BELAFONTE SLAMS COLIN POWELL AS RACE SELLOUT
XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUES OCT 17, 2002 15:30:38 ET XXXXX
Singer Harry Belafonte took to the AM radiowaves on Tuesday morning to slam Secretary of State Colin Powell as a sellout to the black race!
Belafonte, appearing on San Diego's 760 KFMB, told host Ted Leitner that Powell was like a plantation slave who moves into the slave owner's house and only says what his master wants him to say.
"There's an old saying," Belafonte began. "In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him.
"Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."
For close to twenty minutes, Belafonte ripped the entire Bush administration, including an attack on Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"There's something wrong with men who think the way Ashcroft does and who manipulate the justice system the way he does."
Belafonte likened Ashcroft's tactics to the McCarthy era:
"Families were destroyed, neighbors spied on neighbors. Now we find Ashcroft cutting in under the guise of catching terrorists, suspending liberties and rights. To deny those rights, to any citizen, to any people, is to cast a great shame on us and lead us back to another dark period."
Belafonte also sang the praises of the United Nations as a pillar of global democracy, and decried President Bush for failing to attend the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa earlier this year.
"There were tens of thousands of peoples and leaders from all over the world gathered to discuss the issue of race. It was an honorable arena... But by not showing up, by sticking it to the government of Nelson Mandela... It was a dark page on our foreign policy."
Belafonte is best known for the international hit "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)".
-- Filed By Matt Drudge
X X X X XRace-Baiter Belafonte Once Paid Tribute to Powell
NewsMax.com
Tuesday Oct. 8, 2002; 9:43 p.m. EDT
Washed-up calypso singer Harry Belafonte leveled a vicious racial attack on Secretary of State Colin Powell during a Tuesday morning radio interview in Los Angeles. But less than three years ago the embittered ex-star paid tribute to Powell as the honoree of the University of the West Indies "Building the Legacy" award.
Referring to Powell earlier today, Belafonte told KFMB San Diego radio host Ted Leitner, "In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and there were those slaves that lived in the house."
"Colin Powell's permitted to come into the house of the master," he continued. "When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture," the bitter-sounding ex-star complained.
But in November 1999, Belafonte was the keynote speaker at a Manhattan breakfast held to publicize Powell's "Building the Legacy" award. And, in fact, he even shared the dais with Powell and praised him again when the award was given out three months later.
Here's how New York's Amsterdam News covered the Powell-Belafonte event:
"Colin Powell has no problem when it comes to revealing his ethnic background.
"When the retired army general and former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff accepted an award from the University of the West Indies last Thursday, the highly decorated solider immediately acknowledged his Jamaican roots.....
"The retired general also praised the University of the West Indies for its dedication to educating Caribbean men and women. 'You have spent the past 50 years preparing young men and women for the challenges of the world,' he added.....
"Another son of Jamaica, recording artist Harry Belafonte, also participated in the awards ceremony. He stressed that the University of the West Indies holds the key to the future of the young people of the Caribbean.
"'Without the university's input, there can be no meaningful and sustained progress,' Belafonte declared. 'Those who support the institution understand its strategic contribution to the region's development economically, politically, socially and morally, and will continue to support its mission,' he added."
Belafonte's celebration of Powell's award was a far cry from his comments on Tuesday. But the sour-sounding singer did give one clue about what changed his mind, when he complained to radio host Leitner about Powell's decision to join the Bush administration.
"I think Colin Powell made a decision to serve the Republican Party and to serve that kind of an ideological leader," Belafonte ranted.
"What Colin Powell serves is to give the illusion that the Bush cabinet is a diverse cabinet made up of people of color and made up of people of another gender. And that, that alone is to give Bush the credentials to say that he's a truly democratic man."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Editor's note:
Liberals attacks on America - in their own words!Powell: Belafonte's remarks 'unfortunate'
Singer compared Powell to a slave out to please the master
WASHINGTON (CNN) --Secretary of State Colin Powell said Wednesday that comments made by singer Harry Belafonte comparing Powell to a slave out to please his master were "unfortunate."
In a scathing radio interview Tuesday in San Diego, Belafonte blasted Powell in racially charged comments that compared the secretary of state to a plantation slave who moves into the slave owner's house and says only things that will please his master. Belafonte is a longtime political activist.
Both the singer and the secretary of state are black men of Jamaican descent.
"There's an old saying," Belafonte said. "In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and [there] were those slaves that lived in the house. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master ... exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him.
"Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."
In an interview taped for Wednesday night's edition of "Larry King Live" on CNN, Powell responded: "I think it's unfortunate that Harry used that characterization. I'm very proud to be serving my nation once again. I'm very proud to be serving this president.
"If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine. If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine," Powell said. "But to use a slave reference, I think, is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."
Earlier in the day, a senior State Department official had a piece of advice for Belafonte, similar to a suggestion made to Powell after he sang in a musical skit with fellow foreign ministers during the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Brunei this past July.
"As people said when the secretary sang at ASEAN [that] he should keep his day job, you could say the same about singers who get into politics," the official said.
Belafonte's comments about Powell were part of a nearly 20-minute tirade against the Bush administration, in which he also likened Attorney General John Ashcroft's tactics to those employed during the McCarthy era in the 1950s.
The reference was to Sen. Joseph McCarthy, who accused without evidence many prominent Americans of being communists, ruining their careers. McCarthy was later censured by the Senate.
"Families were destroyed, neighbors spied on neighbors," Belafonte said of the era. "Now we find Ashcroft cutting in under the guise of catching terrorists, suspending liberties and rights.
"To deny those rights, to any citizen, to any people, is to cast a great shame on us and lead us back to another dark period."
Belafonte, best known for his hit "The Banana Boat Song," also criticized President Bush for not attending the U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, earlier this year, calling it "sticking it to the government of Nelson Mandela ... a dark page on our foreign policy."
-- CNN Producer Elise Labott contributed to this report.
Belafonte Stands by Criticism of Powell
October 11, 2002 07:22 PM ETLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer Harry Belafonte said on Friday he stands by remarks likening Secretary of State Colin Powell to a plantation slave who is "serving his master well" but insisted he never meant to defame the former general.
"This was not a personal attack on Colin Powell," Belafonte said in a statement issued through his New York-based publicist. "However ... speaking on behalf of so many African American citizens, I have found Colin Powell to be a tragic failure."
Belafonte, 75, who like Powell is a black man of Jamaican descent, responded in racially charged terms when asked during a radio interview on Tuesday about Powell's position in the debate over possible U.S. military force against Iraq.
"...there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and there were those slaves that lived in the house," Belafonte said in the interview. "You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master."
Reacting to Belafonte's remarks a day later on CNN's "Larry King Live," Powell said the singer's slave reference was "unfortunate" and a "throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."
In his follow-up statement on Friday, Belafonte said he did not "intend to defame ... Powell as an individual." But he went on to largely repeat his criticism of the Cabinet secretary.
In characterizing Powell as "serving his master well," Belafonte said, he was referring to President Bush."My analogy to the plantation existence I say without regret, and maintain that the overwhelming majority of black people in this country agree that the impending war with Iraq is a colossal mistake," the entertainer said.
Belafonte, who popularized calypso music with such 1950s hits as "Banana Boat (Day-O)" and "Jamaica Farewell," is performing this weekend in San Diego.© Copyright Reuters 2002.
www.reuters.com
Late entries for world's funniest joke contest
Posted: October 14, 2002
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
By Doug PowersHarry Belafonte saying that Colin Powell has sold out his race
Belafonte made a name for himself "singin' for da man" and he has the gall to accuse Colin Powell of Uncle Tomming his way to the top? True, Powell's only achieved one of the nation's highest offices and met with some of the world's most powerful people. He hasn't defiantly broken the stereotypical mold like Belafonte and gone into the entertainment business. Maybe someday, Powell will go a step further and decide to really break free of whitey's grip by taking up tap dancing and shoe shining.
Career advice from a man who sings a line like, "Come on Mister Tally Man, tally me banana"? I don't know for sure, but if I were Powell, I'd stay the course.
Doug Powers is a freelance writer whose work has been read by millions of Internet denizens.
Belafonte: Rice Worse Than Powell
NewsMax.com
Thursday, Oct. 17, 2002 7:33 a.m. EDT
An unrepentant Harry Belafonte continued his attack Tuesday night on blacks in the Bush administration, telling CNN's "Larry King Live" that National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice was a bigger sellout than Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Asked if he thought Rice deserved the same criticism as Powell, whom Belafonte compared to a "slave" last week who lived "in the house," the washed-up calypso singer bellyached, "Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Even more so.
"Because I've never heard from Condoleezza Rice even the suggestion towards some of the more lenient thoughts or some of the more appropriate thoughts that Colin Powell has expressed," explained the militant singer.
Belafonte added that Powell and Rice have an obligation to speak out on matters important to black America and that they should threaten to quit if President Bush doesn't like it.
"If I was them, I would use the platform to speak out against the ill-advised policies of the administration," he told King. "I would go as far as inviting to be fired, if that's what happens."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Media BiasEditor's note:
Liberals' attacks on America - in their own words!What if Colin had attacked Harry?
Jewish World Review Oct. 17, 2002/ 11 Mar-Cheshvan, 5763Larry Elder
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Singer/activist Harry Belafonte viciously lashed out at Secretary of State Colin Powell, calling Powell a house slave and a lackey to "master" George W. Bush. "You got the privilege of living in the house," said Belafonte, "if you served the master exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."
Belafonte later got off a second round, this time pronouncing Powell "a tragic failure," while reiterating the slave reference, presumably because of Powell's support for possible military action against Iraq. Powell, with his customary calmness and class, dismissed Belafonte's remarks as "unfortunate."
Suppose some Republican, whether Powell or, say, Senator Trent Lott, R-Miss., started the fight by calling Belafonte an "anachronism who keeps black people mired in the self-defeating and destructive white-man-holds-you-back-don't-trust-Republicans mindset."
History tells us people like Belafonte often dish it out, but when criticized, they scream like banshees and seek vengeance.
- Director Spike Lee calls racism America's No. 1 problem, denounces interracial black/white couples, and put dialogue in his movies that some perceived as anti-Italian and anti-Semitic. Yet when a reporter, following extensive interviews, wrote an article titled "Spike Lee Hates Your Cracker Ass," the director threatened to refuse future interviews conducted by whites.
- Danny Bakewell, a black Los Angeles-area contractor/activist, routinely plays a race card to win sweetheart deals from the guilt-ridden city councils, a shakedown-like tactic employed by the likes of Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton. Jill Stewart, a former Los Angeles Times writer and then New Times columnist, called him a "race hustling poverty pimp." Bakewell sued for defamation. Not only did he lose, but also the presiding judge ordered Bakewell to pay Stewart $25,000.
- Congresswoman Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, routinely stirs the pot with race-card playing antics. Although she refuses the many invitations extended to appear on my radio show, she appeared on another Los Angeles radio show and urged listeners to disrupt my show by jamming the phone lines. Waters refers to the Republican Party as "the enemy," and once called former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan "a plantation owner." Yet when the head of the Los Angeles Police Commission, in a private conversation, allegedly referred to her as a "b-tch," she demanded an apology and his resignation.
- Earl Ofari Hutchinson, a black Los Angeles columnist/activist, appears on many local and national television shows. Most recently on Fox's The O'Reilly Factor, Hutchinson quite responsibly took Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton to task for their silly attack on the movie "Barbershop." A few years earlier, however, Hutchinson wrote a book called "The Assassination of the Black Male Image," in which he argued that the media intentionally put on the worst possible images of black males. After I criticized the book as unfounded, emotional and distorted, he called me a "shock jock." He also participated in a stealth letter-writing campaign urging angry blacks to send letters to my sponsors demanding that they withdraw support from my show. Hutchinson's underground effort -- ultimately unsuccessful in removing me from the air -- nevertheless resulted in millions of dollars of lost advertising revenue.
- Rev. Sharpton appeared as a guest on a CNN program I recently guest-hosted. After I dared question his ethics for falsely accusing a man of rape in the Tawana Brawley case, he phoned CNN executives, and threatened to sue the network and me for defamation.
- Rev. Jackson and I, some years ago, appeared on a television program to discuss whether blacks now possess fundamental civil rights. Jackson talked about the wealth disparity between blacks and whites. I informed Jackson that wealth was not a civil right, and that as to matters like voting and equal rights, yes, blacks have, for the most part, triumphed. Jackson promptly accused me of "identifying with white males" and later cursed-out the producer for pitting me against him.
- Rev. Jackson and Rev. Sharpton both demanded apologies from the producer of the movie "Barbershop." Jackson, who refuses to see the film, along with Sharpton sought and obtained an apology from the producer. Not satisfied, the duo demands that the filmmakers edit out the offending passages in the video and DVD versions.
- Defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, five years ago, entered the Abner Louima case. New York Post columnist Andrea Peyser lamented, "Johnnie Cochran will say or do just about anything to win, typically at the expense of the truth." Cochran, race-card player extraordinaire, the man who once said, "Race plays a part of everything in America," and likened Mark Fuhrman to Adolph Hitler, sued for defamation. A judge dismissed the lawsuit.
Apparently, angry black victicrats can't stand the heat, yet demand an air-conditioned kitchen.
![]()
Enjoy this writer's work? Why not sign-up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Larry Elder is the author of, most recently, Showdown: Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America. (Proceeds from sales help fund JWR) Let him know what you think of his column by clicking here.
© 2002, Creators Syndicate
Rice Blasts Belafonte for Slave Slam
NewsMax.com
Sunday, Oct. 20, 2002 2:29 p.m. EDT
Bush administration National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice tore into washed-up calypso singer Harry Belafonte on Sunday for saying she was even worse than Secretary of State Colin Powell, whom he had called a "house slave."
"I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black," Rice seethed during an interview with CNN "Late Edition" host Wolf Blitzer, who confronted her with the singer's earlier remarks.
In a talk radio interview last week Belafonte compared Powell to a "slave" who lived "in the house" of the Bush administration, then he told CNN's Larry King days later that Rice was even worse.
"Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. Even more so. Because I've never heard from Condoleezza Rice even the suggestion towards some of the more lenient thoughts or some of the more appropriate thoughts that Colin Powell has expressed," explained the militant singer.
Of Belafonte's outburst, Rice first said, "Oh, look - it really doesn't need response. If Harry Belafonte disagrees with my political views, that's fine. That's a conversation that is worth having. We're Americans. Everybody should be able to debate views."
But then Rice unloaded on the left-wing entertainer with both barrels, telling Blitzer, "But I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black."
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Editor's note:
Liberals attacks on America - in their own words!Jackson stresses the 'struggle is not over'
Civil Rights leader takes on Bush
By Lee Shearer
lshearer@onlineathens.comThe Rev. Jesse Jackson didn't use the harsh words of Harry Belafonte to describe U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell when he spoke in Athens Sunday, but he told his audience to be clear on one thing about Powell.
''He's not on our team,'' Jackson told a packed house at Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, which celebrated its 110th anniversary Sunday. ''If he wins, Trent Lott wins. We're not on that team. If he wins, we lose. If he wins, poor folks lose.''
But Jackson's aside on Belafonte -- the singer last week called Powell the Bush administration's ''house slave'' -- was just a part of Jackson's criticism of the Bush administration, which he said is using an exaggerated threat from a country that might get nuclear weapons -- Iraq -- as an ''election trick'' to divert attention away from the county's
mounting economic woes.
''Here we are today victimized by a stolen election that's turned into a mandate for war,'' said Jackson, reminding his audience that it was Al Gore, not Bush, who got more votes in the 2000 presidential election.
''Bush is using a war to divert our attention from the economy and drive us by fear, and not lead us by hope,'' said Jackson, founder and president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition.
In two years under Bush, a $3.5 billion federal budget surplus has turned into a $20 billion deficit; poverty rates have climbed and family income has gone down; people have lost trillions of dollars in value from their pension and 401-K plans; funding for Medicare, public education and Bush has yet to meet even once with the NAACP, he said.
When Bush was of military service age, he ''was dodging war,'' but now that ''he's waging war -- with your children,'' Jackson said.
Racism is alive and well in the United States, said Jackson, pointing to the latest criminal proceeding involving Florida Gov. Jeb Bush's daughter.
Caught with illegal drugs a third time, the president's niece got a 10-day jail term.
''She deserves love, compassion and treatment. But then your son and daughter deserve the same love, compassion and treatment,'' Jackson told his predominantly black audience, citing statistics showing while most people who are arrested are white, most who go to prison are black.
But the struggle isn't about race -- it's about poverty, and about everyone, Jackson said.
''The Civil Rights struggle is not over, and it's for everybody. Most poor people are white, they're female, and they work every day,'' he said.
But he also said many African-Americans have forgotten and don't appreciate the sacrifices made by people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who died in his effort to get civil rights for African Americans.
One of those rights is the right to vote -- yet 600,000 African American Georgians are not registered, he said.
''Brother King was killed over the right to vote and you don't even register? And now we got the right to go to school and have to beg somebody to get off the TV? Involuntary slavery is illegal, but to volunteer is legal,'' he said.
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Monday, October 21, 2002.
Africare Dinner Censors Protests Against Belafonte
Reprinted from NewsMax.com
Marc Morano, CNSNews.com
Saturday, Oct. 26, 2002WASHINGTON Organizers and those attending Thursday night's Africare Awards dinner honoring entertainer/activist Harry Belafonte made a concerted effort to suppress protests and questions regarding Belafonte's racially charged comments.
Belafonte abruptly turned his back and ended an interview, thundering "Good night," when asked about the recent controversy.
Harassment
A small group of Belafonte protesters were harassed by Africare's staff as part of an effort to stifle any mention of the entertainer's recent comparison of Secretary of State Colin Powell to a "house slave" and Belafonte's successful effort to remove National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice as the keynote speaker for the dinner.
On the other hand, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., said he "completely" agreed with Belafonte's conduct regarding Powell and Rice. Belafonte was given Africare's 2002 Bishop Walker Humanitarian Award at the Washington Hilton. Africare is a non-profit relief group.
Phyllis Berry Myers, president of the Center for New Black Leadership, carried signs protesting Belafonte's appearance. Event organizers tried to take a sign away from her that read: "Harry Belafonte Does Not Speak For Me."
Myers, who was in the public lobby of the hotel, eventually agreed to leave. She told Africare staff, "I will keep my sign, and I will take it outside myself."
In the Washington Hilton hotel lobby, dinner organizers forcibly broke up this reporter's interviews with several attendees, because they were unhappy with questions about Powell and Rice.
A woman representing Africare intervened repeatedly during taped interviews with dinner participants and led them away, so they could avoid answering any question about Belafonte's controversial actions.
'Intolerance'
Myers believes Belafonte's remarks and the conduct of the Africare staff are an example of "the new intolerance" that is "rising up to enforce their definition of authentic blackness."
"It is an attempt to castigate and intimidate and also silence any black American who dares dissent from the traditional civil rights orthodoxy," Myers told CNSNews.com.
'Left-Wing Race Politics'
Another African American protester, Robert Woodson, Sr., president of the National Center for Neighborhood Enterprise, said he had "been a strong supporter of Africare for years" but was now "disappointed that they would allow Belafonte to drag them into left-wing race politics."
"Africare does itself a disservice by allowing him [Belafonte] to come here and dictate his policies," Woodson said.
Woodson was particularly upset about Rice's removal as keynote speaker at Belafonte's insistence.
Belafonte boasted to MSNBC's Phil Donahue last week that he "protested" Rice's selection as keynote speaker for Africare's awards dinner because, "I did not like her policies, and I thought that she was an inappropriate speaker for the evening.
"When it showed up that Condoleezza Rice was to be the keynote speaker, I protested that fact. I told [Africare] I would not come," Belafonte added.
Woodson commented, "This woman is the national security adviser. Africare should have told Belafonte if he had a problem with her then he needs to be the one not to come."
'A Singer of Bad Calypso Music'
"Belafonte is a singer of bad calypso music. That doesn't qualify him as the king of black America," Woodson said.
'Where Are the Feminists?'
Audrey Mullen, another protester at the dinner, asked: "Where are the feminists? They should be outraged that a woman of Condie Rice's stature was uninvited just because a man was having a hissy fit."
During his acceptance speech at the dinner, Belafonte made several references to the public backlash prompted by his comments. Belafonte told the audience: "Those who wish to eradicate my history to the dustbin, who say that civil rights and liberal thought are a thing of the past with no relevance for the future, have seriously misread history.
"The plantations of the world do not sleep; there is a restlessness," he added.
'I Have Nothing to Be Ashamed Of'
Then Belafonte added, to enthusiastic applause, "History stands on my side. I have nothing to be ashamed of. I retreat from nothing I have said."
In an exclusive interview with CNSNews.com, Belafonte said of his award, "I am extremely touched and honored. The work that the Africare institution does is very vital to the needs and the future of the peoples of Africa. I am glad to be a part of it."
But when asked about the controversy over his remarks about Powell and his uninviting of Rice, Belafonte immediately stopped the interview with a thundering "Good night."
Congressman: Powell Is a Slave
Conyers agreed wholeheartedly with Belafonte's "house slave" description of Colin Powell. "I have been reading and rereading what [Belafonte] said, and I am trying to find where there is something inaccurate about what he said, and I can't find it," Conyers said.
"Do I agree with the [slavery] analogy? Yes, completely," Conyers reiterated.
Conyers also defended Belafonte's removal of Rice as the keynote speaker.
"Don't you think he has a right to have someone keynoting who he is in agreement with as opposed to be here listening to a keynote address with someone with whom he is in profound disagreement?" asked Conyers.
"I think he exercised his right," Conyers added.
Ron Dellums, a former Democrat congressman from California who presented the award to Belafonte, refused to comment on any of the controversy.
"I think you should ask Harry Belafonte about those remarks. It's inappropriate for me to respond. I have no knowledge of these matters, and I choose not to speak in ignorance," Dellums said.
Austin J. Belton, director of the New Markets Venture Capital Program at the U.S. Small Business Administration, said Belafonte's advanced age may explain his effort to remove Rice as keynote speaker.
'He's Getting on in Age'
"He's getting on in age, and I think we just have to let it go at that," Belton told CNSNews.com. Belafonte is 75 years old.
Democrat former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young, who replaced Rice at the last minute as the keynote speaker, refused to comment when asked what he thought about Rice's removal. "I don't know," he said as he turned away and ended the interview.
Bono, lead singer of the musical group U2 and a champion of Third World debt relief, was among those honoring Belafonte at the dinner. He told the crowd, "I learned from Harry Belafonte that as ridiculous as celebrity is, it can be currency, so spend it wisely."
Africare's National co-chairs include celebrities Tony Bennett, Jane Fonda, Morgan Freeman, Tony Randall and Mike Farrell. Corporate sponsors include Coca-Cola Co., Archer Daniels Midland Co., Chevron Texaco Corp., Daimler Chrysler Corp., ExxonMobil Corp. and Shell International Ltd.
Your Tax Dollars at 'Work'
The U.S. government is also a contributor to Africare. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., and Senate plurality leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., serve as National Honorary Patrons for the organization. However, Lott distanced himself from the awards dinner after Belafonte's controversial remarks about Powell.
Copyright CNSNews.com
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
Bush Administration
Editor's note:
Tammy Bruces "The New Thought Police: Inside the Lefts Assault on Free Speech and Free Minds"