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Politically, Reds and Dino are pragmatically nonviolent. "The Panthers want a revolutionary war," says Dino, "but that ain't hip. The white man got over the black man by politics, and that's the only way we'll get back at them. Why commit suicide?" But the black-pride movement has given them and many other young blacks an assertive sense of their own worth. "If I walked into a building with white people three years ago," says Dino, "I hung my head down. No more! Now people sense that and don't mess with...
...only way to avoid trouble." But he and Michael can hardly escape trouble. "If you take all of the violence out of the black ghetto and move it into the white neighborhoods and suburbs," says Chezzie, "man, I'm all for that, because it ain't doing no good here...
Ball on a Toothpick. Chezzie and Michael were nearly dropouts from Farragut High School. But then they enrolled at Farragut Outpost, a school for potential dropouts run by the Better Boys Foundation, a kind of settlement house on the West Side. Says Chezzie: "At Farragut, you ain't learning nothing. You go out and walk around the hallways, and they catch you and bar you from school. Up here at Outpost, you come here because you want to learn. Instead of failing you, if you do work and it's not passing, you do it again until...
...eight children, Chezzie describes how he applied for a job as messenger with a white bank. He was told he would be called within a week, and he is still waiting. "No, man," says Chezzie, "they ain't sincere. I came back to the school all popping my fingers and telling everybody I'm going to be working in a bank and with a suit on. Everybody comes and says 'What happened, man? They were going to call you,' and I say 'I don't know, they just don't call...
Heroes? "Malcolm X, that's the man, that's the man," says Chezzie. "He can tell you just how you feel." As for Roy Wilkins and the N.A.A.C.P.: "Too polite, too quiet. This ain't going to get it, man. We need a major change, like getting black people into high office: we need Vice Presidents. We need Presidents. And separatism isn't the answer. You got to be together before you can get along...