- 5 months ago
Shelby Steele examines the dynamics of racial politics surrounding the 1989 murder of Yusef Hawkins by white youths in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00front line is made possible by the financial support of viewers like you and by the corporation
00:14for public broadcasting tonight when 16-year-old use of Hawkins was murdered in a white New York
00:28neighborhood called Bensonhurst racial tensions exploded yesterday showed the open hostility that
00:37exists in New York Yusuf was a victim of racism everybody has used this incident everybody has
00:45exploited this boy's death tonight on frontline race politics and seven days in Bensonhurst
00:58from the network of public television stations a presentation of KCTS Seattle WNET New York WPBT
01:07Miami WTVS Detroit and WGBH Boston this is frontline with Judy Woodruff
01:19good evening it has been another ugly week in New York City over the past few years New York has
01:27witnessed a string of violent racial confrontations that have left it with the reputation as the most
01:33polarized city in America this week those divisions seem to have deepened even more in a Brooklyn
01:40courthouse juries have been deliberating the fate of two young white men accused of murdering 16 year
01:47old use of Hawkins last summer the activist Reverend Al Sharpton has warned that if the jurors did not
01:54return verdicts of murder that quote you were lighting a match to the end of a powder keg and telling us to
02:02burn the town down what excuse you're gonna give us about Yusuf if you come back with anything less
02:07than murder how much do they expect black people to take in this city meanwhile a boycott of Korean
02:13grocery stores led by black activists protesting the treatment of black customers entered its 15th week
02:20on Sunday the tensions between Asians and blacks appeared to take a violent turn when a group of
02:32black youths clashed with three Vietnamese men leaving one badly injured David Dinkins New York's
02:40first black mayor confronted the most serious crisis of his tenure I challenge all of the people of
02:45this city to reject these calls to bigotry because if the bigots succeed in spreading their poison it's
02:53nobody's fault but our own tonight frontline examines the anatomy of one racial crisis in New York City the
03:01murder of Yusuf Hawkins our program focus is not on what happened that night almost a year ago when Hawkins was
03:08killed but on the days that followed as the murder engulfed the entire city our program was produced and
03:16co-written by Tom Lennon the correspondent is Shelby Steele a professor at San Jose State University who has
03:24written from a first-person perspective on issues of race what follows is an essay one man's view of the
03:32meaning that can be found by revisiting seven harrowing days in Bensonhurst
03:37I don't feel like this is the city that I was raised in that I left and came back to it's a city that's out of control
04:07and for me it feels more racially tense than any place I've been in the last six years
04:13I feel it everywhere I feel it if I get off the wrong subway stop and I look around and there's nobody black but me
04:23the subways go through all neighborhoods in New York and people even though they're underground know where
04:40the boundaries are you know that 96th Street is just about the last white middle-class stop in New York
04:49after that you're going through enemy territory if you're white middle class
04:53you never know when a situation is likely to erupt
05:08that's a scary way to live and in my opinion the city is always on that edge
05:19on the evening of August 23rd 1989 four young black men ages 16 to 18 took the subway from East New York
05:33to look at a used car advertised in the paper the address they were going to was unfamiliar
05:38their trip took them across one of the dividing lines that separate white New York from black
05:44the incident began Wednesday night at 9 20 in Bensonhurst four black youth had gone to the neighborhood to buy a car
06:00they saw advertised in a newspaper the trouble began while they were walking on Bay Ridge Avenue
06:05Sergeant Tina Mormon says a group of 10 white men wielding baseball bats met up with four youth one white man fired four shots
06:14two of the shots hit 16 year old use of Hawkins in the chest he died a short time later at Maimonides hospital
06:20the police bias unit is investigating this Carol de Uria 10-10 wins at the 62nd precinct in Brooklyn
06:26he and my son has been tried found guilty and executed all in one day in less than an hour's time for nothing only because of the color of his skin
06:45and I just want to ask New York and America as well when is it going to stop
06:52it was wintertime when we started to make this film and use of Hawkins murder had long ago slipped from the front pages
07:10when I first got the news of Hawkins murder for second I felt that primitive fear I used to feel as a young black boy growing up in Chicago
07:17there's the sense of relapse that comes with that kind of news the sense that an ugly element of our history has somehow crawled forward into the present
07:27and made our belief in racial progress feel like an illusion
07:32but when I heard the news of Hawkins death I had another reaction that I wasn't going to deny
07:37of our history has somehow crawled forward into the present and made our
07:42belief in racial progress feel like an illusion but when I heard the news of
07:50Hawkins death I had another reaction that I wasn't going to deny an
07:55overwhelming sense of racial fatigue each racial tragedy in this country seems
08:01to set off a bitter round of accusations and denials between the races and as I
08:07arrived in New York I brought with me an uncomfortable feeling of deja vu I had
08:16come to New York to look back on use of Hawkins death but I didn't want to write
08:20yet another news report I have long believed that race is a mask through
08:26which other human needs manifest themselves I think we often make race an
08:31issue as a way of not knowing other things about ourselves what happened in
08:39Bensonhurst was tragic and real but I think this event also shows us as Americans
08:44much about the uses we put race to about the fears and urges for power that we
08:51mask with race in this sense the story of Bensonhurst is an allegory if most
08:59Americans like me are fatigued by racial conflict we are also threatened by it and
09:05if Bensonhurst is a tragedy it is also an opportunity to know
09:11after use of Hawkins murder all the strains and hatreds in New York's racial climate for
09:32suddenly in full view for days this murder held the city in its grip but the crisis of Hawkins death began on a much smarter
09:39scale in the late hours of the night on August 23rd
09:46for days this murder held the city in its grip but the crisis of Hawkins death
10:01began on a much smaller scale in the late hours of the night on August 23rd
10:22when they finally sat us down in the police station and talked to us they told me that they believed that
10:29it was a racial incident that my son and his three companions were at the wrong place at the wrong time that from 25 to 30 young white youths with baseball bats attacked it one youth had a gun and my son happened to be the one in line of fire end of story
10:58they found bats in parks they found bats at the scene of the crime you know so they they pretty much knew what was going on
11:05reporters were immediately dispatched to the family home on Hegeman Avenue the family at that time they were in the house and uh well a few of them were out on the porch clearly in shock and the questions are coming boom boom boom boom the
11:28boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom boom
11:58about the exact nature of the crime, but the early details pointed sharply to race
12:04as the motivation for the murder. My son will never turn this corner again, only
12:10because of this, the pigment of his skin. Do you understand that? This is what
12:15America must learn, that we are no longer going to take that. If we think of the
12:22races as competing power groups, it is not hard to see how Yusuf Hawkins' murder
12:27caused a sudden imbalance. Against America's history of black oppression,
12:32this event was not only a murder, but also an affront to the entire black
12:37community. Real or not, this was the look of things, and it made the incident a stage
12:44on which players of both races quickly began to jockey for position. Well
12:49around 10 a.m. on the 24th of August, the morning after, I received a call at home
12:54from someone who said he was Moses Stewart, and he asked me could I come to
12:59the house immediately of his mother-in-law, because he was being
13:03harassed by the press, and he did not know what to do. He and his family had just
13:08returned from the morgue from identifying Yusuf's body, and I immediately agreed, and I
13:15immediately went out to East New York. Reverend Al Sharpton, one of the most
13:19controversial figures in New York's racial politics. Through much of the 80s, Sharpton
13:24had been in the headlines, embroiled in the city's most bitter racial disputes.
13:28I told them, I said, I'm gonna tell you now, we've got several situations that you're
13:33gonna have to deal with. One, we're right in the middle of a mayoral primary, so this
13:38is gonna be very political. I'm very controversial, and that's going to bring a
13:42lot of baggage with my presence. You've got to decide if this is really what you
13:46want to do, and how far you want to go with this. And that's when they said, no, we
13:50want to go all the way. We want the whole world to know what happened to our son, so
13:54it will never happen again. By the time the media caught up with the story, Reverend Al
13:59Sharpton was once again center stage. In 1984, Sharpton had marched on Bernard
14:05Goetz after the gunman shot four black youths in the subway. Sharpton was prominent
14:10again in Howard Beach when a black man died after being chased onto the highway
14:15by white youths. Sharpton was also a key advisor in the case of Tawana Brawley, who
14:23claimed to have been raped by Ku Klux Klan sympathizer. After a long investigation, a
14:30grand jury declared her story to be a fraud. The Brawley case, and Sharpton's role in it, had
14:36not been forgotten. Now, as the news of Hawkins' murder filtered through the city, many white
14:43New Yorkers were on their guard. Whenever Al Sharpton is involved with a cause in New York,
14:48I think most white New Yorkers, certainly not all, but most assume it is a phony cause.
14:55There were people who were going to seize on this opportunity. Al Sharpton. As soon as Al
15:01Sharpton became involved, you knew that all of a sudden this was going to become some sort
15:06of media events. Al Sharpton. Because it's almost like Hollywood. This guy is, he's orchestrating
15:13a happening. Al Sharpton. I know from experience that a lot of cases are won and lost in terms
15:21of the public perception in the first 24 hours. The fact that every five minutes there was another
15:29media truck pulling up outside. So I knew that there was going to be mass media play. The question
15:35is how the media was going to play it. As the media recognized the dimensions of the story,
15:40so too did New York's leading politicians. The Manhattan borough president doesn't usually visit
15:46the home of murder victims in Brooklyn, but David Dinkins wants to be mayor. And after a half-hour meeting
15:53with the dead youth's family and Reverend Al Sharpton, David Dinkins told how he believes
15:58Yusef Hawkins killing relates to the race for mayor. I don't blame the mayor or any individual
16:05for this circumstance, except to say all of us, all of us, each one of us, bears some responsibility
16:13for trying to make a better city. It was about five o'clock. Hawkins had been dead for 18 hours. The city
16:20was in the midst of a primary campaign. Ed Koch, mayor of New York, faced a difficult re-election.
16:27I'm sure that I can do more, and I'm going to try to do more. But let no one deceive you to think
16:32that if someone else were in my place, that that incident in Brooklyn would not have occurred. It
16:40might not have occurred, but it would have occurred. Mayor Koch quickly tried to arrange his own condolence
16:44visit. But Koch didn't want Sharpton at the home, and the family sent the mayor a message not to come.
16:52Ten minutes later, Jesse Jackson calls. And then everybody, I mean the NAACP officials and this
16:59councilman and that congressman, people started a steady stream for the next few hours into the house,
17:05on into the wee hours of the morning. It was now just 24 hours since Hawkins had been murdered. The media,
17:12the black leadership, the top officials of city and state, all were now drawn in to the crisis
17:17of his death. Bensonhurst lies across the East River, a small Italian-American neighborhood buried in
17:31southern Brooklyn. Growing up in Chicago, I knew neighborhoods like this. They were enemy territory. As a
17:41boy, I often heard blacks say that one of the first words new immigrants learned was the word
17:46nigger. This word was a means to status in America, a quickly absorbed prejudice that meant one could be
17:53above at least one group. So for many new immigrants, racism was a means to power, a shortcut to the
18:00American dream. The story of Yusuf Hawkins seemed to me a great deal about power. Whites, especially the least
18:10strong, can find power in despising blacks. But blacks too could derive power from Hawkins' death. I believe the
18:19power that comes from having been victimized by whites has been the primary power blacks have had in this country. And over time, we have learned to exercise it.
18:32I said, I think what we ought to do is Saturday, I ought to go to Bensonhurst. I have an organization, I know I can put
18:39500 people in the streets. And I think if we go to Bensonhurst, the reaction of the white community will clear all of this
18:45up for the perception of the American public. Sharpton set out to prove that Bensonhurst was a racist community.
18:52Meanwhile, its residents were busy protesting their innocence. Is there racial tension in this neighborhood?
18:59No, it ain't racist. Everybody pulls out of proportion. It's not racism.
19:03Nah, it's not a racial tension. It's not. It's nothing like, we don't look for trouble.
19:07That's right. And I'm sure, you know, like, they weren't looking for trouble either, but they were in the wrong place at the
19:12wrong time, I guess, you know. These things happen, you know, but don't make a big deal out of it. Because now if you
19:17make a big deal, and you know what's going to happen, they're going to come down, and we're going to start, they're going to
19:21start, and there's going to be a big thing, right? So if we keep it low and forget about it, you know,
19:26maybe we'll just die down.
19:29Now Sharpton planned to march to the heart of Bensonhurst.
19:33I knew that Bensonhurst would clarify whether it was a racial attack or not.
19:39We were told on Friday that there would be a march the next day, and that Al Sharpton would lead the march.
19:45And this was a sort of a mythic figure, the Sharpton, to the people of Bensonhurst.
19:54We see hundreds of whites standing there. Unbelievable. I mean, even with my expectations, I didn't expect that kind of crowd.
20:03Ahmed, pick up crowd. Ahmed, play the crowd, play the crowd.
20:13Why us? What do you want to hear? You want to hear hatred and violence? You ain't gonna hear it from us.
20:18Auousias! Auousias! Auousias! Auousias! Auousias!
20:23Auousias! Auousias! Auousias! Auousias!
20:27Auousias! Auousias! Auousias!
20:29Where is she supposed to be, because you know it's a bullshit lie?
20:32That's what Al Sharpton means, he's a bullshit lie.
20:37Fire is a bull.
20:39Who wants to braw the way we see?
20:42In the beginning, the interest was, where's Sharpton, you know? Where's the fat guy? It was almost a joke. You know, it wasn't so much that people were frightened or angry or anything at that point. It was kind of hand-rubbing glee. You know, great, there's going to be a fight.
21:12Crazy Italian Americans! Crazy Italian Americans! This is not racist community. We just don't like black people. That's all.
21:19You said! You said! You said! You said! You said! You said! The hatred was there. But I think the fact that I was so controversial to Bensonhurst helped them forget the cameras were there.
21:35So what I decided to do was I was going to help them because when I would see a crowd on the corner going crazy, Al, we're going to get you. I'd start throwing kisses to the crowd and they would just go nuts then. That's when they would start jumping over the barricade. And I would, oh, I love you. You're my greatest friends. And they would go nuts.
21:54Go home! Go home! Go home! Go home! Go home! Go home! Go home! They were unmindful at all at how they would be perceived to the world.
22:05Murder! Murder! They killed Yusuf Hawkins because of the color of his skin. Murder! Murder!
22:14Do you think this is going to help? Is this going to help? Or is it going to stir more?
22:20Nobody has the right to kill people. Nobody. Okay? But this is instigation. This is not demonstration.
22:27Get the fuck out of here! Get out! Get out! Get out of here! Get out of here!
22:33Go, go! Go on! Get out of here! You fucking assholes!
22:38Go! Go! Get back home!
22:40Look at you! You fucking assholes!
22:43Look at you, you faggot! You fucking faggot!
22:49Fuck you! Fuck you!
22:52When we come back through the gate of the schoolyard to come back to the buses, the head of security for us was bringing us through.
23:00us through and a little white kid he couldn't have been no more than 12 years old uh peeked
23:04through the fence and said hey mister and the kid hauled off and spit in his face
23:10i went up to one woman and said where were you today where were the adults today um did you see
23:16do you have any idea what your kids did out there and she kind of oh she said i i didn't know there
23:22was going to be a march today i mean the other woman kind of said it's it's really a shame it's
23:27really a shame because now my kid is saying the word nigger and he never said that before
23:39we would like to say that yesterday showed the open hostility and open racism that exists in new york
23:47yusuf was a victim of racism not mistaken identity not a passion killer one only had to walk the streets
23:54of bensonhurst with us on yesterday to see we americans have achieved a new equality of racial
24:01pejoratives it is now as disturbing for a white to be called a racist as it is for black to be called
24:08a nigger now we both have the power to put each other on the run with a name
24:15it is easy enough to say that bensonhurst is a racist community because of what happened here
24:21but it is also true that when an accusation of racism is repeated many people give up trying to
24:28fight it and out of anger act out the very thing they are accused of first people say
24:36i'm not a racist the second thing that happens is people say okay yeah i am a racist because that's
24:41what happened at the march suddenly it was like okay i'm gonna play this role for everything it's worth
24:47the day after sharpton marched through bensonhurst a group of prominent black ministers organized a
24:55second march we are affirming today that new york city is not going to become johannesburg south africa
25:07all right amen reverend there are people who are going to be offended by our mere presence here but
25:14i would much rather for them to be offended by our language and our presence than for us to continue to
25:20have to bury one body after another the black demonstrators who marched in bensonhurst brought with
25:27them the memory of a long series of racial incidents after shooting four black youths in the subway bernard
25:34get served less than a year in jail for violating the gun control laws at around the same time the
25:40police killed an elderly black woman eleanor bumpers in her own home the officer who shot her was found
25:47not guilty then there was howard beach three white youths were convicted but at the time of hawkins death
25:54their cases were being appealed and many believed their convictions might be overturned there was the
25:59howard beach thing the griffiths thing there was the eleanor bumpers thing you know and and all of
26:05these were just heightening the tension my son again was just probably the tip of what says this is it
26:16now in bensonhurst this list of incidents hardened into a litany with which whites could be accused
26:23but whites brought their own accusations to the streets
26:29started off with one guy yelling what about central park
26:35and a young woman i remember next to him saying yeah it goes both ways it goes both ways four months
26:42before hawkins death a white woman jogging in central park was brutally beaten and raped
26:48the suspects in the case were hispanic and black
27:01it had become totally tribal totally black and white and there was this sense almost that there was a tug of
27:09war about who was the victim who was the biggest victim um and who was the aggressor this is what you're
27:16getting oh well uh you killed one of our children oh but you look what you did and and and this is what
27:26you're getting instead of instead of anything getting uh settled
27:36in the weeks that followed yusuf's murder black leaders organized a total of seven marches through
27:41bensonhurst studying these videotapes one can feel the temperatures rising as the marches progressed
27:57it's enough it's enough this is what he wants though free media told say this is what he wants
28:04He's bringing more hatred than anything else.
28:06Go home, go home!
28:18The epithets and the screaming and the rage,
28:23it was the most vivid exhibition of racial hatred that I had ever seen.
28:34I don't need to focus!
28:36Holy shit!
28:37That's right, that's right!
28:39Come here alone!
28:40That's right!
28:41Yeah!
28:42Yeah!
28:43Holy shit!
28:44Yeah!
28:45I suck!
28:46Yeah!
28:47I suck!
28:48I suck!
28:49Yeah!
28:51Yeah!
29:02This kind of racism speaks for itself.
29:06Regardless of how it may be explained, it needs to be recognized and condemned for what it is.
29:12Bensonhurst is a small neighborhood in a massive city and as the events in this neighborhood
29:19play themselves out, one can almost feel the larger city as a chorus in the background.
29:26All of white New York, and for that matter white America, stand accused by implication.
29:36Even on Fifth Avenue Bensonhurst is a stain on white innocence.
29:41There across this class boundary, open displays of racism are not an option.
29:47Here the pressure is to dissociate oneself from the ugliness, to escape the burden of racial
29:52guilt by separating oneself from the whites of Bensonhurst and by drawing closer to their
29:58victim.
30:06Larger New York was quick to dissociate itself from the racial confrontation.
30:11Those who lived in Bensonhurst could feel they had become bit players in a much larger
30:15drama.
30:16And to hear the media always tell you, you know, your neighborhood is racist, your
30:21neighborhood is racist, and pointing the finger at the neighborhood was a way of exonerating
30:28themselves.
30:29You know, exonerating themselves because I believe that racism is all over.
30:39And to point the finger at another is a way of saying, I'm not a racist.
30:45I believe that Hawkins and death was not just a source of power for blacks, but also for whites.
30:53By making a special show of concern for Hawkins, whites could demonstrate their racial innocence,
30:59if for no other reason than to fight off the charge of racism.
31:03And so both black and white politicians were drawn to Youssef's body, as though in its
31:08lifelessness it contained a power they all needed.
31:12Their role as leaders was to publicly stand in proximity to this deceased boy and find the
31:17tone and the posture that would give them their highest profile of innocence.
31:23In America, where race is concerned, innocence is power.
31:29Do you think that people sensed that there was power in this tragedy?
31:34Sure.
31:35I mean, it was.
31:37I mean, those who were very ingenuity could see that at the opportune time, had they could
31:46grasp hold of anything, there was a great deal of power.
31:50The power to sway people's thoughts were there.
31:53Anyone with any kind of sense could see, you know, that if I do the right thing, if I can
31:58get Mr. Stewart, if I can get the Hawkins family, if I can get them all, that I have the opportunity
32:04to sway people.
32:05I have the opportunity to pull votes.
32:08After Hawkins' death, the mayoral candidates canceled most of their campaign appearances.
32:13Effectively, the murder was now the campaign.
32:18The candidacy of David Dinkins gained new strength after Bensonhurst.
32:23Dinkins promised racial harmony and made this promise the centerpiece of his campaign.
32:29His visit to the Hawkins household that first day had been an important chance to drive home
32:33his image as a healer.
32:36All the press is outside.
32:40We shake hands warmly.
32:40I introduce them to the family.
32:43We go upstairs.
32:44Everyone went upstairs to the second floor.
32:48Your instincts as a reporter comes out, and obviously you're going to walk in naturally.
32:52So I did.
32:53Dave says that I came to express my condolences to the family.
32:58I heard some of what you said, Mr. Stewart, on WLIB, and I'm very sorry what happened.
33:04In all likelihood, I will be the next mayor of the city and will try to do what I can that
33:09this never happens again.
33:11One of the cousins of Diane says, what do you mean, never happen again?
33:17What are you going to do about this now?
33:19What the so-and-so are you talking about?
33:22You do not take my son's death as a political thing to take pot shots at other politicians.
33:29That was not my son's program.
33:32He was not involved in politics.
33:34Before we could get used to that, everybody jumps in.
33:38We don't need any sympathy.
33:39We don't need anybody posturing.
33:41We don't need anybody out here to campaign.
33:42We don't even know what you came here for.
33:44If you can't do anything about it, you can get the so-and-so out of here.
33:47I'm sitting in the corner, and I'm ducking, and you're not hearing anything out of me.
33:50I'm not even breathing.
33:52It was clear that if Mr. Stewart wanted to, or if Reverend Sharpton wanted to, they could
33:57have walked outside to the five to ten cameras out there and said some things that could
34:02have really hurt the campaign of David Dinkins.
34:06The absence of understanding is what leads to a disrespect that people have to be respected.
34:16Jesse Jackson flew into town to attend the Hawkins' wake.
34:21Arrangements were made for him to meet with the family in a private room.
34:24He says, this could have been my son, very concerned, and he says, but, you know, there's
34:30good that comes out of bad.
34:32He says, I think Dave Dinkins might be the next mayor of New York because of what they
34:37did to that boy laying in there.
34:39And Moses immediately explodes.
34:42I don't want any politics.
34:43How can y'all deal with this in a political way?
34:46This is not political.
34:47I don't care who the mayor is.
34:49I want justice.
34:50I had to stop him right there because I did not believe that Reverend Jesse Jackson was disobeying
34:58the wish of the father of the deceased for political campaigning for David Dinkins.
35:05And I had explicitly let out, do not use Yusuf in the context of political things.
35:11Both Jackson and Dinkins had stumbled in their response to the murder, but behind closed doors.
35:38Mayor Koch's miscalculations were of a more public kind.
35:41I would hope that nobody turned this into a political matter.
35:46The second thing that I urge is that people not engage in marches into communities.
35:55And the reason is the community thinks it then is the perpetrator of the violence.
36:01And I don't think that any community can be branded that way.
36:05Communities ought not to be condemned.
36:08Bensonhurst ought not to be condemned.
36:10Howard Beach or any other part of this town.
36:14If Koch thought his defense of Bensonhurst would win white support, he was mistaken.
36:21His remarks provoked disapproval among whites and blacks alike.
36:25He was very concerned about the feelings of the people in Bensonhurst.
36:30I mean, he kept saying that, you know, we don't want to blame this entire community.
36:34Well, at the time, people weren't blaming the entire community.
36:38They were protesting against racial violence.
36:40And that was the wrong posture to take.
36:44Over the years, Koch had often offended black New Yorkers.
36:48His combative tone with the city's black leaders had made him something of a hero to many whites.
36:54But now, Yusuf's body lay in an open coffin, the eyes of the city on him.
37:00Koch needed to be seen in a softer light.
37:03He drove to the funeral home to pay his respects.
37:06When he gets out the car, you immediately knew.
37:10I'm inside with Moses, who had just finished going through his thing with Jesse.
37:15And I all of a sudden hear it sounds like a million voices booing outside.
37:20And I said, it's got to be in Koch.
37:22All you heard was, it was almost like standing outside of Madison Square Garden.
37:30And this man, and you didn't know who, you knew it was somebody important, just came flying through the door.
37:37And he looked and all he saw was black faces.
37:41And he didn't know what to do.
37:43His natural instinct was, I'll go view the body.
37:46After viewing the body, Mayor Koch embraced Moses Stewart and then was escorted out by a side door.
37:52And all of a sudden I hear, psh, psh, psh, psh, get him, get him, get him.
37:57Bottles are smashing.
37:59They push him into the limousine and the limousine takes off backwards up the block.
38:05He was not leaving in one piece.
38:17Everybody has used this incident.
38:21Everybody has used this incident for their own soapbox.
38:26They have, they have gone on their own soapbox and used this incident.
38:31Everyone has exploited this boy's death.
38:35It becomes a feeding frenzy.
38:41The media, uh, is acting like complete nuts.
38:45And everybody's competitive.
38:47Everybody wants the story that the other guy didn't get.
38:52The Yusuf Hawkins story attracted media from all over the country.
38:57At times, television crews and photographers seemed almost as numerous as demonstrators.
39:04Inevitably, the media, too, became part of the story.
39:18They were gonna stay there as long as the story was hot.
39:22They were taking me to lunch.
39:24I mean, I could have gotten me some Gucci suits and had I'd have played it right.
39:28Mr. Hawkins, would you stand at that mic and respond if you want to respond?
39:31You gonna call me a racist?
39:33I didn't call you a racist.
39:34I didn't call you a racist.
39:35I don't want nothing to do with it.
39:36I'm just telling you, I'm just telling you how sorry I am.
39:38And if you don't want my sorrow, then that's fine.
39:40Well, let me ask you this, Mr. Hawkins.
39:42Mr. Hawkins.
39:43Mr. Hawkins.
39:44Mr. Hawkins.
39:45Mr. Hawkins.
39:46Mr. Hawkins.
39:47Mr. Hawkins.
39:48Mr. Hawkins.
39:50I always knew that the media could not be completely trusted.
39:54But I have to say that at first I trusted them very much and was very open and honest.
39:59And it was only at the time when Roy Innes came into the neighborhood to host a vigil service
40:08for Yusuf Hawkins that I realized the power and the drawing power that a media figure has.
40:16Mr. Hawkins.
40:17Mr. Hawkins.
40:18He brought with him Morton Downie and I saw a religious vigil service turn into a circus.
40:26Mr. Hawkins.
40:27Mr. Hawkins.
40:28Mr. Hawkins.
40:29Mr. Hawkins.
40:30Mr. Hawkins.
40:31Mr. Hawkins.
40:32Mr. Hawkins.
40:33Mr. Hawkins.
40:34Mr. Hawkins.
40:35people are you folks racist no that's the answer quiet shut up i have a friend of yours here
40:45a friend of mine a friend of yours he put his schedule aside to be here with us let's hear
40:52from more down there that is the moment that yusuf hawkins ceased to be an individual ceased
41:03to be you know that was the moment there because the ground that was hallowed by his blood became
41:11a circus ground and it was a media figure who did that and so at that point that's when i started to
41:19see that media people have an agenda and they'll follow it they'll follow it
41:26i remember when i was nine years old emmett till was murdered in mississippi he was a black teenager
41:39from the north who was killed and mutilated for supposedly whistling at a white woman
41:44i remember sneaking a look at the picture of till's disfigured body in jet magazine
41:49because mr hilton the barber had forbidden children to see it but when he caught me looking
41:55he said nothing as if he knew the picture communicated things i needed to know
42:00his silence was the communication of knowledge elders of an oppressed group pass on to the young
42:07emmett till's body was brought back to chicago i remember the buzz of adults talking about him
42:14the men who murdered till were acquitted by an all-white jury in mississippi but his death was
42:20widely publicized and it galvanized american opinion i believe that the whole united states is mourning
42:28with me and if the death of my son can mean something to the other unfortunate people all over
42:34the world then for him to have died a hero would mean more to me than for him just to have died
42:42most observers agree that till's murder in 1955 was an important catalyst to the civil rights movement
42:50his death was powerful evidence of black victimization that challenged americans to live up to their own
42:56morality and the more we were victimized the more power we had the power finally to rewrite this country's
43:04racial laws but yusuf hawkins was killed in a very different america than till was the inequities
43:13of this country are no longer so flagrant yusuf's death cannot carry the same power as till's
43:20cannot inspire a new civil rights movement this larger reality seemed to inject an ambivalence into
43:27yusuf's funeral though it was filled with undeniable grief it also had the feel of a ritual a ritual of
43:35political mobilization that had lost much of its power because its target was no longer as clear
43:42there's so much pain and and so much hurt in this atmosphere of violence it's so reminiscent of
43:58emmett teal being killed on a race sex motivated lynching in mississippi in 1955 and now here another race
44:09sex motivated act of terror in the last days of august 1989 new yorkers gathered in brooklyn to bury yusuf hawkins
44:32diane hawkins that day was as any mother would be you know in the same circumstances
44:39she had lost her her son who she cherished and she was speechless that day in the the chapel itself i
44:51mean you had thousands of people following by the open casket you had uh old ladies uh weeping um you had
45:01little kids uh crying and just wondering why this happened so you knew that there was a bond uh that that brought everybody together
45:17it it was something that um united all african-americans that day uh who had come from
45:25far and wide uh to express uh their feelings to the family and to express their their sense of loss at
45:33at what had happened because this was not just a loss for for the hawkins family it was a loss for all of us
45:41on that wednesday of the funeral i got to my church about nine o'clock that morning only to discover that the
45:57crowds were already gathered and that the police guards were already up it was amazing to me
46:06honestly speaking i thought the president of the united states was on his way to uh to global memorial
46:16church
46:27and who will all our sorrows share
46:35oh jesus
46:39Oh, God, every week
46:43I'm ready to do my Lord's Prayer
47:09The only whites who were at that funeral were politicians, office holders, but there were no ordinary citizens that I saw who went on their own, kind of as a mark of respect or mourning for this youngster.
47:32And that told me a lot about the racial situation in New York.
47:36The guest list at the funeral read like a who's who of New York politics.
47:42As New York's governor Mario Cuomo made his way into the church, onlookers shouted cries of murderer, it's your fault.
47:50The governor would later describe the booing as appropriate.
47:55It was the white guilt that motivated the governor, the mayor, the candidates for mayor, the council members, all of them to try to jockey for position to condemn it, say that I'm not part of it.
48:09It wasn't me. I don't feel this way. I'm sorry.
48:13And to be the one that said, I'm sorry, the loudest or that it's not my fault, the loudest.
48:19I mean, left to their own devices, I don't think those politicians would have been at that funeral.
48:25On the other hand, there were a lot of blacks who, left to their own devices, would not have been at that funeral either.
48:31I mean, many of the people who actually were inside that church were there for what I think were political, in many cases cynical, and in some cases exploitative reasons.
48:44You were there when Martin Luther King marched from Selma to Montgomery.
48:53You were there when they crucified Malcolm X.
48:57You were there when they crucified Elijah Muhammad, Kwame Ture, H. Rapp Brown.
49:05You were always there.
49:07And now we're here again, on the front row, mourning the loss of an innocent life.
49:16Never again. Never again. Never again.
49:28There are those who felt it was being used as something political. I had a different feeling.
49:35My feeling is that I think Bensonhurst should have been the Selma of the 80s. I feel that strongly.
49:44Everyone who was anybody was visible in the 50s and 60s. To me, this was the same kind of issue.
49:54Let freedom ring today. Not only let it ring in New York, but Mr. Mayor and Mr. Governor, let freedom ring from Howard Beach.
50:04Let freedom ring today just from Bensonhurst that we're not going to take what we used to take.
50:13We want to walk where we want to walk. We want to talk like we used to talk. We'll stand where we used to stand.
50:26I come to tell you today, God is my refuge. God is my strength. God is my rock in a weary land. And if you don't respect me, that's all right.
50:45At the wake and at the funeral, the mayor was there. The governor of the state was there. Candidates for the mayoral election were there. Many other dignitaries.
50:59How many of these people have contacted you since that time? None. None. Not a one. Not a one? Not a one.
51:06Not a one. Not a one. Not a one.
51:07Not a one. Not a one.
51:08Not a one. Not a one.
51:09Not a one. Not a one.
51:10Not a one.
51:11Not a one.
51:12Not a one.
51:13Not a one.
51:14Not a one.
51:15Not a one.
51:16Not a one.
51:17Not a one.
51:18Not a one.
51:19Not a one.
51:20Not a one.
51:21Not a one.
51:22Not a one.
51:23Not a one.
51:24Not a one.
51:25Not a one.
51:26Not a one.
51:27Not a one.
51:28Not a one.
51:29Not a one.
51:30Not a one.
51:31Not a one.
51:32Not a one.
51:33This is East New York, the neighborhood where Yusuf Hawkins lived and where most of the
51:42friends who accompanied him on the night of his death still live.
51:45It is a neighborhood where young black lives are shattered all the time without making
51:50the newspapers and without the notice of national leaders.
52:01This kind of neighborhood causes conflicting feelings in middle class blacks.
52:06On the one hand, we are obviously relieved not to live here.
52:10Like the middle class of all races, our impulse is to move away from the poor.
52:14But I cannot come to a neighborhood like this without a feeling of connection and a certain
52:19guilt.
52:23But what bothers me more is that all the fireworks of racial politics have no impact on a place
52:29like this.
52:31Like the touch of guilt, I feel, these politics seem a luxurious indulgence.
52:42I think too often we blacks have confused the struggle against racism with the struggle for
52:47economic development.
52:50Yusuf Hawkins' death and the attention it received will hopefully have the power to make inroads
52:55against racism.
52:57But it is important for us to know that this power stops at the door of economic development.
53:05The revival of this neighborhood and others like it will require a very different sort
53:10of power, the kind that emerges from a people who may be victimized, but who refuse to think
53:17of themselves as victims.
53:31After the funeral, New Yorkers began to turn their back on the Hawkins affair.
53:35There were more demonstrations in his name, one of which grew violent.
53:40But as the summer ended, the demonstrations grew smaller and less frequent.
53:46Gradually, the city went back to its daily life.
53:56Bensonhurst is painful.
53:59We react for 10, 15 minutes, five days, whatever, and then we go quietly into our corners.
54:07We've survived yet another pushing to the brink.
54:21It's made no difference.
54:22It's one of those incidents which in the long run is going to add an intangible to the overall
54:28picture, but nobody really has it in their mind.
54:30Two, three years from now, when the next black kid is gunned down or a white kid is stabbed,
54:36one newspaper reporter who remembers it is going to say, and remember Bensonhurst a few
54:39years ago, all it proves is that it can happen again and will happen again.
54:53In America, the races have long been cast as enemies.
54:57For me, one of the worst aspects of Bensonhurst is that it makes the races seem to be greater
55:02enemies than they actually are.
55:04Bensonhurst pulls forward our long history of hostility and makes it into a lens through
55:09which we now see each other.
55:12The danger in this is that whites can feel that race relations are futile and then slide
55:17into cynicism so that postures and insincerity come to define their relations with blacks.
55:24The danger for blacks is that we will gird ourselves for a bigger fight with racism than the one we
55:29actually have and so drain off energy that we need for development.
55:35In this way, the memory of injustice evoked by Bensonhurst can become its own form of oppression.
55:42We have to know that what we remember is not entirely what we live.
55:49the danger of injustice evoked by Bensonhurst.
55:53So there's no reason to change their particular safety for the world.
55:55Now, we have to know that the nice story of here, Mike, the nÃvel and the
56:10¶¶
56:40Frontline is produced for the Documentary Consortium by WGBH Boston,
57:07which is solely responsible for its content.
57:12Frontline is made possible by the financial support of viewers like you
57:17and by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
57:23For videocassette information about this program, please write to this address.
57:34This is PBS.
Be the first to comment