Notify me of new posts via email. Why not? What do you think? Share this: Twitter Facebook Reddit. Like this: Like Loading Hi Joyce, Thanks for the comment. Leave a Reply Cancel reply Enter your comment here Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:.
Email Address never made public. Follow Following. Don't fret about the future of Armstrong Williams. He has already made millions performing his "special" services to the enemy. He represents near-zero opinion in Black America - and will not be mourned. I'm too busy, struggling for my own survival, to do more than scan your article today We old 55 yrs. I am in Washington County Maine, one of the biggest "drug problems areas " in the country on a smaller scale and where a number of us retired, have fled for refuge.
I noticed the pockets of older Americans in all the little towns I passed through. The food was always better out there! I'm suggesting joining forces Then our work just begins! The speech by Barack Obama at the Democratic convention in Boston brought a number of readers to issue number 45 in June of , including this anonymous person from Pennsylvania.
I enjoyed your commentary " In Search of the real Barack Obama ". How far do you folks think this young man will get if he does not begin the long and arduous process of bartering and bargaining for his rightful place among our nation's "leaders" I use this phrase lightly?
Although it might be possible for him to get elected by holding fast to his original platform, how long do you folks think it would be before he would be marginalized and cast off by his "colleagues" in the Senate, as just another person of color on "an emotional mission"? The cries of the people in this country for "justice" have been falling on deaf ears since the killing years of the late 60's.
I wish him well, pray for him and hope that he can politic his way into this rat infested system and manage to keep most of the stench off him in the process. There is so much that needs doing for our community that, unfortunately, can only be done from the inside. Thanks for your enlightening piece. I will keep a closer eye on his progress as a result. Unfortunately for Obama, some of his comments tied him in with crazy Bill the pound cake comedian according to John Eden of Jesup, Georgia.
Hooray for "No Fools Allowed"! So glad to see the return of the reader's column, interesting new format, tho it doesn't sound like you Re: the 'acting white' issue - in my experience here in the deep south, black kids are more likely to shut out other black kids and accuse them of 'selling out' for dating or otherwise hanging out with whites, or for how they speak than for doing well in school. Of course you know, Cosby and the others are just saying what will gain them white approbation.
Can we name that the Clarence Thomas phenomena? It's what the kids call "sucking up. I'm interested in what you and others think of Barack Obama, who said we must "eradicate the slander that says that a black youth with a book is acting white. He's certainly got the political gifts! I am still amazed by the great stuff you publish - installment 5 of the Plan for Cities is one of the most hopeful and inspiring things I've read in a while. Even as a white rural professional, I can fight Walmart.
Thanks again! Brother Eden has noticed the slightly different house negro and oreo naming smart-assed voice of No Fools Allowed. No Fools Allowed will always speak from a position of anger, militancy and impatience.
Alan Keyes, a right-wing pundit and former presidential and senatorial candidate who lives in Maryland, is reportedly considering a run for the U. Senate on the Republican Party ticket in Illinois. Senate race Keyes lives in Maryland. And then you are left without expediency and without principle. With nothing. This is sad, I never want to wake up the day after an election or any time else with that emptiness in me, knowing I have given away the things that matter most for the sake of what I thought would win and finding that I have lost and have nothing.
Senate contest that year, Keyes denounced the national leadership of his party as racist, saying senior GOP officials had ignored or disparaged his campaign because he is black. This is a fact. He is pro- choice, he is not pro-life. I will not support a pro-choice, pro- abortion candidate. If we accept the radical homosexual agenda, be it in the military or in marriage or in other areas of our lives, we are utterly destroying the concept of family.
We must oppose it in the military. We must oppose it in marriage. We must oppose it if the fundamental institution of our civilization is to survive.
In this particular case, the opinion that is going to be punished is the opinion that homosexuality is immoral and against the laws of God. That opinion is now going to become a crime. And this whole push with respect to hate crimes is an effort to establish that agenda. If they tell us that we cannot pray in the hallways, we should pray. If they tell us that we cannot pray at graduation ceremonies, we should pray.
Because what they are doing fundamentally violates probably the most important of our God-given rights, which is the right to appeal for aid to our Almighty God.
Before the income tax was imposed on us just 80 years ago, government had no claim to our income. Only sales, excise, and tariff taxes were allowed. Buckley's ultra-conservative National Review! Sharpton chuckled at Williams' choice of source, and quickly regained his own page. However, the rightward pull from three sides was relentless, having the effect of obscuring, rather than illuminating, Sharpton's positions on the issues. Clearly, that is the object of ABF: to move the boundaries of Black debate inexorably to the right.
Facing a combative and skillful politician-activist such as Sharpton, host Juan Williams revealed his true function - to limit the discourse to the Hard Right's field of reference. It is only within these distorted and alien parameters that Armstrong Williams and Niger Innis make any sense, at all. Before tagging his team mates, Juan Williams insisted that Sharpton go even further afield of his presidential agenda, to comment on Harry Belafonte's "disparaging" remarks about Colin Powell, weeks before.
On ABF, a Black man is required to answer questions that are uppermost on white conservative minds. Black surrogates make sure of that. More time wasted. It was Armstrong Williams' turn to drain Sharpton of airtime. The guest was forced to assess George Bush's faith-based initiative - the main item for Black consumption on the GOP's menu. Next, Niger Innis made small talk about his father's long but not necessarily pleasant association with Sharpton, thus using up more of the Reverend's minutes while elevating Innis Sr.
It is hard to smother Al Sharpton, but the two Black Republican hustlers, with lots of help from the host, tried their best. Julian Bond tossed the Reverend a softball - in a way, it was Bond's lonely obligation to both the audience and the guest. Sharpton said he'd like to see "a lot of voter registration around critical issues" - issues that he was not allowed to explore in the Republican bum rush of America's Black Forum.
We created the show 25 years ago, while working as network radio reporters, in Washington. Our goals were straightforward: to establish an independent, nationally syndicated television vehicle that would allow Black reporters to hold politicians and activists of all persuasions accountable to Black people, and to wield influence in the national political arena by generating news , in the same way that Sunday network interview shows create the content that dominates Monday morning headlines.
We succeeded beyond our expectations. For almost four years, the program generated national and worldwide headlines at will.
No Black news entity had ever achieved anything approaching this level of impact on the general media, and none has, since. Like The Black Commentator, our ABF was most concerned that African Americans develop media institutions that encourage internal debate, as well as compel white officeholders to engage Black opinion. The program made headlines on Black terms, based on Black news decisions, on issues of importance to the Black public. This issues-based approach resulted, for example, in the public "resurrection" of notables such as James Farmer, the former head of the original, integrationist Congress of Racial Equality CORE who, in , had not made headlines in years.
Much to the old gentleman's surprise, the wire services packaged his ABF statements as major stories. And so it went, week after week. Farmer made another appearance on the program later in the year, when he confronted Roy Innis, the man who had hijacked CORE a decade before and turned the organization into what Farmer called a "shakedown" gang.
Innis brought to Washington his thuggish Brooklyn entourage and attempted to feed hotel shrimp to the whole party at our expense, which we refused. No doubt the rich, Hard Right is more accommodating to Roy and his son, in their current capacities.
Jesse Jackson, whom they were courting at the time. Back then, Republicans were glad to associate with prestigious Black media. In ABF's new incarnation, they control it. During the first year of operations, we original owners - Glen Ford, Peter Gamble and Jim Boren - picked up business partners with whom we later found ourselves, euphemistically speaking, incompatible. We sold our shares in ABF at the end of , and have not spoken publicly about the program - until now.
Julian Bond became host. Although ABF ceased to generate news, Bond's journalism and broadcast background served the program well. The intrusion of celebrity interviews under the aegis of Uniworld, the Black advertising agency that took over production and, later, political direction of ABF, did no harm.
At the very least, ABF provided showcasing and role model opportunities for Black people, a valuable service in a racist society. All that changed in , when Uniworld plucked the two Williamses, Juan and Armstrong, from the Right's most-favored Black list.
Juan Williams became co-host with sportscaster James Brown. Armstrong Williams signed on as permanent commentator and vouched for the political reliability of up-and-coming Hard Right hustler Niger Innis as alternate standard-bearer for GOP and corporate interests.
The outrageous whoring began. Williams, Williams, and Innis together embody the Hard Right's growing penetration of Black media circles. They share institutional and corporate connections. ABF provides an opportunity to observe them on the same set, acting in concert in service of their racist clients and benefactors.
First, the closet conservative. Both are right-wingers who refuse to admit their allegiances, even after they've exposed themselves. A Pakistani American, Haq recalls asking a producer on one network where she was often booked as a guest why she was never invited on its morning program.
Watts said early on that he planned to do a talk show on the channel with right-wing radio host Larry Elder , who this year became a GOP candidate for California governor.
The program with Elder never happened and Watts has not been involved with the editorial product, said Hair, who oversees the news content. Haven't heard from him. BNC's most prominent hosts have progressive bona fides. When they are critical of President Biden, it's almost always for not delivering on his campaign promises to the Black community.
Hair wants the network to highlight achievements as well as the challenges facing BNC's target audience.
In a recent interview, the Pakistan-born Khan said he generally finds cable news too polarizing. He also said he had no desire to become a media mogul. BNC is off to a slow start in the ratings, with Nielsen data showing an average audience of 3, viewers in prime time last month. The young channel has just launched its first advertising campaign. Martin, who has run several Black-owned newspapers and anchored a nightly newscast on the cable channel TV One, said BNC faces hurdles as traditional TV viewing declines.
0コメント