| GREG-STRANGE.COM |
"If you haven't found something strange during the
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
day, it hasn't been much of a day." -- John A. Wheeler
PROVIDING SUBSTANTIVE COMMENTARY ON THE
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
PEOPLE, POLITICS, EVENTS AND ABSURDITIES OF
OUR TIME. SERVED UP WITH ACERBIC WIT, YOU
SHOULD FIND IT QUITE SATISFYING.
Belafonte Imbecility
"Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me banana,
(Daylight come and he wan' go home)
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o. . ." --- Harry Belafonte, 1956
"There's an old saying in the days of slavery, there were
those slaves who lived on the plantation and those slaves who
lived in the house. . . . Colin Powell's committed to come into
the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest
something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be
turned back out to pasture." --- Harry Belafonte, 2002
And entertainers wonder why so many average Americans
wish they would just keep their big traps shut about politics.
This loquacious and once wildly popular calypso singer, whose
heyday ended with the arrival of the Beatles, which was right
after the JFK assassination (which, in other words, was a long
damn time ago), has come out in an interview and basically
equated Colin Powell, the nation's Secretary of State and
highest ranking African-American, with a plantation era
"house boy."
Well, yowsa, yowsa, yowsa! Thanks a lot for your
contribution to the national dialogue, brother mon. And what
is National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice, a modern day
Prissy, the simple-minded slave from "Gone With The Wind"
("I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!")?
What in the world was this has-been calypso singer/political
activist thinking when he delivered the lowest insult
imaginable to the most highly respected black man in the
country, a man who through his intelligence, ability and
dedicated service has achieved the highest governmental office
of any African-American in United States history?
It all boils down to one thing, essentially. Colin Powell is a
Republican, which means that he has dared step outside of a
certain unalterable ideology that, in the minds of the
Belafontes of the world, all blacks are expected to adhere to, or
else. . . Or else be branded a race sellout.
Attention all black folks: If you want to talk about a
plantation mentality, this is it! White folks can be liberal or
conservative, socialist or populist, federalist or libertarian,
existentialist or gnosticist, or anything else they care to dream
up. But for you, there is only one way to think and act, and you
know what that is. Try and get uppity and the Belafontistas
will cut you down to size.
But it's not just about Powell being a Republican. According
to Belafonte, "the overwhelming majority of black people in
this country agree that the impending war with Iraq is a
colossal mistake." How he knows that and why it would even be
the case is something of a mystery, but let's just say for the sake
of argument that he is correct in his assertion.
Now, follow me closely because this might sound a bit
convoluted. Since President Bush is white and apparently
wants a disastrous war with Iraq, and since Powell works for
the president and Powell is black and the majority of blacks are
overwhelmingly against this war for whatever unspecified
reasons, then if Powell doesn't either change the president's
mind about having the war or else resign in protest, but instead
just meekly goes along with it, he's nothing but an Uncle Tom
race traitor and a step-"n"-fetch-it boy for Massa Bush. Did I
just about get that right, Mr. Belafonte?
In reality, we all know that Powell could have been the
Master himself had he wanted the position. Back in '96, when
people weren't exactly thrilled with having to choose between a
licentious narcissist and an aged, future Viagra spokesman,
they were practically on bended knees begging him--bowin' and
scrapin', as it were--to run for president. When you asked
almost anyone if they would vote for Powell if he ran for
president, the standard answer was something along the lines
of, "In a heartbeat."
The first black president would have been a shoo-in. His
race would not have bothered the vast majority of white people
who would have been more than happy for him to be their
supreme leader. For whatever reason, he didn't want the job.
Colin Powell is nobody's house boy and anybody that calls
him one isn't fit to spit shine his shoes. Powell will be
honorably serving his country long after a certain washed up
septuagenarian calypso singer, of whom I used to be mildly
fond, has outlived any usefulness and is "out to pasture" where
he can spend his remaining days singing his chuckleheaded
Caribbean folk songs. Intellectually, he's already out to
pasture. If only his mouth would follow suit.
"Come, Mr. Tally Mon, tally me banana,
(Daylight come and he wan' go home)
Day-o, day-ay-ay-o. . ." --- Harry Belafonte, 1956
"There's an old saying in the days of slavery, there were
those slaves who lived on the plantation and those slaves who
lived in the house. . . . Colin Powell's committed to come into
the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest
something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be
turned back out to pasture." --- Harry Belafonte, 2002
And entertainers wonder why so many average Americans
wish they would just keep their big traps shut about politics.
This loquacious and once wildly popular calypso singer, whose
heyday ended with the arrival of the Beatles, which was right
after the JFK assassination (which, in other words, was a long
damn time ago), has come out in an interview and basically
equated Colin Powell, the nation's Secretary of State and
highest ranking African-American, with a plantation era
"house boy."
Well, yowsa, yowsa, yowsa! Thanks a lot for your
contribution to the national dialogue, brother mon. And what
is National Security Advisor Condeleeza Rice, a modern day
Prissy, the simple-minded slave from "Gone With The Wind"
("I don't know nuthin' 'bout birthin' no babies!")?
What in the world was this has-been calypso singer/political
activist thinking when he delivered the lowest insult
imaginable to the most highly respected black man in the
country, a man who through his intelligence, ability and
dedicated service has achieved the highest governmental office
of any African-American in United States history?
It all boils down to one thing, essentially. Colin Powell is a
Republican, which means that he has dared step outside of a
certain unalterable ideology that, in the minds of the
Belafontes of the world, all blacks are expected to adhere to, or
else. . . Or else be branded a race sellout.
Attention all black folks: If you want to talk about a
plantation mentality, this is it! White folks can be liberal or
conservative, socialist or populist, federalist or libertarian,
existentialist or gnosticist, or anything else they care to dream
up. But for you, there is only one way to think and act, and you
know what that is. Try and get uppity and the Belafontistas
will cut you down to size.
But it's not just about Powell being a Republican. According
to Belafonte, "the overwhelming majority of black people in
this country agree that the impending war with Iraq is a
colossal mistake." How he knows that and why it would even be
the case is something of a mystery, but let's just say for the sake
of argument that he is correct in his assertion.
Now, follow me closely because this might sound a bit
convoluted. Since President Bush is white and apparently
wants a disastrous war with Iraq, and since Powell works for
the president and Powell is black and the majority of blacks are
overwhelmingly against this war for whatever unspecified
reasons, then if Powell doesn't either change the president's
mind about having the war or else resign in protest, but instead
just meekly goes along with it, he's nothing but an Uncle Tom
race traitor and a step-"n"-fetch-it boy for Massa Bush. Did I
just about get that right, Mr. Belafonte?
In reality, we all know that Powell could have been the
Master himself had he wanted the position. Back in '96, when
people weren't exactly thrilled with having to choose between a
licentious narcissist and an aged, future Viagra spokesman,
they were practically on bended knees begging him--bowin' and
scrapin', as it were--to run for president. When you asked
almost anyone if they would vote for Powell if he ran for
president, the standard answer was something along the lines
of, "In a heartbeat."
The first black president would have been a shoo-in. His
race would not have bothered the vast majority of white people
who would have been more than happy for him to be their
supreme leader. For whatever reason, he didn't want the job.
Colin Powell is nobody's house boy and anybody that calls
him one isn't fit to spit shine his shoes. Powell will be
honorably serving his country long after a certain washed up
septuagenarian calypso singer, of whom I used to be mildly
fond, has outlived any usefulness and is "out to pasture" where
he can spend his remaining days singing his chuckleheaded
Caribbean folk songs. Intellectually, he's already out to
pasture. If only his mouth would follow suit.