Here’s yet another case of a celebrity not only using verbal atomic bombs to blast those with whom he disagrees but falling into the late 20th century/21st century trap of hauling out the (tired) Nazi comparisons.
The Nazi comparison is a trap because except for extreme partisans who cheer, it immediately makes others (on the right, left, center) wish that the person using it would shut their trap. It does NOT convince anyone and alienates most listeners and readers.
And so it is with Harry Belafonte, the legendary singer who is apparently celebrating the anniversary of Hiroshima with his rhetoric insulting blacks who aren’t Democrats and others with whom he disagrees. Let’s now experience the joy of his latest rhetorical music:
Atlanta (CNSNews.com) – Celebrity activist Harry Belafonte referred to prominent African-American officials in the Bush administration as “black tyrants” at a weekend march, and he also compared the administration to Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany.
Belafonte, a featured speaker at Saturday’s march in Atlanta commemorating the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, previously ignited a political controversy in 2002 when he likened then-Secretary of State Colin Powell to a “house slave.”
At Saturday’s civil rights march, Belafonte said the Bush administration has been “rather dismal” for the lives of black Americans. The march, which featured prominent civil rights groups and labor union representatives, was intended to drum up support for extending and strengthening the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Belafonte used a Hitler analogy when asked about what impact prominent blacks such as former Secretary of State Powell and current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had on the Bush administration’s relations with minorities.
“Hitler had a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich. Color does not necessarily denote quality, content or value,” Belafonte said in an exclusive interview with Cybercast News Service.
“[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,” he added.
When asked specifically who was a “black tyrant” in the Bush administration, Belafonte responded to this reporter, “You.” When this reporter noted that he was a Caucasian and attempted to ask another question, Belafonte abruptly ended the interview by saying, “That’s it.”
Well, he certainly explained and defended his argument well, didn’t he?
And, gee: I had a lot my relatives in the Gandelman family wiped out by Hitler during World War II and I never KNEW there were so many Jews in his government.
Perhaps the Jews I never knew were in Hitler’s government helped wipe out the Gandelmans because they went to a rival temple. Or they didn’t like Chinese food.
And just yesterday I got an email from someone who found a post I did about my mother’s dad, my grandfather Abraham Ravinsky and how my “Poppy” showed me photos of his family, pointing out to me how the little kids, women and adults were mercilessly murdered by Hitler’s flunkies. This person was a Ravinsky and can’t find much about the family. So they emailed my 86-year-old father who answered:”We know almost nothing about the Ravinsky family….all of Pop Ravinsky’s family were wiped out by the Germans.”
I never KNEW until reading the singer who I admired so much as a kid’s comments that Hitler apparently liked Jews so much he invited them to be in his government.
Perhaps they even gave him an honorary bris…
It’s quite puzzling when people on the right and left who you would assume have common sense resort to The Ultimate rhetoric. It wins over no converts. It’s like saying you want to converse with someone whose head is in a guillotine — then pulling the lever on it and wondering why they don’t agree with you and answer you. It ENDS any real political debate.
Daylight comes and Harry ought to go home. ASAP…
SOME OTHER VIEWS:
—Matt Yglesias:”I’m increasingly inclined to adopt a “no enemies on the left” mentality, but this from Harry Belafonte (via K-Lo) really is a bit much…I’m not averse to a little Nazi analogy here and there, but I’ll be damned if there were a lot of Jews high up in the hierarchy of the Third Reich.”
—La Shawn Barber:” When I first saw the movie Carmen Jones, I was convinced that back in the day, Harry Belafonte was the finest thing walking. He was suave and soft-spoken, yet strong and manly, an intoxicating combination. Now he just seems like a bitter old man.”
—Gary Farber says consider this story’s source but adds about the singer’s contention about Jews in Hitler’s government:”But this one is simply a matter of asserting as fact that which is not, and it’s not a meme I’d care to see spread, without at least, the truth close behind.”
—Captain Ed has a long post. Here’s a small quote:”Exactly which Nazis in the Third Reich were Jews, let alone the large amounts of them Belafonte has conjured up? It is an idiotic assertion, one that points to an anti-Semitic paranoia that has raised its head often enough on the far fringes of the African-American community, despite the generous support given by the Jewish community overall to civil-rights goals.”
—John Hawkins has some other quotes from some others at this event and writes:”You know, I’m really glad RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman is working hard to reach out to black Americans, because there have got to be a lot of people who are getting tired of being associated with the sort of kooks & ultra-libs who have appointed themselves as spokesmen for black America. “
—James Joyner sums it up aptly in two words:”Most bizarre.”
—Booker Rising’s Shay:”Certainly over the top, but I chalked it up to another one of Belafonte’s rants against diverse black political and ideological thought. It also undermined an otherwise good event: drumming up visibility for reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act. Belafonte should aim his “black tyrants” speech at actual ones. Oh say, the ones running rampant in Africa? Did anyone see comedian Dick Gregory go off on the “Hannity & Colmes” show last night?”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.