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COALITION'S THE THING DELLUMS

thing inherently evil and sick about a society that perpetuates pov- erty. I've traveled in thirty-five states in the United States talking with people running poverty programs. You know what I'm about to talk about. We even carry guns to the meeting over who gets a $25,000 contract to serve 25,000 people. What are you going to do -buy them some peanuts? And so Puerto Ricans and Blacks fight over who gets the crumbs. Chicanos and Blacks fight over who gets the crumbs. Chicanos, Puerto Ricans and poor whites fight over who gets the crumbs. Stop the fighting and join hands and take the man on who threw the crumbs in the first place. He's the problem.
King saw what I saw. Before I came to Washington I was "cul- turally deprived." I didn't know the difference between a subsidy check and a welfare check. Now I do. A subsidy check is a damn sight bigger and it goes to fewer people. You see, because the question in America is not welfare. We give welfare to the rich, to the elite, to the powerful, but we call it subsidy-oil depletion allowances, farm subsidy, SST subsidy, cost-plus contracts, special provisions and loopholes in the tax structure that deny us fifty billion dollars a year in tax revenues. That's welfare, but to the rich. That's "social- ism," but to the rich. Give us some at the bottom. That's what our politics have got to be about.
And King saw the contradiction in the elitism. Let's say for a moment that freshman Congressman Ron Dellums tomorrow morning became a powerful chairman of a committee introducing a com- prehensive health bill on the floor of Congress. And while we're trip- ping, let's say that I was in total control. There would be one of those funny congressmen, from one of those funny states, would leap to his feet. And the chairman of the committee of the whole would say,
"For what purpose does the gentleman from the funny state rise?" "I rise in opposition to the legislation."
"The gentleman is recognized for five minutes."
He would walk forward; you know, we're very polite in the Con- gress. He would stand down in the well and argue brilliantly, oppos- ing comprehensive health for all the human beings in the country. And in his closing fifteen seconds he would say, "And colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I urge you to vote down this legislation on the grounds that it's creeping socialism."
And then Chairman Dellums would leap to his feet (I've got a "super-nigger" card so I'm a "super-nigger"). And I would say, "Would the gentleman yield for a few questions?"
"I yield to the gentleman from California."