15 Jan 2006 Blacks Repudiate Belafonte

Project 21 has a new press release out criticizing Harry Belafonte.

It begins:

With former singing star Harry Belafonte’s anti-American rhetoric apparently increasing in fervor, members of the black leadership network Project 21 call upon prominent Americans – especially those who find themselves sharing a stage with Belafonte – to disavow his anti-American radicalism and his practice of harshly attacking the character of those who disagree with his policy views.During a recent visit with Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, Belafonte and praised the anti-American, anti-human rights Chavez regime, saying, “No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest terrorist in the world, George W. Bush says, we’re here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people … support your revolution.” He also said of Chavez, “We respect you, we admire you.”

On January 4, the Simon Wiesenthal Center strongly condemned what it termed “anti-Semitic” statements by Chavez, who said in a televised Christmas Eve speech “the world has wealth for all, but some minorities, the descendants of the same people that crucified Christ, have taken over all the wealth of the world.”

Belafonte’s public praise of Chavez came on January 7.

Belafonte has in the past been criticized for referring to Bush Administration officials Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice as “house slaves…”

Addendum, 1/15/06: Duane Hershberger has additional thoughts.