 By Michael Reagan August 15, 2005
The march in Atlanta was, as my fellow talk show host Mychal Massie described it, "a pep rally for hatred." He blasted the participants, who included U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., "judge" Greg Mathis and singer Harry Belafonte, all of whom charged that economically-disadvantaged blacks were being held down by the Bush administration in a racist America. "Combined, these people have a greater aggregate income than some third-world countries," Massie said. "How has America hurt them? How have they been injured by what's taking place in America? And where are their ideas and solutions?" The answer is that they have none. What they do have is a tendency to promote racist hatred. Just listen to what some of them said: Harry Belafonte: Commenting on the impact prominent blacks such as former Secretary of State Colin Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had on the Bush administration's relations with minorities, he raised the specter of Nazism. "Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value. "[If] a black is a tyrant, he is first and foremost a tyrant, then he incidentally is black. Bush is a tyrant and if he gathers around him black tyrants, they all have to be treated as they are being treated." Although Belafonte is now retracting some of his assertions about the number of Jews in the Third Reich, he continues to draw parallels between Nazi Germany and the Bush Administration. Speaking of conservative blacks to Cybercast News Service, Civil rights activist Dick Gregory said: "They have a right to exist, but why would I want to walk around with a swastika on my shirt after the way Hitler done messed it (the swastika symbol) up? So why would I want to call myself a conservative after the way them white racists thugs have used that word to hide behind? They call themselves new Republicans." TV Judge Greg Mathis, star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show," said the Bush administration and Republican Party leaders are "thieves" who "need to be locked up" for stealing the past two presidential elections and presiding over federal budget deficits and the war in Iraq. This guy plays a judge? A lot of the rhetoric was aimed at the extension of two provisions of the Voting Rights Act, which some warned might be prevented, while others called for changes when it comes up for extension in 2007 or hinted the whole thing will be junked. Here we once again have alleged leaders of the black community who go down there and rile up their followers about an issue that is truly bogus. The voting rights act is not going to disappear in 2007. The two provisions up for renewal will be renewed, and they know it. For Harry Belafonte to call Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell and others "tyrants" around George Bush and equate them to Jews being around Hitler is just plain outrageous. If this so-called black leadership in the country truly wanted to help their fellow blacks they would be talking about problems that are decimating the black community. They could start with the idea of putting fathers back in the homes and putting education first. If you really want to come out of poverty, if you want to better yourself, you have to be educated and you have to have families with both mothers and fathers in the home. It's unconscionable that every time someone in the black community reaches a position of power such as a Colin Powell or Condy Rice or a Judge Thomas, they are called Uncle Toms or tyrants, and slandered and attacked by the so-called black leadership whose only remedy for the problems in the black community is to spew hatred. And when a prominent black such as Bill Cosby calls upon black fathers to shoulder their responsibilities and take their place as heads of families, and tells black youth to stay in school and work hard and study and make something of themselves, he is viciously attacked by the demagogues who masquerade as black leaders. What is wrong with this picture?
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