Posted on 10/21/2002 12:50:10 PM PDT by spald
The Trouble With Harry
It's one thing for an aging celebrity leftist like Harry Belafonte to go on national television (twice) and call President Bush a slave master and two black senior members of his Administration -- Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell -- "house slaves." But it's another thing entirely to have a respected charity organization countenance this buffoonery.
We learned recently that Africare, an African-aid group based in Washington, D.C., disinvited Ms. Rice to its annual fund-raising dinner, which will pay tribute to Mr. Belafonte's humanitarian efforts. She had agreed to give the keynote address, but Mr. Belafonte, who has compared the National Security Adviser to a "Jew" who was "doing things that were anti-Semitic and against the best interests of her people," told Africare that he could not abide Ms. Rice's presence. So the organizers rescinded the invitation to Ms. Rice.
Julius Coles, who runs Africare, disputes this account. He told us in an interview that Ms. Rice won't be in attendance at Thursday's event due to "scheduling conflicts," and that Mr. Belafonte had no say whatsoever in the matter. "We don't let other people determine who our speakers will be," said Mr. Coles. "We've never let that happen; we've always been a nonpartisan organization. That's Africare's position."
Mr. Belafonte tells a different story. He boasted to Phil Donahue last week that he was responsible for Ms. Rice's "scheduling conflict." "I protested by telling [Africare] that if Condoleezza Rice became the keynote speaker at the event . . . I would not be able to be there," said Mr. Belafonte. "I told them I would not come."
Our sources confirm Harry's account. It was C. Payne Lucas, the president emeritus of Africare, who first asked Ms. Rice to speak, before retracting the invite at the singer's insistence. Mr. Lucas isn't returning our phone calls. Ms. Rice, with customary class, simply expressed hope that this episode wouldn't taint the charity. A spokesman for her told us, "Africare is a wonderful organization. It does a lot of good work in the world, and in a part of the world that's very important to the President, to Secretary Powell and to Dr. Rice."
We agree. The real victim here is Africare, which is addressing critical issues such as Malawi's food shortage and Zimbabwe's AIDS crisis. Mr. Lucas has betrayed the group's well-earned reputation for nonpartisanship, and the current leadership has stood by watching and fudging the truth.
Like Secretary Powell, who simply called them "unfortunate," we've no desire to respond in kind to Mr. Belafonte's antebellum slurs. Time was, the black left would gripe (with justification) about the dearth of black higher-ups in federal government. Later the complaint was that a black could become, say, secretary of labor or education but wasn't permitted to fill senior cabinet posts. By tapping two capable blacks for Secretary of State and National Security Adviser -- positions that couldn't have less to do with the color of their skin -- Mr. Bush is properly seen as something of a trailblazer.
But for Mr. Belafonte and other supposed liberal champions of "tolerance" and "diversity," all black Republicans are race-traitors. Those who stray from the Democratic Party's ideological "plantation" -- to use his favorite metaphor -- are Uncle Toms. We'd say Africare disinvited the wrong person.
Updated October 21, 2002
Me too, amigo, yo tambien. But remember that the St. Dept. is so chock full of career Arabists that it's inevitiable that the Sec. of St. - regardless of his/her own views - is (to a certain degree) going to be associated with some of their stench. Powell allowed this to happen early on, but he quick asserted his power and clamped down on the sonsofb/tches in the Dept. That place needs a housecleaning like nobody's business.
Her very manner and speech delivery, whether one disagrees with her or the administration- exudes almost all that one would wish for in women of power. There is hope left after all.
As for Harry- (I am a very private person) Bellafonte. Enjoy what you are extremely good at. Politics NO.
or is it brains?
Come to think of it you're right.
Suddenly this sorry hasbeen is all over the news. Too bad for him that his voice is shot or maybe he could revive his long sunken career.
Isn't it weird that the black left in this country makes Clilnton an honorary member of the Black Hall of Fame even though he executed a brain damaged black man in Arkansas to get elected president but they want to shut Colin and Condi down for being smart and successful...the black left is riddled with poverty pimps and socialists IMHO.
You don't? Check this. Harry Belafonte, A True Believer
Heck no, I never agree with anyone from BROOKLYN! (In spite of this Texas accent I went to Jr. High in QUEENS! ;-)
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