Harry Belafonte is like the Black Bill O'Reilly

Harry Belafonte is like the Black Bill O’Reilly
By Anthony Harris

     I’m getting a little tired of Harry Belafonte.  He makes very valid points quite often as a political activist and as a diplomat to various nations.  He makes sense about the plight with Venezuela and Hugo Chavez’s fight for equality.  He comes from the right place with his criticisms of the Bush administration.  It’s just those moments where he takes it too far that seem to bug me.  I see problems with this administration, just as many other people do.  President Bush’s approval ratings will show that.  But as much as people may not be satisfied with the President’s job performance, the man most certainly isn’t Hitler.  Too often in America, we become so accustomed to speaking our minds that we seem to cast sense to the wind.  George W. Bush is not a powerful orator run by a blinding hatred to eliminate a race of people from the earth.  Heck, President Bush isn’t a powerful orator.
     When he led delegation with Venezuela on January 7, he referred to President Bush as the “world’s greatest terrorist” and also stated "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people ... support your revolution" according to the Associated Press.  While the President may have some tyrannical attributes, he may not be an absolute tyrant, and most certainly not the “world’s greatest tyrant.”  
     Black Republicans are not “Black tyrants” and Gen. Colin Powell was not a “house nigger” which is what Belafonte called Powell in 2002.  Powell chose to serve his country in the way that he deemed best.  By serving as Secretary of State, Powell attempted to help the Bush administration with foreign policy, which is something with which it lacks expertise.  This is the same situation with Condoleezza Rice.  The fact that they see the nation in a different life from other Black people does not give them “house nigger” status.  For various Black figures to state Powell and Rice did little to nothing to help the Black community in their jobs is quite ignorant.  The roles of Secretary of State and National Security Advisor have nothing to do with the Black community.  Yet we hear nothing from Belafonte or Cornell West or Danny Glover (all of which were in Venezuela on the 7th) on Alphonso Jackson’s, the Secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s, job performance.  He’s Black.  His job helps the Black community.  HUD could handle the temporary housing for the Hurricane Katrina victims better.  Public housing has never been fantastic.  Is Alphonso Jackson Stalin?  Is he an Uncle Tom?
     All I’m really saying is that I’d like it a little better if Harry Belafonte and others like him would tone down the rhetoric a bit.  I’m sure many of us remember the Crown Forum last year where Mr. Belafonte stated that President Bush was “worse than Satan himself.”  I wasn’t too receptive of that and I’m sure that others might not have been either.  When you’re a voice, you’re a better voice if people hear what you really have to say and not your exclamations.  You have to be a voice for all people and let them really hear you.  Not everyone is Hitler and when you think someone’s Hitler, they had better be killing 6,000,000 Jews, Blacks, homosexuals, and handicapped people or I’m going to doubt your validity.  Just a tad.

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