America 1982

Los Angeles, Long Beach.

Martin Hart swears to God, he has lived for twenty-five years, and every day before that put together has not been as bizarre as what happened today.

Black people on the West Coast are really unfriendly to their compatriots. On my first day in Long Beach, I was surrounded by four damn niggas. They forced me to take off the new sneakers on my feet. Before I could take them off, a Cadillac limousine drove by. Come, a strong white man who looks like a white rhino stepped out of the car, and an old white man with a dull face, as if he was suffering from facial paralysis.

Then, he saw the four black gangsters who had just tried to steal his sneakers. His first reaction was not to snatch the two white men who broke into the black community without permission. Instead, after seeing their faces clearly, he simply knelt down. He went down and raised his hands high above his head.

"Guys? How dare you just steal the sneakers of your poor compatriots and worship two white people who got out of a nice car? Are they police? The Los Angeles police are really rich, and they have Cadillac limousines..." Martin looked puzzled. asked several black people.

However, the four black men kept their heads down and raised their hands, completely ignoring Martin's questions. Their appearance made Martin wonder if these four guys were fake black men. Black people in Miami are not so polite when facing the police.

"This guy didn't kneel down, he must be a tough guy." He heard the strong white man say to the old white man: "Maybe your name is useless, Mr. Page. In short, you lost ten dollars to me."

Page took out his wallet from his jacket pocket, handed George ten dollars in change, and then walked around Martin Hart. Martin sniffed: "It smells like notes. I am the victim, police officer. They are about to Take away my sneakers, you must have taught them a hard lesson before to get them to develop the good habit of kneeling and raising their hands."

Page walked up to a dozen black men kneeling on the ground and lightly kicked one of them: "Swear a few dirty words."

"F*ckCock!" The black man raised his head and cursed at Page.

Page took out a pair of gloves and slowly put them on his hands, saying: "The scolding is not new, and it is obviously scolding me, which shows that he not only has no eloquence, but also has no eyesight, but I am used to it. Throughout the whole In Long Beach, the most polluted city in the United States, it may be more difficult to find a black person whose brain has not been destroyed by pollution than to find an alien."

Before, Martin was sure that the two men must be policemen in this area, but when he saw the gloves in Page's hand, Martin Hart became a little doubtful.

If I admit it correctly, it shouldn’t be the equipment used by the police, but smuggled goods from Cuba. The name is electric shock gloves. It is said that they were developed by the Soviet Union and used to interrogate prisoners. They are more powerful than the electric shock devices used by the American police. In Miami, he was lucky enough to see his old black cousins ​​using this thing to test the loyalty of their brothers. It only lasted five seconds, and the unlucky nigger became incontinent and lay on the ground convulsing.

"Shit! Have the police in Los Angeles started using Soviet goods?" Martin asked in fear when he saw the pair of gloves.

Page ignored him. Instead, she put her metal gloves on the scolding black man's face, flipped the switch with two thumbs, and the black man's facial muscles twitched several times under Page's touch, which lasted no more than three seconds. down, then fell to the ground foaming at the mouth.

"Swear some bad words." Page walked up to the second kneeling black man.

Before the man could speak, Martin Hart raised his hands knowingly: "I can scold! Sir! I can! And I won't scold you! As long as you don't shock me with that thing!"

Seeing Page looking at him and nodding slowly, Martin breathed a sigh of relief, then looked at the three black men and cursed loudly:

"Niggas, you like some fresh food? I heard you let your mama down? Don't worry, I'll give them my regards for you!"

Page was stunned for a moment, then said in a slow voice: "You must not be a local nigger from Long Beach."

"You two must not be police officers." Martin raised his hands and said to Page: "Sir, as long as you don't use that thing to shock me, I can use different swear words to these niggas for at least six hours in a row, and I can also rhyme with them. , if necessary, you can even pat your belly and play drums to accompany it.”

While Page was knocking several other niggas to the ground, he asked Martin as if he were talking about something commonplace: "Where are you from?"

"Miami, sir, Little Haiti in Miami." Martin looked at several compatriots who were electrocuted like fish out of water, convulsing and shaking on the ground: "There was a California Senator named Pete Wilson on TV, saying that California is very hostile to black people. Tolerant, more tolerant than Miami...I swear, he will never get my vote in this life."

"Are you here to deliver the goods?" Page turned off the power switch on the gloves and searched Martin's body skillfully: "There are several street gangs in Miami. Which one do you belong to?"

Martin saw Page turn off the glove switch and breathed a sigh of relief, but he still didn't dare to put down his hands: "I'm not a gang member, I'm a barber who came to Los Angeles to look for opportunities. I have a cousin named Richard who lives in I want to stay at his house near here. As far as I know, he might be a gang member..."

"Very well, I'm the driver of a black television station, and we need people like you." Page said to Martin.

"The driver of the black TV station?" Martin stared at the compatriots on the ground who were foaming at the mouth, and then looked at Page: "The black TV station? Is it a special channel that broadcasts how to execute black people? Or is it the name of a white gang? ?”

"No, it's just a normal TV station, so you're lucky." Page shook his head, lowered his head, took out a cigarette, lit one and said:

"The black unemployment rate in Long Beach this year is as high as 50%. One out of two black people is unemployed. You are lucky to be the one with a job."

Martin looked at the few lying on the ground, then at the black compatriots passing by in the distance who witnessed all this but had no reaction, and finally looked at Page in front of him: "Here in Los Angeles... TV stations use electric shock gloves to give black people haircuts. Did the teacher provide a job?"

"Sometimes I use a gun directly. It usually depends on the other party's reaction." Page exhaled a puff of smoke and held a cigarette in his mouth.

Martin raised his hands: "Can I go back to Miami? Sir, I want to go back to Miami now and be unemployed..."

"Of course, we don't force others, George, wake up these black people, hand the barber to them, and tell them to help me send him back to Miami. If I see this barber in the South Bay again, I will send him These remnants of the black joint vanguard are going to see their commander." Seeing Martin rejecting her, Page didn't change her expression at all. She just turned around and walked towards the car, and said as she passed George.

"You know, sir, I think a person should learn to seize opportunities." Martin saw the brown bear-like white man preparing to wake up the compatriots on the ground, and immediately took a few steps to catch up with Page.

Page glanced at him: "Are you literate?"

"I was admitted to a community college, majoring in hairdressing, and have a barber certificate. I'm a college student, sir. It's true." Martin said, "By the way, can I put my hands down?"

"Are you good at swearing?" Page opened the car door and motioned for Martin to sit in.

Martin carefully sat in the back seat of the Rolls-Royce, touched the leather-wrapped seat, and said:

"Yes sir, when I opened a barber shop in Miami, the customers were difficult to deal with. Most of them were black people. You had to scold them so that they could understand that it was not the hairstyles I designed that were ugly, but that they were ugly. If If you explain it in a gentle and gentle tone, they will think you are easy to bully, and then they will blame you for having eyes that look like ET."

"What's your name? Barber?" Page also got into the car and continued to ask.

Martin saw outside that the strong man was pouring cold water on a few niggas to wake them up, and threw a few coins in front of those people.

Looking at Page's expression as he looked at him, he swallowed and said, "Martin Hart."

"Martin, I decided to give you a job." Page lowered the car window, threw the cigarette out, and shouted to George, who was talking to several niggas who were being electrocuted by himself, "George, it's time to go."

Martin asked: "Excuse me, are you styling the hair of the TV host?"

"No, you are a bodyguard." Page said to Martin.

"What?" Martin said to Page with a hard-to-understand expression on his face:

"I'm a barber, sir. If I knew how to fight, I wouldn't have my sneakers almost taken away by these guys."

"You don't need to understand." Page said seriously to Martin: "You just need to be responsible for swearing."

Martin opened the car door and walked outside: "I'm going to get out of the car. If those guys want to steal my sneakers, let them go. I would rather walk back to Miami barefoot than look for opportunities in Los Angeles again. People here are crazy. Already..."

"The weekly salary is two hundred and fifty dollars, and there is a staff dormitory in Beverly Hills." Page continued while sitting in the car.

Martin closed the car door and sat back where he was: "Sir, who do you think you need me to scold?"

…

Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley, Studio District.

The headquarters of almost all television stations in Los Angeles, as well as the West Coast television centers of the three major American television networks CBS, ABC, and NBC, are all located here.

The headquarters of Tommy Hawke's Black Television, or BT for short, is also located here.

In the United States, it is not difficult to start an independent television station, but it is not easy to let the audience know about it and be willing to watch it.

The so-called independent television station does not belong to the three major television networks and does not have any cooperation with them. This means that this television station needs to spend real money to produce or purchase enough programs to broadcast on its own television station.

Therefore, generally independent TV stations will not appear in small cities because they do not have a large enough audience base. The city with the most independent TV stations in the United States is Los Angeles, and New York ranks behind it.

Even right next to the headquarters of BT TV station is another independent TV station. It is said that it was founded by a black NBA star. That guy bought the regional broadcast rights of a bunch of children's cartoons and broadcast them on a 24-hour rolling basis. The reason why this TV station was founded , because he did not realize the freedom of cartoons when he was a child, so when he got rich, he planned to open his own TV station that only broadcast cartoons.

At this moment, at the BT TV headquarters, Martin Hart, who had put on a black suit and tried to imitate Page's stern face, stood quietly in the conference room with Page. In Martin's eyes, the boss Tommy, who definitely had some serious illness, was Sitting in the conference room, he looked at Wolf Tucker, the CEO of BT TV station who had resigned, with a painful expression:

"Wolf, I can't understand why you did this. I trust you so much. I left BT TV station to you from scratch. You built it with your own hands, but then you took people to SBG. Why?"

Wolf Tucker, the former vice president of CBS's KCVB channel in Los Angeles, is 42 years old and graduated from the University of Southern California. He has worked his way from production assistant, executive producer, and producer to the position of vice president. The channel's flagship business talk show "The Ned Show", which he created himself, even won an Emmy Award.

He's one of California's top television producers, and he's black.

Inviting him to join BT TV station is not as easy as giving more money or shares. This guy has ideals. Tommy's concept of a black TV station is the reason why he is willing to change jobs and poach the old team to help Tommy build the entire TV station framework.

But he didn't expect that Tommy only wanted him to help complete the preliminary preparations for the TV station, and was not really planning to produce some in-depth black programs according to the idea when he was recruited to change jobs.

Depth, are you kidding me? As early as the 1960s, there were TV stations targeting black audiences that produced in-depth and enlightening programs in an attempt to raise the political consciousness of the black group and make them understand their legitimate rights. However, not long after, the TV station owner was placed on suspicion of providing The man who financed the Black Panther Party's weapons purchase was sent to jail, and the station closed down.

Seeing Tommy's painful expression, Wolf Tucker said with some shame: "Tommy, even if you let me choose countless times, I am willing to stand side by side with you."

"The fact is that you left and went to a rival company. The other party only promised to open a black TV station for you like BT, so you abandoned me." Tommy rubbed his face hard and hid it in his palms Next, he said in a muffled voice.

Wolf Tucker pursed his thick lips, looked at Tommy and said: "Your ideas for BT and program design all show that you really want to create a black TV channel that is different from the past. This is also attractive. The reason why I resigned from CBS and joined BT is that you want to inspire them and guide them. This is all very good, but... I can't wait for you forever. You said you want to produce all programs independently. You can purchase some of the programs. There is no need. Producing all the programs yourself would waste too much time. I don’t know if Miss O’Connor has conveyed my opinion. I don’t know what to say. The salary of two thousand dollars a week and the shares are attractive enough. I really shouldn’t resign, but I have to say that I don’t want to just be a useless person with a salary. Your whole self-made idea is too crazy and requires too much investment, and... if the ratings are not high, it will be easy to close down. , I don’t want it to be just a flash in the pan, and it just so happens that SBG also wants to launch a channel for the black community, so..."

After hearing what the other person said, Martin asked Page in a low voice: "He had a job where the boss paid him two thousand dollars a week and he didn't have to do anything, and then he betrayed the boss, right?"

Page nodded slightly.

"Can I scold this guy now?" Martin stared at Wolf Tucker and asked Page:

"This is no longer fucking racial equality. This Hawk boss is supposed to be black supremacy. He gives a nigger a weekly salary of two thousand dollars and doesn't require him to do anything. That nigger actually betrays him? I must wake up. ...No, lend me your gloves, I'm going to shock his balls to wake him up and see what kind of life black people are living outside."

"What we want to do is a great cause and strive for excellence. In my imagination, all BT programs are produced by black people and participate in black people. This can even help many black people find jobs. If we go to purchase, what is the difference between that and other TV stations? The difference." Tommy put down his palm and looked at Wolfe:

"I'm a little irritable now, Wolf. You are still my good friend, but I don't want to chat now. I will invite you as a guest another day."

Wolfe sighed: "Tommy, I can talk to SBG and try to convince them to merge their black TV station with BT TV station, and even let you be the majority shareholder, as long as you agree."

"Thank you for your kindness, Wolf." Tommy smiled bitterly: "You mean, my BT TV station has become history without even one premiere. That is SBG, the sixth largest TV network in the United States... …I said, I don’t want to talk about these issues anymore, I’m tired.”

"Tommy, if you insist, I am willing to take everyone back..." Seeing Tommy's painful and tired expression, Wolfe couldn't bear it.

As soon as he heard that the other party was willing to come back, Tommy immediately made a motion of turning the ring. Seeing that motion, Page gently touched Martin's shoulder: "Start working."

"Nigger! Didn't you hear my boss say he's tired? Get out! Or do you want me to fuck you next? You're a fucking disgrace to niggas! Mr. Hawke pays you two thousand dollars a week , you didn’t have to do anything, but it actually became a reason for you to attack him? Nig*er?” Martin immediately stepped forward and stood condescendingly in front of Wolf Tucker, his nose almost touching the other person’s face, drooling Feidi cursed:

"Are you staying here waiting for me to find you a high school girl with a nice ass and big boobs? I'm telling you, you're not going to get anything, Ni*ger!"

"Martin! What are you doing! Apologize to my good friend Wolfe!" Tommy shouted to Martin angrily:

"I gave you this job because I wanted to get to know black people through you, not because I wanted you to make me lose all my black friends, Paige! Take Mr. Tucker away!"

Before Wolf Tucker could react, he was greeted by a black man who suddenly appeared. He had not dealt with low-level black people for a long time. Faced with Martin's continuous attacks, he was a little overwhelmed and even They didn't know how to reply, so they were taken out of the conference room by Page speechlessly.

"How did I do? Boss?" Martin looked at Tommy: "For this kind of person, you should scold him once and for all, and then let Mr. Page put on gloves and shock his *** like crazy!"

"Martin, I understand your indignation, but Wolfe is my friend, do you understand?" Tommy looked at Martin and said.

Martin looked in the direction of the door and then at Tommy: "I don't understand. Did I scold him wrong? Mr. Page asked me to scold him. Of course, I am also willing to scold this bastard. He is not grateful. Black people these days How difficult is it to make a living? From the fact that I am a barber and now a bodyguard, I can see how difficult the world is."

At this time, Page pushed open the door of the conference room and looked at Tommy: "Mr. Hawke, is the trial effect of this guy okay? If it is not good enough, I can go to Long Beach to help you catch another one."

"Yes, Martin is a man with a sense of justice. His probation period is over. By the way, from now on, he will be responsible for haircuts and hair styling for TV station employees. Martin should be given the opportunity to improve his hairdressing skills." Tommy stood up. Patting Martin on the shoulder, giving him an encouraging smile, and then walked out:

"I'm going to talk to the new employees about the station's ideas. Martin can take a break, because they are all white. If you want to scold them, I will scold them myself."

When only Page and himself were left in the conference room, Martin walked towards Page with a smile: "Does this mean that I can earn two salaries? I fell in love with this job. To be honest, a boss as generous as Mr. Hawke , it’s rare these days…”

"Yes, but I suggest you give up one." Page took out a cigarette, held it in his mouth, and said seriously to Martin.

Martin looked puzzled: "Why? I have to help the boss scold those ungrateful niggas, and I also have to give the employees haircuts. These are two jobs."

"If you want to receive two salaries, you are ungrateful in the eyes of the boss." Page exhaled a puff of smoke and said seriously to Martin.