I don't much like Harry Belafonte, and I don't much like Joy Behar. At the cost of giving Behar's web site a few clicks, I am posting an interview she did with Harry Belafonte that airs today. In this interview, Belafonte goes after Herman Cain, who is now (according to some polls) the front-runner for the GOP nomination. That means that the liberal media has started to step up its attacks on Cain. In the below interview, Belafonte blasts Cain as well as other black Republicans like Colin Powell and Condi Rice. He basically calls them Uncle Toms.
http://joybehar.blogs.cnn.com/2011/10/10/harry-belafonte-blasts-herman-cain/
Harry Belafonte was known principly for singing a stupid song called the Banana Boat Song back in the 1950s. Lately, he stays in the headlines a couple of times a year by going to visit his pal Hugo Chavez in Venezuela and attacking any black person who doesn't toe the liberal Democratic line when it comes to race. Behar is simply a loudmouth idiot who gives Harry a soapbox.
To people like Belafonte, the Herman Cains of the world put the lie to his claims that conservatives and Republicans hate black people, and that blacks cannot make it in America on their own. That is why he attacks those blacks who have their own point of view. The fact that Cain is a Tea Party favorite is an inconvenient fact to people like Belafonte who want to paint the Tea Party as a bunch of white racists.
I have news for Harry "Day-o" Belafonte; ten Harry Belafontes couldn't make one Herman Cain.
I don't like Joy Behar either. (One more taste Gary and I hold in common). I generally like Harry Belafonte, and I enjoyed the "Day-O" song, as well as many others he has done.
ReplyDeleteHe is correct that just because a successful businessman has dark skin does not make that man an authority on all Americans with dark skin color or African descent, their needs, priorities, and whether racism has any impact at all on their prospects.
Other than that, his arguments against Cain are rather shallow. Making a credible case for the impact of racism today requires some precision, and some attention to nuance. Belafonte seems as incapable of that level of intellectual exercise as Gary, Miggie, Squid, and Findalis. But hey, nuance is a French word, so it can't mean anything useful. Entrepreneur is a French word too, but let's not let factual details get in the way of an ideological romp.
There is probably not much that can be done about the fact that people with discretionary authority to make decisions are still sometimes motivated by race as a consideration. Certainly there is no law or regulation that can totally eradicate it. But to deny it ever happens is foolish.
Another remnant of racism, which Cain would do well to talk about if he had the insight, is that a segment of African American subcultures have totally wrapped themselves in the white supremacist image of what it means to be "black," and identified with it: stupid, academically failing, tending toward crime and profanity, etc. That is the ultimate expression of white supremacy, not a genetic characteristic of being black, but it is presently expressed by the Dog Scoop culture (or whatever the rapper's name is).
What people who continue to choose to think of themselves as "white" need to come to terms with, and Cain can't afford to acknowledge, is that there is a significant economic disability that remains among the African American population, because for MOST of American history, in different ways for different generations, accumulation of CAPITAL was severely restricted, and lack of capital in one generation does limit the options of the next.
Cain managed to break through that, and that's a good thing for him, individually, but statistically, it does put people further back. It is not nothing.
Anyway, I'm opposed to a national sales tax, or a flat income tax. That's why I wouldn't vote for Cain.
I'm glad someone here is full of nuances. I like to keep it simple. Belafonte is doing what you accuse Cain of doing. He is judging the "blackness" of others as he has done with Rice and Powell.
ReplyDeleteI think Belafonte is a jerk who doesn't have much regard for this country-which, by the way, gave him the opportunity of being a success. That he hangs out with Hugo Chavez speaks volumes about him.
I want to know why Findalis finds Herman Cain threatening to "Blacks." Is it because she thinks all "Black" people think alike? Most people I know whose visible complexion suggests an African heritage are paying little or not attention to the egoistic little man. Only a handful like Belafonte even deign to notice his existence.
ReplyDeleteBelafonte may well be doing exactly what I accuse Cain of doing. That doesn't make either one of them a good candidate for President of the United States. They wouldn't even make a very entertaining Point-Counterpoint show.
Its nice that you want to keep things simple Gary... but there is nothing more complicated than a human personality and what makes people tick.
"The fact that Cain is a Tea Party favorite is an inconvenient fact to people like Belafonte"
ReplyDeleteInconvenient? It makes the apparatchiks and useful idiots crazy. Blacks are supposed to be Democrats, same as (unmarried) women, trial lawyers, state and federal government workers, union members, food stamp and welfare recipients, ACORN, teachers, and so on. If you are any one of those and think some conservative idea is worth embracing then you are not "authentic." An Oreo!
The Democrats simply can't have people wandering off the reservation. Their first consideration for anything is whether it is good for their group. The first consideration for conservatives is whether it is good for the country.
The idea that libs can't comprehend or appreciate is a black man who has made it on his own, without affirmative action. That is incomprehensible. It is cognitive dissonance. This can't be happening!
The Democrats are more racist because they assume the inferiority of black people and therefor try to get them perks and benefits (or not prosecute them in the Eric Holder version).
The Republicans applaud all people who accomplish things and make a success of themselves ... period ... without regard to the color of their skin. They don't want special treatment for people because of the color of their skin.
The Democrats will wage a vicious dirty personal campaign because they can't run on their abysmal record.
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I always felt that Harry Belafonte should have just stayed with singing or protesting, but Gary, he sang more than a simple Banana Boat song, otherwise he would not have been performing at Carnegie Hall. I have a problem with entertainers trying to become political pundits.
ReplyDeleteYou, Gary, don't know much about music, do you?
Ingrid,
ReplyDeleteSure I do. Have you never seen my fousesquawk top ten or top ten Spanish songs? I even remember Roy Black.
We all agree on the white liberals, the black liberals, the Mexican liberals. What we disagree on is whether the liberals qualify as working class heroes. They don't. The liberals are the people that faux conservatives propose as working class heroes, because real working class heroes would make mincemeat of Herman Cain's bloated profits. I bet he exploits black wage earners too.
ReplyDeleteGary may or may not know much about music. I don't, except for knowing what I like, so I can't judge his taste. He has good taste in baseball teams. He doesn't know anything about politics, except for what I know about music: what he likes.