I was personally appalled by the comments made recently by singer Harry Belafonte regarding Condoleezza Rice and her ethnicity. And I cannot believe that black people everywhere are not denouncing him as a Self Repressing Arrogant Jerk.
As I listened to the interview, I was reminded of an experience I had as a young boy in Florida. As I watched over a five-gallon bucket of crabs fighting each other to get out, I became worried that they might escape. I was assured that they wouldn’t by our friend and neighbor, Buzz Hendrickson, an experienced crabber.
Buzz explained that the crabs would keep each other in the bucket because as one would approach the top, the others would grab ahold and pull it back in before an escape could be made.
Mr. Belafonte seems bent on doing this to his fellow blacks, in a most Arrogant way.
He says in the interview that ‘Someone needs to remind her [Condoleezza Rice] that she is black’. Wow. And I thought all this time we were trying to forget about ‘color’ (though I personally feel that color should be celebrated). Mrs. Rice assures us that she certainly does not need to be reminded that she is black, and that she herself has felt plenty of resistance in her remarkable climb to the position of Secretary of State. She is no ‘house slave’, that is for sure. Though Harry would have you think so.
Harry also thinks Joint Chief of Staff Colin Powell is a house slave, and offers a somewhat confusing assessment of how some slaves were able to take advantage of their position ‘in the master’s house’. His point remains unclear to me, however I am left certain that Harry Belafonte is a Self Repressing Arrogant Jerk.
Perhaps being the ‘King of Calypso’ provides the authority to suppress other great black achievers.
If you are interested in listening to the interview, click here.
