Battleangel

Outspokenness and dissent aren’t in fashion in America. Not that they ever were. Democracy Now! reports that Harry Belafonte has had several speaking engagements canceled with no apparent reason given and that he was disinvited from the Coretta Scott King funeral and the planned eulogy. Apparently the King family and the organizers were pressured to cancel Belafonte’s speech when George W Bush announced his attendance.

In retrospect, Belafonte correctly observes how the event was planned and hijacked by the political interests who were once synonymous with oppression.

What struck me was on the day of the ceremony, I saw how the altar was adorned. I saw who sat there, and as the camera moved about, I saw who was sitting in the audience, and I saw all of the power of the oppressor represented on the stage, and all those who fought for the victories that this nation was experiencing and enjoying sat in the outhouse, sat out in the field, sat removed, and if it not been for Lowery, for President Carter and for Maya Angelou, we would have had no voice and no representation at all.

A final insult to Martin Luther King and his legacy. Not that African-Americans have done much to prevent this either. Like the man says, there is no one like Dr. King, Malcolm X or Fannie Lou Hamer around anymore.

The sad truth is that so called Black leaders for the most part fit the witty description once given by Malcolm X in that they are essentially Uncle Toms, prancing about guided by a sense of false consciousness, turned by their oppressors to drop their loyalties.

They’re going to take one of their boys, black boys, and put him in the cabinet so he can walk around Washington with a cigar. Fire on one end and fool on the other end.