Harry Belafonte, Historian

By Nicholas Stix During an interview with reporter Marc Morano of the Cybercast News Service that was published on Monday, singer-actor Harry Belafonte said,

“[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.

“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.’”

After Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald, Harry Belafonte is as great a singer as I’ve ever heard. Only Tony Bennett and Peggy Lee compare to him. While most famous for his hugely popular West Indian folk-style pop songs, “Banana Boat” (aka “Day-O,” which he co-wrote) and ”Jamaica Farewell,” his greatness and versatility are perhaps best displayed in tender, crossover recordings of such songs as “Scarlet Ribbons” and “Try to Remember.” Belafonte also starred in or was a featured player in some excellent movies (I can’t recall how good an actor he was), and was a Tony award-winning musical performer on Broadway. But the 78-year-old Belafonte’s acting days are over, and his pipes are shot. And so, he has embarked upon a new career, as an historian. There are a few problems with what Harry Belafonte said. First, there were no Jews in the Nazi hierarchy. Period. The only way a Jew could survive in Nazi Germany, was by passing himself off as a Christian, as did Salomon Perel, whose life was depicted by director Agnieszka Holland and actor Marco Hofschneider, in the 1990 movie, Europa, Europa. Otherwise, they were headed for the death camps. Second, since the Nazis were devoted to the extermination of “das europaeische Judentum” (European Jewry), Belafonte is insinuating that the GOP is dedicated to the extermination of American blacks. Does he really want people to conclude that he’s a moron? The historical record shows that it is the Democrat Party, his party, that was the party of slavery and Jim Crow. The Republican Party was founded in part to abolish slavery. The third problem regards Belafonte’s condemnation of black Republican cabinet members as “black tyrants.” The statement argues that present and past black Bush cabinet members Colin Powell, Condoleeza Rice, Rod Paige and Alphonso Jackson are monsters. After all, my 1992 New Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus defines “tyrant” as “an oppressive or cruel ruler or master, a despot [,] someone behaving like a despot [,] (Gk. hist.) an arbitrary and absolute ruler who took power by force [O.F. fr. L. fr. Gk],” and Belafonte certainly said “black tyrant,” as if he did not like Rice, et al. (Note that in 2002, Belafonte called then-Secretary of State Colin Powell a “house slave.” How can one be a “tyrant” and a “house slave”? Belafonte is a Marxist; in Marxism, everything is “dialectical,” as in “Heads I win, tails you lose.” Marxists are permitted to contradict themselves with impunity, while the rest of us must maintain consistency. Similarly, Marxists may rob, torture, and murder, while everyone else must behave like a saint, and yet must still endure Marxists’ vituperation. Got it?) And yet, Harry Belafonte is a communist, and one of the world’s most famous supporters and friends of murderous Cuban communist dictator, Fidel Castro. Castro has murdered thousands of Cubans, and imprisoned tens of thousands more, simply for disagreeing with him. Castro “took power by force” and is “an oppressive or cruel ruler or master, a despot.” When considering Belafonte’s statement, one must keep in mind that as with other totalitarian beliefs (Nazism, Islam), being a communist requires that one constantly lie. Thus, the lies asserting that Jews were represented in the Nazi hierarchy, and insinuating that the GOP seeks to annihilate blacks. One must also keep in mind that as a communist and a Castro supporter, Harry Belafonte loves nothing more than a good, murderous tyrant. Harry’s not one of those wimpy ex-communists that deserted the Party, when its genocide was revealed. No, Sir! Like my late, communist Uncle Frank from Trinidad, Harry Belafonte respects a real dictator who will do “what has to be done.” And so one must wonder whether, coming from his mouth, the term “tyrants” was meant as a criticism or as a compliment. The occasion of Belafonte’s outburst was a march in Atlanta in support of "extending and strengthening" the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The Voting Rights Act was one of those virtuous sounding pieces of federal legislation that was supposed to ensure that blacks could exercise the franchise, but was later perverted to impose racism, in the form of guaranteeing “minority control” of certain congressional districts. It would be more honest to simply abolish elections in such districts, and appoint “the people’s representatives.” Which would suit Harry Belafonte just fine. In spouting his idiotic political statements, and seeking to exploit the goodwill millions of people feel toward him due to his musical career, all Belafonte ultimately will do is turn off those who are not communists, socialists, or black racists, while having no effect whatsoever on his comrades. Does Belafonte really want that? Does he want most people to think of him, as they do Paul Robeson, first and foremost as a communist sock puppet, and only secondarily as a performer? Because if he does, he will lose both as a performer and as a politician.