Thursday, February 02, 2006

Belafonte and Bond: They're not right.

Singer Harry Belafonte has been quite outspoken over the past few years in his opposition to the Presidency of George W. Bush. From calling President Bush a "terrorist" to using Hitler analogies, Belafonte has made no secret of his sheer disdain for the entire Bush administration.

Belafonte also offered this little gem in October 2002:

There was two kinds of slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes, they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good 'cause they ate his food and what he left.

This was a quote attributed to Malcolm X which Belafonte used to characterize then National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Not to be outdone, NAACP chairman Julian Bond labeled Rice and Powell as "tokens" in the Bush administration in a speech he gave Wednesday night in North Carolina.

Call me naive, ignorant or both. But isn't the purpose of the NAACP to work on behalf of African-Americans? So why such demeaning rhetoric when referring to two of the brightest minds ever to serve in a Presidential cabinet?

Belafonte and Bond have both implied quite strongly that the Bush administration is racist. So why would such a bigoted presidency allow two African-Americans to occupy its most prominent cabinet posts?

Leave it to ol' Banana Boat Harry to explain that one with a clever analogy:

Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich.

Stunning.

For nearly 100 years, the NAACP has fought tirelessly in securing equality for black people. Yet, when Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice accomplish something never done before by African-Americans, they're called such despicable names like "house negroes" and "tokens".

I guess renown activists like Julian Bond and Harry Belafonte are all for civil rights, provided it advances the liberal agenda. However, if any African-Americans stray from that agenda to embrace a different ideology, they are publicly rejected.

To me, that's the ultimate form of segregation.


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