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\u201cThere’s a whole lot of people who could stand up here and be honest with you today, but they won’t because they understand your reaction. But God’s blessed me well. I ain’t never cared what ya’ll think about me. And I’ve been knowin’ for a long time that truth ain’t never had to be validated by your ignorance\u201d. <\/em>Dick Gregory, Compton College, 1981 <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n
One of the pivotal events related to my political deflowering occurred when I was 20 years old. I heard comedian-activist Dick Gregory speaking at California’s Compton College on March 26, 1981, and at one point during his talk he unambiguously and clearly stated that then-president Ronald Reagan would soon be shot and possibly assassinated. He said it with a calm confidence that impressed me at the time, and I marveled that he would venture such a bold statement publicly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was even more impressed — startled and a bit stunned, really — when four days later Reagan was<\/em> shot, just as Gregory had predicted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Later we learned the shooter’s brother had recently made plans to dine with Neil Bush, son of then US vice-president, George H.W. Bush, who in 1976 had been installed as director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In hindsight, it appears that Dick Gregory tried to make the public aware of a stratum of political power and social control that generally remains unknown to the public and functions outside the realm of our quaint democratic institutions. He was describing what some are now calling the Deep State\u009d although that term is relatively recent and its definition contentious and unreliable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At the time, Gregory simply referred to members of this loosely knit group of ridiculously wealthy people as the “Superpimps”. He was suggesting that while the term “pimps” most commonly refers to sex trade hustlers in lower-rent districts, super rich white exploiters exhibit exactly the same behavior and should be thus credited. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While the general population remains unaware of this plutocracy, Gregory informs us that President Richard Nixon knew of its existence, having learned about it “the hard way”, and that Reagan, to his detriment, was about to find out. Gregory said: <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘Dick Nixon found out the hard way. Ronald Reagan gonna find out the hard way! It ain’t never been about Ronald Reagan, baby; that was a manipulation. It ain’t about Ronald Reagan. It’s about George Bush. It’s about puttin’ the CIA in the White House. That’s what it’s about<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘And\nif Ronald Reagan would have died three days before that election\nthey’d have stuffed him and ran him anyway! And the only reason they\ngot by with it is because of your ignorance. There’s whole lots of\npeople who could stand up here and be honest with you today, but they\nwon’t because they understand your reaction. But God’s blessed me\nwell. I ain’t never cared ’bout what ya’ll think about me. And I’ve\nbeen knowin’ for a long time that truth ain’t never had to be\nvalidated by your ignorance<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n