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Tony Brown Tells It All
Celebrated author/talk show host speaks volumes at Ohio Union

By Robert Taylor Jr.
Managing Editor

Telling author and talk show host Tony Brown not to tell the truth is like telling a bird not to fly.

The outspoken, no-holds-barred Brown spoke his mind to roughly 350 people at the Ohio Union Feb. 24 as part of United Black World Month 2000.

"What you want in life is what you can't buy with money," he said. "The only thing you can truly possess is character and integrity. And the only way you can get it is with love and compassion."

Brown spoke about the greatest scientist of all, Jesus Christ, the inventor of 'love.' He said that if love is showed by a person, then love will be showed back. But if hatred is expressed, hatred is expressed back. This matter, Brown said, is widely used in racial discussions.

"I don't want to be a part of hating other races," Brown said. "Racism is a disease, and anyone who has to talk about a group of people to make themselves feel better is mentally disturbed.

"There's no difference between blacks and whites. Basically, we're average people, with a few geniuses and a liberal sprinkling of fools. We didn't come over in the same ship but we're in the same boat," he voiced.

"We should be proud of ourselves. We should empower ourselves as human beings. We should have love and compassion and create a reality that determines our reality."

Concerning education, Brown spoke about how busing black students to learn with higher-educated white students was a harsh act of racism because it made the black students feel inferior. Brown noted that Asians are almost twice as likely as whites to graduate from college, so "if you want to bus Tony Brown, you bus me to Chinatown," he said.

Brown, a native of Charleston, WV, graduated from Garnet High School, then received his Bachelor's degree in Sociology and Master's in Psychiatric Social Work at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI.

He has written Black Lies, White Lies: The Truth According to Tony Brown (1995) and Empower The People:The Conspiracy That Is Stealing Your Money and Freedom (1998), and is the host of "Tony Brown's Journal," which airs weekly on PBS. His radio show, "Tony Brown's Chicago,' can be heard Saturdays from 10 a.m. to noon on WLS-AM (890) in Chicago.

The event was sponsored by the Office of Minority Affairs at the Frank W. Hale Jr. Black Cultural Center, WCKX-FM (107.5), Wendy's International, Nationwide Insurance, UPS, Staples, African-American Mentoring Program, the Office of Minority Affaris at the Retention Services, and the Greater Columbus African-American Chamber of Commerce.