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WNET

Title slate: The Eleventh Hour #305, Black Mortality. Rec: 1/30/90 Dir: Andrew Wilk

Funding by announcer. Charitable organizations overlay The Eleventh Hour graphic.

Host Robert Lipsyte sitting at triangular shaped table in the studio with two guests.

Graph overlays photo of African American male and showing life expectancy of a hypothetical Harlem male. Lipsyte narrates.

Another graph overlay face of young African American female showing life expectancy between white American females and Bangladesh females. Lipsyte narrates

Back with Lipsyte he introducesand welcomes tonight's guests from Harlem Hospital: Dr Harold Freeman and Dr. Colin McCord.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES:

Robert Lipsyte
What you pointed out just a moment ago was cigarettes and alcohol. These are things that people can take control of their own lives about. That's right. But meanwhile, at the same time we've seen recently, Dr. Sullivan has attacked RJ Reynolds for uptown, a cigarette beam towards Central Harlem and black neighborhoods. And of course, gala one sells a lot of Thunderbird do

Dr. Harold Freeman
well indeed. In fact, on every other corner, there's a commercial for either tobacco or, or whiskey or wine. So the tobacco industry knows who was buying its product, the poor, and the black, the young, the young females in particular, and they target the advertising as such. So all over Harlem, we're seeing these pictures of people who look beautiful and wonderful and successful, and hopeless people who see that these pictures are easy prey for tobacco and alcohol on that, and that helps to make the problem worse.

Robert Lipsyte
What would you like to see the city, the state the government start doing now?

Dr. Harold Freeman
Well this is truly a third world problem. We tend to believe the third world is eight 8000 or 10,000 miles away, but in fact, it may be right uptown. If you live downtown in New York. I think we should approach it like a disaster is approached anyway. throughout nature. We see hurricanes and earthquakes and we respond to acute emergencies. This is a chronic disaster. It needs the same kind of martial plan type of response that you would give to a third world, part of the world that needs to be done particularly with respect to education. lifestyles that are destructive, generally formed quite early. We need to do Headstart type of educated, educating really related to substance abuse avoidance, particularly tobacco and alcohol, and teaching healthy diets, so that young people will grow up with positive promotion of their own health a part of the problem is people have to be empowered to take care of themselves, just as they do in politics. So it should be in health.

Robert Lipsyte
Dr. McCord, you've been in mutlab? would you add anything to that?

Dr. Colin McCord
Well, only that and this refers to New York, they, we know that certain things work, you know. And that's where we should put our effort Head Start, for instance, we know that that works. And it's going to be important to start early to get people on the right track to healthy way of life. But I'd like to see the the federal government, the city, try to develop more programs like Headstart, older aged kids, other things of that sort, and, and look closely at what works and what doesn't work. And then and then push on what works push hard.

Robert Lipsyte
Health care, health care at an early age

Dr. Harold Freeman
more toward prevention, we can do acute care quite well. But unfortunately, it's often too late. We need to stress resources put into preventive care, early diagnosis, early detection, and empower people through education to take advantage of these things.

Robert Lipsyte
Dr. Freeman,Dr. McCoy, thank you very much for being with us.

Lipsyte announces next off-site segment featuring Joel Dreyfuss former Managing Editor of Black Enterprise Magazine and currently Associate Editor with Fortune Magazine

B&W still native Indian sitting (shot rom behind) overlooking a hill in rural Bangladesh

Pan over to Joel Dreyfuss standing on rooftop of building in Harlem reports that according to the New England Journal of Medicine, as a Black man his chances of living a long life are better in Bangladesh are better than in Harlem aka "the capital of Black America".

Tilt up on on the Harlem Hospital Center building and pan down on front entrance revealing a large sculpture on the building hanging above the awning.

Copy of an article clipping: "Study Says Blacks Face More Segregation Than Other Groups. Strong penalties for being black. Dreyfuss narrates

Highlights from articles: "Survey Shows Blacks Lag in Finishing College"

Row of prison cells, prisoners (Black) standing peering out from cells

B&W clip of violence, blacks being beaten by white men

Partially obscured Apollo Theater marquee reads: Amateur Night, Carlena Shaw Feb 2 & 3; ? & Friends Jan 27

Poster Ad for Uptown Cigarettes with depiction of a happy Black couple

Another ad slick for Uptown cigarettes. "Uptown. The Place. The Taste." Dreyfuss narrates

Dreyfuss walking past the 125 Street subway station with large Salem Fresh poster advertisement and toward camera. He's talking as he walks about how he feels Blacks are always better represented in advertisements than most TV sitcoms.

Tilt down on street in Harlem

fade in on triple street signs in Harlem on one pole - Lenox Av , Malcolm X Blvd and W138 St

Dreyfuss standing outdoors states Harlem was always poor, laden with crime and now drugs.

Clips of a beautiful Harlem neighborhood with historic nicely kept apartment buildings and clean streets, large education center, and a street vendor selling designer knockoff handbags. Dreyfuss unseen speaks of how even though there are these beautiful neighborhoods, Harlem is still a "warehouse of those left behind".

Store front with sign in window "Expert Tailoring and Alterations" a black woman can be seen in window on sewing machine.

Green street signs on pole: Lenox Av, Malcolm X Blvd.

Historic Harlem clips, Frank's Fish Market with barber shop upstairs, peds walking by, Black police officer directing traffic in Harlem vintage cars in bkgd., nicely dressed peds walking down the street;

Group of black teens hanging out on the street, drinking

Large group of protestors in Brooklyn, holding sign "Bensonhurst is OURS.

B&W photo stills, "achievers":
Colin Powell, Michael Jordan, Prince, Kathleen Battle - circa 1980's. Dreyfuss narrates

Clip from Spike Lee's movie, Do the Right Thing.

Host Robert Lipsyte back in the studio states, "the real experts on people's live are the people who live those lives". He introduces AND welcomes his guests, young adults and teenage residents of Harlem: Albert Jennings, Greg Taylor, Sheldon Shrieves, Raul Radcliffe, and Javone Summers.

INTERVIEW CONTINUES:
Robert Lipsyte
one of the things you kind of imply, maybe Albert would comment on it is that you're not getting the right information. Through the media, or whatever you're not knowing learning what you need to know, or the community isn't.

Albert Jennings
That's definitely true. When we talk about the media, the media has portrayed young African American males in very negative light. And it seems educators think that and we internalize this, I mean, educators think that we can only go so far, and we picture ourselves only going so far, all we see is young, African American males, the successful ones, being an NBA basketball player, and only 414 NBA basketball players in the country, there are many more brain surgeons, you know, and many more nuclear physicists than our basketball players. But yet, we could never picture ourselves as becoming a nuclear physicist, all we could picture ourselves as becoming an NBA basketball player.

Robert Lipsyte
Well, but somewhere in between there is just you know, most most of us are just kind of ordinary and get jobs Javone in terms of yourself and your friends, how hard is it to go out and just get a job and make a living?

Javone Summers
Well, especially with, with people from my age group, it is hard because they feel that we were not up to the responsibility, and doing the job and, and we have other bad, you know, we will go out and do something else, we would rather be out doing something else than doing the job. We don't really

Robert Lipsyte
When you say they you're talking about the people who would hire people that are hiring stereotypes.

Javone Summers
Yeah, the stereotypes are put in front of us,

Robert Lipsyte
have you tried

Javone Summers
Yes, I have tried to get many jobs and have been turned down, just because, um, and besides most of the jobs that I look for, the I like, when I look for a job, I look for a job that well I can I can produce, like more for the company or something. So I would help the company, I don't want to like stock a stock person or, or messenger or something like that, you know, I want to be I mean, I can understand that you have to work your way up in a company or organization. So, but it's just that they look at us in a different way.

Robert Lipsyte
Greg, one of the implications in a study like this is if Harlem is indeed worse than a part of Bangladesh, is that you have to get out of Harlem, you have to get out of it to make it.

Greg Taylor
Yeah, absolutely there's nothing further from the truth. I think that the figure that was quoted earlier about black people have access to $200 billion dollars worth of, of money that we need to spend on black businesses, in black communities. I think that we need to, to begin, I think Harlem is is a wonderful center of learning of cultural experience of day to day life, both Latino and African American and I think that I it represents what we are and to deny that is to once again to accept what society in a way has said about the African American experience and to deny ourselves I think that we emulate our society and our surroundings. And by taking away Harlem from us in a way we were it's almost like losing a part of us and I think

Robert Lipsyte
you went to college, Greg

Greg Taylor
Yeah I go to Hunter College Now. I'm a senior at Hunter College now

Robert Lipsyte
and did you have I mean, stereotypically, you know, you shouldn't have gotten from what we see in the media shouldn't have gotten there.

Greg Taylor
Absolutely. I have. I've had the typical upbringing, you have a typical, absolutely. I've gone to an inner city high school. And from there I, you know, took a year off. And, you know, I just I had a commitment to myself, but I had to find that in myself. Raul made a comment earlier talking about how most African Americans feel that they can only be stock people, secretaries, messengers, and and this is what we're fed, this is also what we have access to. And there's just something in me. And I think that it's been instilled by in programs like the valley,

Robert Lipsyte
what do you think that you're special? Or that

Greg Taylor
No, not at all? I

Robert Lipsyte
just think that what about Albert,

Greg Taylor
there's a resiliency that you must have. Yeah, I

Robert Lipsyte
mean, you know, you're in college now, right? Yes, that's true. I mean, did you have a typical upbringing, you think that you're special?

Albert Jennings
No, I'm not special. I just think that I was fortunate to have a mother, my mother was special. And when she raised me, she was I didn't watch much television as a young, young child growing up. And I had to go to the army to get the army college fund to go to college. And this is what enabled me financially to attend school. But no, I don't think I'm special. I mean, it's your conditions that allow you to succeed, and the conditions of a young African American male and Harlem are that that he's not allowed to succeed. I mean, his health conditions, his economic conditions, his social conditions, and unless we change these conditions, it's only going to get worse,

Interview concludes, Lipsyte thanks guests and encourages viewers to write in to the viewer forum, "Talkback"

Host Lipsyte announces the show and introduces himself. Show ends.

Funding by announcer and charitable organizations overlay The Eleventh Hour graphic.