WEBVTT 00:00:11.040 --> 00:00:15.344 Maya Angelou: The one thing that con men will tell you 00:00:15.344 --> 00:00:18.280 the only way you can be a mark is if you want something for nothing. 00:00:18.280 --> 00:00:22.157 If you're greedy, you're set up. Perfect. 00:00:30.350 --> 00:00:32.220 Studs Terkel: Daddy Clidell was your stepfather. Maya Angelou: Yes. 00:00:32.239 --> 00:00:34.359 Studs Terkel: And Daddy Clidell lived by his wits. 00:00:34.360 --> 00:00:38.580 Maya Angelou: Daddy Clidell owned pool halls and gambling houses. 00:00:38.580 --> 00:00:41.760 Daddy Clidell knew the racket. 00:00:41.760 --> 00:00:44.720 So he taught me how to look at cards and see if they were marked, 00:00:44.720 --> 00:00:47.820 how to weigh dice and know if they're loaded. 00:00:47.820 --> 00:00:50.200 Then he brought in alot of con men. 00:00:50.200 --> 00:00:53.880 Professional con men who maybe take two marks a year. 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.560 Studs Terkel: We should point out a mark is someone who is taken. 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:00.500 Maya Angelou: My dad, daddy... He'd call the guys in, 00:01:00.520 --> 00:01:05.000 "y'all, come on in here, fellows. I want you to tell my baby here 00:01:05.000 --> 00:01:09.420 how you sold that supermarket in Dallas." [laughs] 00:01:09.420 --> 00:01:13.840 "I'm raising this girl, I got to educate her." 00:01:13.840 --> 00:01:19.000 So they told me not only the supermarket, but they sold a bridge in Oklahoma. 00:01:19.060 --> 00:01:26.360 Yes. One man said that, "you see, you use the white man's bigotry against him." 00:01:28.800 --> 00:01:30.080 Maya Angelou: There was a white man in the town... 00:01:30.080 --> 00:01:30.940 Studs Terkel: It was Tulsa. 00:01:30.940 --> 00:01:36.700 Maya Angelou: In Tulsa. Who had just exploited all the Indians and the blacks 00:01:37.700 --> 00:01:40.100 and if he hated anybody more than Indians, it was blacks. 00:01:40.100 --> 00:01:43.600 These two con men went down. They checked him out 00:01:43.600 --> 00:01:46.020 and decided to play him against the store. 00:01:46.020 --> 00:01:51.880 In long con that's when you set it up for two months, maybe, and spend a few thousand dollars. 00:01:51.880 --> 00:01:57.860 You have cards made, a telephone taken in, a secretary, everything, the whole front. 00:02:00.000 --> 00:02:04.000 One of the guys played very, very ignorant and very shuffling 00:02:04.000 --> 00:02:07.940 and went up to the man and said, "look here." 00:02:07.950 --> 00:02:10.720 "I got a friend who own a piece of land, you know." 00:02:10.720 --> 00:02:16.560 See he got it because he's part Indian.” [laughs] 00:02:16.580 --> 00:02:24.500 "Some white man, some Yankee, want to buy that land because it's got a toll bridge on it." 00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:29.600 My father's two friends, they sent for a white con man from New York 00:02:29.600 --> 00:02:35.280 who came down as the big real estate agent from the north, who was interested in buying this land. 00:02:35.280 --> 00:02:42.960 The white southerner, the Oklahoman, went to the office to talk to this northern real estate man, realtor. 00:02:42.970 --> 00:02:50.030 The northerner said, "now, listen: I'm going to get this land for maybe $70,000 or something like that" 00:02:50.080 --> 00:02:55.680 "because the guy is ignorant. I've checked it out. My office has checked it out. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:01.380 He's got the title of clear. When he signs, it's mine. But if you check it out or 00:03:01.380 --> 00:03:06.900 you raise any kind of dust, the state will become aware of that land and that he really owns the property 00:03:06.910 --> 00:03:10.890 and they'll move in and confiscate it. So just leave it alone. 00:03:10.890 --> 00:03:13.350 You and I can work together." 00:03:15.300 --> 00:03:20.120 Maya Angelou: Well, this white cracker, the southerner, the Oklahoman said, 00:03:20.120 --> 00:03:26.340 "he knows niggers.” That’s his attitude. "So if this northerner is going to buy it for $70,000," 00:03:26.350 --> 00:03:31.870 "he can buy it for less than that. Get the whole thing.” [laughs]. 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:41.780 At first the white southerner, the Oklahoman, he was brought to this Indian black American. 00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:46.100 He went to him and he explained that he'd better have that land 00:03:46.100 --> 00:03:51.220 and how bad the northern whites were. He talked about the damn Yankees. 00:03:51.220 --> 00:03:57.840 So the shuffling Indian Negro said, "well, you know boss, I'd rather you have this land" 00:03:57.840 --> 00:04:04.420 than that white man, that Yankee." So it took some time and he bought it. 00:04:04.420 --> 00:04:05.600 Studs Terkel: For about 50,000. 00:04:05.600 --> 00:04:08.880 Maya Angelou: That's right. Cash. Studs Terkel: Cash. 00:04:08.880 --> 00:04:14.340 Maya Angelou: And that is not a rare… that is not rare. I mean, when I was growing up, 00:04:14.350 --> 00:04:20.410 I used to know men, very intelligent men, who lived on maybe 2 marks a year. 00:04:20.410 --> 00:04:23.820 Studs Terkel: Basically you're talking about the stupidity of racism. 00:04:23.820 --> 00:04:25.340 Maya Angelou: That's right. Studs Terkel: In a way, it's almost a metaphor. 00:04:25.340 --> 00:04:30.040 Maya Angelou: Of course because these men were born before the turn of the century. 00:04:30.040 --> 00:04:36.620 What a black man could be by 1915, his inability to function was crystallized. 00:04:36.620 --> 00:04:42.240 He simply had no way to move. Yet, here are men who lived by that intelligence. 00:04:42.280 --> 00:04:49.980 Suppose... imagine if that intelligence had been able to be used constructively. 00:04:49.980 --> 00:04:54.420 That is more constructively for the common good. 00:05:02.600 --> 00:05:05.440 Studs Terkel: Maya Angelou, our guest. Thank you very much. 00:05:05.440 --> 00:05:10.720 Maya Angelou: Thank you Studs. It's wonderful to see you again, to see you keep on keeping on. 00:05:10.740 --> 00:05:12.200 Studs Terkel: I'll stay on the case. 00:05:12.200 --> 00:05:13.600 Maya Angelou: That's it. 00:05:23.520 --> 00:05:30.520 [Music: JAHZZAR “Airship Fury”]