Democatic Leadership from Maryland calls him a Sambo
Murfreesboro, Tenn. — Spike Lee says the value of education is being overshadowed by the images that gangsta rap glorifies.
“Young black kids didn’t grow up wanting to be a pimp or a stripper like they do now,” Lee said of his youth in Brooklyn, N.Y.
“Back then, we were not called sellouts for using our brains,” Lee said. He likened the images from some rap videos to the distorted view that minstrel shows of the 19th century gave most of the world about American blacks.
Of course, when Bill Cosby is critical of the state-of-affairs in the black community, he’s castigated as a race-traitor.
In fact it seems that anytime a black person dares to rise above “being black”—getting an education, thinking for themselves, getting out of the ghetto, etc.—they are attacked by their own as being “not black enough”, an oreo (black on the outside, white on the inside), or depicted as a Sambo.
- When Cosby, who earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts in 1977, made public remarks critical of those low-income Blacks whom he believed to be deprioritizing education in favor of sports and fashion, he was criticized by black leaders on the Left.
- Condi Rice, who is the highest ranking black women in the history of American Politics (and also a Ph.D), is routinely depicted in cartoon as a “House Nigga“.
- And of course there’s the current situation where Maryland Democratic Leaders have sanctioned racial slandering of GOP Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who is running for Senate in Maryland. They have endorsed pelting him with Oreo cookies in public and calling him “less than black”.
If Black Leaders on the Left are serious about promoting and advancing the value of education for black youth, they should start with NOT running down and denigrating successful blacks who have over-achieved educationally and professionally. When you say that Condi Rice, Michael Steel, and Bill Cosby “aren’t black enough”, you tell young kids that what it means to “be black” is to be poor, uneducated, and unable to think/provide for themselves.
***
MORE: Dell Gines at Black Professor Blog has this to say:
This is what the black power movement has transitioned to, the black blame movement, where everything under the civil rights rubric has become a scavenger hunt whereby our so-called ‘leaders’ attempt to find the racism variable as a behavioral excuse for us degrading ourselves. There was a time when self-affirmation, mutual identification of black value, and a demand for internal and external respect were the mantra.
Not any more…
Speak truth-to-power, brother (am I allowed to call Dr. Gines “brother”—a term he uses liberally in his writing—even though I’m white?).
***
ALa at Blonde Sagacity noticed the reverse-racism oozing from the seems of the political Left.
Everyone ought to read the blog by LaShawn Barber on the effect of the liberal ideology on black people. Not only is she right, she’s interesting, and her blog is well worth following. I first saw her on C-span. She is quite well known.
Left by dianne on November 5th, 2005 at 10:43 am