The Latest Hollywood Moron--Harry Belafonte

Media and Policy Review ^ | 10/9/02 | Kevin Kelley

[Kevin Kelley]

Drudge reports on the comments of our most recent Hollywood moron, Harry Belafonte. Additionally, last night Bill O'Reilly of Fox News' O'Reilly Factor blasted Belafonte for his scathing criticism of Secretary of State Colin Powell. From Drudge.....

Singer Harry Belafonte took to the AM radio waves on Tuesday morning to slam Secretary of State Colin Powell as a sellout to the black race!

Belafonte, appearing on San Diego's 760 KFMB, told host Ted Leitner that Powell was like a plantation slave who moves into the slave owner's house and only says what his master wants him to say.

Belafonte's comparisons between slavery and conservatism are reminiscent of the unrelenting attacks suffered by Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas. Essentially, the argument goes something like this: If you don't side with the Democrats, who are the de facto protectors of the little guy and minorities, then you are a racist. This slap-down is used to prevent further debate and intimidate others into avoiding the same error.

What proof is there that Democrats help blacks more than Republicans? Well, Democratic campaign literature is rife with platitudes to the minority voter for one thing.....and if that's not enough, there is the welfare state, funded with trillions of dollars over 40 years that led to blacks becoming a permanent underclass. Liberal policies that created incentives to have children out of wedlock led to record levels of teen pregnancy and the crushing of so many dreams. When conservatives complained that Rap music was course and misogynistic and glorified the thug lifestyle, liberals exploded, accusing Republicans of wanting to stifle the creative talents of NWA and Tupac Shakur. So Shug Knight and his gang affiliated Death Row Records became a huge success by painting white culture and the work ethic as outmoded paradigms that kept the black man down. Now, urban youth emulate the swagger of the rappers, walking around with their new sneakers and a .40 in their waistband....nothing in front of them but a losing crap shoot between selling rock on the corner and jail (or a hole in the forehead).

But worry not! The Democrats were there to help with food stamps and other lame programs that mainly fostered dependency on government. Of course we can't overlook the stunning success of the Democrat led urban school systems that have graduated so many shining examples of excellence in public education.

What an embarrassment to hear Belafonte harping about Uncle Tom boot kissing house boys in the face of the actual history of liberal failures. There is literally not a single success that liberalism can point to. Good intentions are a joke, and are tossed overboard at the first offer of political power or expediency. To expect government to be the savior of the black community is a ridiculous idea. Belafonte should rightly be held out as the latest Hollywood Moron.

Kevin Kelley
Media and Policy Review

[SkyPilot]

Very nice list.

I would like to borrow it and paste now and again.

[Dick Bachert]

"Hollywood moron?"

Isn't that one of the main entries in the new edition of the Dictionary of Redundant Phrases?

[Dick Bachert]

One of those slavering infobabes asked Brad Pitt what he thought about a then unfolding national event.

Pitt recoiled slightly and responded "Why the hell you asking me? I'm just a f**king actor."

Brad went up a notch on my honesty scale/

[wysiwyg]

...Dictionary of Redundant Phrases

Is that produced by the Department of Redundancy Department?

[Dick Bachert]

Yes. In the DoRD "Division of Written/Printed Reading Books/Publications Division."

As you might have guessed, surmised and assumed, it is a government operation based in Washington, DC, District of Columbia.

[weegee]

Clearly anyone who can pen insigtful lyrics such as these, has much to add to the arena of international diplomacy.

Well maybe Harry should keep his mouth shut and let others speak. It seems that the music was written by his arranger William Attaway and Irving Burgie (Lord Burgess) was responsible for those words. Bellafonte was just a singer (who was considered a fraud among the folkies of the early 1960s).

William Attaway - The Mississippi Writers and Musicians Project at Starkville High School

William Attaway wrote songs for Harry Belafonte, in whose home he was married in 1962 (Drapher 56), including the famous Day-O Banana Boat Song. Altogether, Attaway wrote over 500 songs.

ASCAP Playback Magazine

Singer/songwriter/folklorist/teacher Irving Burgie is a modest man. Even so, he wants the world to know his name. It's not as if he hasn't made his musical mark yet. For more than forty years now, the world has been singing along to his songs. One song in particular has become an international phenomenon. In fact, you only have to utter the song's two-syllable title to incite just about anyone, anywhere to start singing its joyous refrain: "Day-O, Day-ay-ay-O, daylight come and me wan' go home." You know the rest.

Of course Belafonte receives songwriting credit from many people on the internet. Maybe he even wrote that phoney Shakespeare quote.

It's an outrage that Bush has failed to appoint not even one washed up 50's era reggae singer to the State Department.

Well Robert Mitchum didn't live long enough to serve in a cabinet position under President George W. Bush but I'm sure that he would have appreciated the consideration...

Had it been Algore Jr. we might have had to endure Calypso Louis Farrakhan in a cabinet position...

[stevio]

Impressive list.

[weegee]

Translation: Damnit! I'm hear to promote my latest film. Don't go springing a quiz of third world leaders on me like Algore did with George W. Bush! I'd look like some kinda idiot!!!

This is not to impune his intelligence, it would just give the impression of being someone emptyheaded spouting off about something he knows little or nothing about.

Again, I agree that at least he was honest with the interviewer.

[hang 'em]

Here's a Holywood RAT list for boycott I'm working on. Think I'll borrow a few from yours.

Jane Fonda, Robert Redford, Jack Nicholson, Ed Asner, Peter Weller,
Jack Lemon, Woody Harrelson, Leonardo di Caprio, Frances McDormand,
Naomi Campbell, Francis Ford Coppola, Joel Coen, Eric Roberts, Sean
Penn, Alec Baldwin, Susan Sarandon,Harry Belefonte, Barbra Streisand,
Martin Sheen, Ted Danson, Whoopi Goldberg, Danny Glover, Gregory Peck,
Eli Wallach, Jack Lemmon, Tony Randall, Carlos Santana, Kevin Spacey,

[Mr. Thorne]

nooooooooo!

Not Salma Hayek!

No no no no no!

[GSWarrior]

Add to this: walter Cronkite

I know he's a lefty, but Cronkhite did speak out against the three networks blackout of Bush's speech.

[Geezerette]

I love your list!! Thank you for the laugh and info about "celebrities"!

g

[js1138]

Didn't he do "Little Bird"? And wern't all the songs that made him rich and famous sung for masa?

[friendly]

What a collection of talentless scum, scientology vermin, and cultural pollution! Thanks for the list of people I will never pay a nickle in the movies to watch.

Incidentally Barfafonte is a chronic no-talent failure who has always been a Marxist. Too bad he never went to live with his God: Fidel Castro. He is truly a hypocrite, a parasitic melanoma on the buttocks of our nation.

[polemikos]

Nice List

Two comments:

Clift, Ellenor - irresponsible journalist
"irresponsile" is WAY TOO NICE

Etheridge, Melissa - transvestite
I thought it was "lesbian"

p.s., how about Clymer?

[lodwick]

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[weegee]

In an effort to redeem Clinton's credibility, Walter sacrificed his own with their boating trip photo op.

Most trusted man in America? Ha!

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

[freepy smurf]

Nice List Two comments: Clift, Ellenor - irresponsible journalist "irresponsile" is WAY TOO NICE Etheridge, Melissa - transvestite I thought it was "lesbian" p.s., how about Clymer?

Thanks. I was scratching my watch when I should have been winding my Clymer.

[bushfamfan]

Is Condi really going to that? It's time to take a stand and sensible people can't respect these scums. I say she should cancel any involvement and give a verbal shot back. It's all insincere on his part anyway.

[bushfamfan]

As for Robert Mitchum, does anyone know if that was in fact him narrating the short film for President HW Bush at the '92 GOP convention right before 41 spoke? My Dad insists it is. John Wayne was a Republican- Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, James Cagney. That Hollyweird is long gone however. They don't make anything productive or decent anymore.