Belafonte's Folly
From Tuesday's Larry King:
BELAFONTE: First of all, let me hasten to say, Larry, that this was never meant to be a personal attack on Colin Powell's character.
What it was meant, however, to be was an attack on policy, and the reference and the metaphor used about slavery -- it is my personal feeling that plantations exist all over America. If you walk into South Central Los Angeles, into Watts, or you walk into Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati, you'll find people who live lives that are as degrading as anything that slavery had ever produced. They live in economic oppression, they live in a disenfranchised way. In the hearts and minds of those people, and millions of others, you're always looking for hope, and whenever somebody within our tribe, within our group, emerges that has the position of authority and power to make a difference in the way business is done, our expectations run high. Many times, those expectations are not fulfilled. But when such an individual is in the service of those who not only perpetuate the oppression, but sometimes design the way in which it is applied, it then becomes very, very, very, very critical that we raise our voices and be heard. And...
Is Harry just Damon Lynch III in Caribbean garb? Mr. Belafonte has clearly never been to OTR to compare it to Watts. The inclusion of Cincinnati into his diatribe of racially based communistic dogma can only be seen as a favor to someone or some group here in Cincy. The only other explanation I can conceive is some kind of playing card/gambling/river Freudian slip. Of all of the claims of boycotters the “economic oppression” has been the most outlandish. They are protesting the fact that there are poor people in a capitalist society. That is like being made that there is cheese on a pizza. Poor people exist. Poor people can only get “unpoor” by working their Asses off. They already get handouts in countless ways. I am in favor of providing the poor a safety net to help them survive. That is what I consider part of the government’s role, and since I’m a Liberal you shouldn’t be surprised. However, being a liberal does not mean I don’t embrace capitalism. Harry and the boycotters answer, at least on the surface, is communism for “their people” supported by the rest of us. In other words it is reverse slavery. “We” must atone for what happened to their ancestors by paying for “their people” now to get rich without lifting a finger.
Harry should listen to Colin Powel at the Alfred E. Smith Dinner. His assessment of Powel can only be chopped up to blindly pushing his extreme political agenda under the guise of civil rights. Communism by any other name still smells like shit to me.
