Mandela City College New York 1990

Ted Koppel: Mr. Mandela, you re participating in what is a very old and honorable American tradition the Town Meeting. Rather than waste any time with my questions if they don t ask you good ones, I promise I will try to but I think we have some people out here who have some provocative and perhaps even controversial questions to ask you, and I d like to begin. Rev. Calvin O. Butts: [2] Mr. Mandela, you ve come to the United States of America; other than South Africa probably the most racially divided country in the world. Evidence of that is right here in New York City: we are one of the most racially divided cities in the world. The blood of our children stained the sidewalks of New York Howard Beach, Benson Hurst, Yusef Hawkins, Michael Griffith. Our grandmothers Eleanor Bumpers, mothers Yvonne Smallwood. Do you think that this country, given its racial record and current history, can assume the real, credible, and moral leadership in the fight against apartheid? Because its hypocrisy is well known, and one wonders whether it can really do what we want it to do. And if it can, what role can we as Africans in America play? [Applause.] Ted Koppel: If I may just ask you for your [the audience s] indulgence, if you d be good enough, there will be some questions you ll like, there ll be some questions you won t like. Let me just ask you, though, to save the time [be quieter], so that we can listen to Mandela s answers. Nelson Mandela: After the rousing welcome I have received, yeah, I do not know whether I am in a mood to think coolly. I have been deeply touched by this warm welcome. But to respond to the question, I must say that the ANC, and in fact the entire mass Democratic movement in South Africa, condemns racialism wherever it may be found. We are fighting a special kind of racialism in our own country, and we expect all people who are the victims of racialism to fight that evil. But I am here, and I am primarily concerned with what the people of th