"A CHAT WITH LIFELONG NYC CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST CAROL TAYLOR

"A CHAT WITH LIFELONG NYC CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST CAROL TAYLOR
The 'Little Black Book' Interview with Kam Williams"
(With photo of CT in: The Washington Afro-American April 16-22, 2005; The Baltimore Afro-American April 9, 2005 and The Philadelphia Sunday Sun April 3, 2005)

"Born in Boston, Mass., on Dec. 27, 1931, Carol Taylor matriculated at both Elmira College and New York University before becoming the first Black U.S.A. flight attendant in 1958. Over the course of a professional career that has included stints as a registered nurse, model, office manager, journalist and more, this Renaissance woman has nontheless remained reolute in her commitment to civil rights issues. This explains why she is a familiar face at rallies and demonstrations around the city.
Tireless, Taylor is the author of The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America: Staying Alive and Well in an Institutionally Racist Society, a pocket-sized how-to text designed to help African-American men survive any encounter with the police. She is also the inventor, with psychologist Dr. Mari Saunders, of the Racism/Colorism Quotient Test that determines the reltive degree of racism (or "colorism," a term coined by Taylor) within an individual, (see www.racismtest.com)
Taylor lives in Brooklyn, N.Y., where she is completing work on her autobiography. She has two grown children, Cindy and Larry, and a grandson, Tyler, and welcomes inquiries about her first book at littleblackbook@juno.com.

AFRO: Why did you write The Little Black Book?

Carol Taylor: Because our Black sons all over this country are being slaughtered mercilessly and constantly by cops and no one is dealing with this outrage on a national basis! Judge Bruce Wright's introduction [to my book] says, "And so it goes, with the scalpel of American society aimed at Black testicles." My book says to set up Black/African male survival centers.

AFRO: Why is there such a pattern of police brutality against young Black men all over this country?

CT: Don't think for a moment that it's only young Black males! All Black males are targeted because they're Black and male and the reason is: the epidemic of untreated racism/colorism institutionalized in this society.

AFRO: Why haven't highly publicized cases like the beating of Rodney King and the killing of Amadou Diallo brought about some significant changes?

CT: Black males entering this colorist maelstrom of a country should be warned: 'Abandon hope - all ye Black males who enter here [U.S.A.]!' Significant changes will not occur by themselves and, unfortunately, we Black folk are not sufficiently organized to enforce them.

AFRO: Why do you think that racism persists in this society?

CT: Whitefolk - among others - are not taught who they are, who their most distant ancestors are, in their early education. They think that there's more than one race and, in the unearned privilege of their White skins, that their race is superior. There should be no 's' on the word 'race' as it applies to humans.

AFRO: I know that you don't like the word racism. Why do you suggest that we adopt the word 'colorism' instead?

CT: It's not that I don't like the word - it's totally inaccurate! As I said, there's only one race: the human one!

AFRO: Why do you think that you've been such a vocal and devoted civil rights activist?

CT: I detest bullies - like the lesser Bush and his war dawg gang - and for ages, I've felt like I was Donna Quixote, tilting at the windmills of untreated racism/colorism.

AFRO: About how many rallies and demonstrations a year do you attend? How many meetings and conferences?

CT: Do you have all night? As many as this 73-and-a-half-year-old body can make! Inequity demands eternal vigilance.

AFRO: Which issues do you see as the most critical at this moment in history?

CT: The myriad wars and invasions this country has thrown us into, mainly against countries of color, the extant pandemic racism/colorism that causes most wars. Another is insane patriarchy - the mistaken notion that male hormones are more important than female ones. We women are the majority in most countries. How dare males so disrespect their own mothers by maltreating us females all over this misogynist world?

AFRO: Why do you think that Black women are so often overlooked in terms of leadership roles in the movement?

CT: Because Black males have, unfortunately, adopted the white males' insane misogyny - wholesale.

AFRO: How would you describe yourself politically? As an independent?

CT: How could any thinking one be otherwise who understands that (1) the voting system is just one giant scam sham, and that (2) we Black folk have never had an untampered-with voting right in this country. Do your research and you'll discover Black vote tampering going back ever since we were supposedly 'given' the vote!

AFRO: Doesn't not voting disqualify you from complaining about Bush?

CT: If that disqualifies me, this means that other millions who don't vote are unrepresented by elected individuals, which Bush is not - elected that is. The Republicans stole the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections. That's why no one should call the cretin 'President!' I think his mother should be tried for war crimes for having him.

AFRO: Do you think that Black people should create a third party or simply not participate in the political process?

CT: How can we Black folk participate in the political process when there's so obviously more than one - one for Whites and one for people of color? Fix the damn racism/colorism first! www.racismtest.com up the wazoo!

AFRO: How do we get from the status quo to a better world?

CT: I just answered that one! Every cop, teacher, judge, jury, employer, editor, doctor, politician, journalist - whoever's in authority - should have to prove to the public that they are not dysfunctionally racist/colorist, not pathological in their responses to culture or color.

AFRO: Meanwhile, what makes you happiest today?

CT: Oh, my! The fact that my two children, Cindy and Larry, are self-sufficient, caring, compassionate humans and that my grandson, Tyler, looks like he's following in their brilliance! And, of course, the knowledge and pride that I've finally completed my wild autobiography and am looking for a smart publisher, so when the thing's printed, I can go on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show!' Look out! I'm alkalizing, Ion Cleansing and still kickin' butt!"