy property, illegal to make a bank loan, illegal for my high school class to stand on the green lawn of the state capital. We stand here 25 years later fight South Africa, which is the right thing to do. With the radical disregard for apartheid in our own nation and our own lifetime, we must fight apartheid and its effects in America as well as South Africa to have our moral authority. You cannot be with clarity against apartheid in South Africa and for corrected surgery and for [inaudible] justice and be silent

on the issue of affirmative action in this nation. We cannot inculcate about apartheid and its moral stature. There is a litmus test for apartheid. I listen to all these arguments. I read the Crimson, all this intellectualism about apartheid, saving some modest scholarship, making profits on apartheid. The Third Reich in Germany was built on race. The Fourth Reich in South Africa is built on race. Apartheid in South Africa is the reincarnation of the Reich philosophy forty years later. The same moral standards applied to the Third Reich must apply to the Fourth Reich. Anybody that would disinvest, divest, and disassociate from the Third Reich in

Germany in 1945 must do the same thing from the Fourth Reich in South Africa in 1985. Apartheid is morally wrong. Apartheid is ungodly. Apartheid is an ontological affirmation that God made a creative error when he made a Black man or a Black woman. Apartheid is emotionally disturbing. Apartheid is untrue scientifically. Apartheid is tyranny politically. Apartheid is exploitation economically. Apartheid is terror militarily.

Apartheid is unethical, theogically. Apartheid is unhealthy psychologically. Apartheid is a threat to the human race. Apartheid is a lie. We must destroy racism before racism destroys us, our character and our moral authority. Racism is a disease of the soul. It is contagious, it is not containable. We must use every bit of emotional energy that we used to wipe out the Third Reich to wipe out the Fourth Reich. Next South Africa is the economic prostitute of the Western world. South Africa is the economic prostitute of the Western world. Some of our churches, our universities, our government jumps in the bed with South Africa and makes cheap love, cheap profits, off of slave

labor. Preaching moralisms by day, but getting economic gratification by night. A part-time love and romance of shame. And they say, well, we will not leave South Africa because if we leave, the prostitute, somebody else gone get the prostitute. Says nothing about your own character. This week, there was the rather profound demonstration. And there was one sign that came through. Those who were protesting, standing with their signs, "CitiBank, get out!" To protest in South Africa and asked for a company to get out is felony. Punishable by law.

Which means that when we invest in South Africa it's the only prostitution. It is also a rape. South Africa pretends economic resistance does not hurt. It does hurt. America and Harvard, we must choose another course. We've all been told. Say well, the economic sanctions work. That South Africa will get so mean. They'll start shooting down more Blacks. And there will be more bloodshed. That's not necessarily so. The fact that the matter is if Harvard pulls out its $1.8 billion portfolio, if bank loans stop the South Africa, the other Western Democratic allies start changing their policies towards South Africa. It will not make the whites attack the Blacks.

It will make those economic investments in South Africa attack those politicians in South Africa. The only company able there to keep their business alive. The fact is, we must use economic sanctions to get the American investors and the South African joint partners to confront the rules of apartheid. We must not be afraid to disinvest and to divest. Harvard invests murder. But more than that, Harvard gives South Africa honorary degrees every day that it invests. Harvard shares its armor and credibility and good name with South Africa. Harvard gives intellectual comfort to all the universities in the Western world. Harvard's kinship with South Africa

is economic cheating and makes Harvard less able to challenge students who cheat. Harvard's stock in South Africa must be withdrawn. The Harvard Crimson becomes redder every time a South African's blood flows in the streets of Johannesburg. Harvard leadership in disinvestment and divestment could further weaken South Africa's standing in the world. And for the record, there's a formula for change if there's enfranchisement in this investment. Disenfranchisement, disinvestment, divestment, that's a choice and that's a challenge, and for the record finally Russia, Eastern Europe,

Sandanistas and Cuba, are not talking up South Africa. But Britain and America, and Israel, and [inaudible] and Japan. We of the Western free world must take a moral stand and end apartheid with ice backbone. [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] [applause] Today I stand here as I close with hope because your presence is hope. We want to convene university presidents. We must go another way now. We want student leaders convened all around this nation. There is work to be done. We want cities and states to pass ordinances and deny contracts to companies with the city and with the state

that do business with South Africa. As South Africa intensifies its killing, we must now go another way. Whenever Harvard invests in South Africa, or when banks make loans to South Africa, when the U.S. government trades with South Africa, the profits and taxes realized by South Africa fuels apartheid. But this day we must say to UDF, we must say to Boesak, we must have churches down in South Africa the whole will be marched against apartheid. The whole will be going to jail against apartheid. We will send money to South Africa to help UDF get free and help Bishop Tutu get free. We must put our money on the line and invest in a resistance movement for justice in South Africa.

[applause] Mr. Reagan said last week if Congress does not fund the country's individuals who care, [missing audio] should fund the country's. I say to Mr. Reagan if the U.S. government insists on funding apartheid with his investment, we must fund UDF, we must fund Bishop Tutu, we must fund Boesak, we must fund the children at Crossroads in Johannesburg, we must put our money on the line and our mouth and our bodies on the line of the freedom comes in South Africa. [applause] Rise up America to your true heights of greatness. Lead America not by opinion polls

but by molding opinion. Rise up America, let the lights of freedom shine and not be compromised by the lurking shadows of apartheid. Rise up America, give our youth a reason to live and spare our veterans' honor that their sacrifices of freedom were not in vain. Rise up America, do justice love mercy and we're all coming before our God. Rise up America, give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, who yearn to breathe free. Rise up America, red, yellow, brown, black, and white. We're all precious in God's sight. Let's march together. Let's pray together. Let stand together. Let's go to the jail together. Let's live together. Let's fight together.

Freedom is now. Freedom is now. Thank you and God bless you. [applause] [applause] the