TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST: WHERE ARE YOU NOW? - A PORTRAIT IN COONISM

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST - WHERE ARE YOU NOW?

A PORTRAIT IN COONISM
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I was recently contacted on Facebook by a Black woman by the name of Shirley accusing me of doing a "hatchet job" on Tavis Smiley and Cornel West in my post, “Where is Tavis Smiley and Cornel West Now?” She  also  complained that the piece was three years old, so I thought I'd take a moment to put together this piece in response.

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Shirley, I know excerpts from the piece are over three years old - in fact, I happen to know that they're over  four years old, because I wrote them. It's what's call a recap. But frankly, I didn't understand the significance of your complaint. Are you suggesting, that we should  just walk away from history and let bygones be bygones?  I don’t think so. We've got to thoroughly out these two turncoats as an example to other demagogues who may be waiting in the wings.

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But for the record, I waited four years to recap this disgusting episode because history clearly shows that these two individuals are not being nearly as critical, or treating Donald Trump with anything near the disdain and disrespect that they reserved for the very first Black President of the United States. The Black community needs to explore the reasons behind that and make sure that it never happens again. We need to immediately blackball anyone who ever tries it again - in fact, we need to come together and blackball anyone who brings ANY ignorance into the Black community, whether it be in politics, the arts, or general dysfunction. 
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But with respect to Tavis and West, the jury is in and it's no longer a debate - their behavior toward President Obama was a petty and mindless act of petulance, envy, and blatant self-promotion that did immeasurable damage to the Black community.  We now also know that their slanderous allegations toward the president lacked validity, because in spite of their many criticisms of Obama (both before, and after, he became president) he ultimately became one of the greatest heads of state in American history, and brought great pride and intellectual validation to Black people all over the world.  No, he wasn't perfect, but he was as perfect as we've ever seen in America.  He brought honor to this nation, and with the exception of Tavis and West, he was admired by people all over the world. The man can’t even stop to get a taco without cars honking their horns and people stopping on the street to applaud him, and he’s becoming even more popular as time goes on. On the other hand, Donald Trump can't even show his face without being booed, not only here in America, but all over the world. Even our oldest and most staunch allies look upon him with disdain.  Yet, all we hear from Tavis and West now, are crickets.  So what flaws did they see in Obama that were so serious that they felt the need to get on a bus and travel all over the country badmouthing him, that they don't now see in Donald Trump? 
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So allowing history to sink in is serving to demonstrate the Willie Lynch-like hatred some Black people can sink to due to envy and egotism. Cornel West built his entire reputation on posing as a highly enlightened intellectual, but history has revealed that he’s just another petty Black man with a big mouth, who's lacking in character, and one of the least enlightened people in the Black community; and Tavis Smiley has been revealed to be nothing more than a self-absorbed opportunist. Thus, these two “brothers” are graphic examples of why Black people are at the very bottom of the social ladder, and why it’s incumbent upon us to stop embracing celebrities as heroes and start thinking for ourselves. 

So, how is that a hatchet job, Shirley? What you're calling a hatchet job is nothing less than unvarnished truth. Yes, it's ugly, but it should be, because Tavis and West's self-serving disregard for the Black community and the first Black President of the United States, was ugly.  It was beyond ugly - it was disgusting, and if I have anything to do with it, they'll never live it down.  

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Both of these "brothers" are fraudulent phonies.  That now stands as an unassailable fact. If they weren't, where are they now that we have a fascist White man in office who's trying to deprive 22 million Americans of badly needed healthcare?  But Smiley and West seem to be much more comfortable with having a White man in control - even if that White man is a lying, incompetent, and dysfunctional buffoon.  On the other hand, having a young Black man running this nation who demonstrated competence, excellence, and character - but took attention away from them - was just more than they could bear. Their response to it clearly demonstrates why we had to have Northern White folks come DRAG us out of slavery kickin' and screamin - and even then we had people like Tavis and West fightin' for the South. That also explains why when Union soldiers captured such people they wouldn't even take ‘em prisoner; they'd shoot 'em dead right there on the spot - and I don’t blame them.  They left the comfort of their homes and the love of their families to risk their lives to free us from slavery (among other things), and then they were confronted by some coon shootin’ at them to “protect the massa.”  If I'd been around back then, I would have loaded their guns for for 'em for the execution.

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So Shirley, while you may think I'm doing "a hatchet job" on Tavis and West, just consider this - and I've got video!  On the very DAY that Sen. Barack Obama went to Springfield, Illinois to maximize the historic significance of announcing his candidacy for president in the shadow of Lincoln's former statehouse instead of coming on Tavis' "State of the Black America" jibfest, West stood up and did an impassioned rant indicating that Obama couldn’t be trusted to be president because he didn’t come on the Tavis Smiley show.  Can you even begin to fathom such arrogance!!!?  Who the hell did they think they were!!!?  They were acting like Sen. Obama committed an unforgiveable sin - as if Tavis Smiley was the Grand Poobah of the Black community, and Obama required his permission to run for president, and all the while Tavis was standing there grinnin' like a chess cat. You would have thought they'd caught Obama committing some sort of unconscionable atrocity.  But don't just take my word for it, watch the video for yourself.  Their unmitigated arrogance, literally, made me want to throw up.  And again, this was on the very MORNING that Obama announced that he was running for the presidency.
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So they were trying to sabotage the very first viable Black candidacy for president before it even got off the ground. Because, you see, having a Black president would tend to lower their stature in the Black community, so their entire motivation from that moment on was to say, "Aw, he ain't all that."  You see, Tavis couldn't prevent Sen. Obama from running, but at the very least, he wanted Obama to announce his candidacy on his show. That would have made Tavis look like a king-maker, and it would have also made it look like Obama had come to get Tavis' blessing.  In short, Tavis was trying to put Barack Obama in his pocket (like he had Cornel West), but Barack wasn't having it, and it enraged him.  So what resulted was the most petty, and disgusting display of arrogance that I've ever seen - and Cornel West comes off looking like the Tavis Smiley puppet that he was.  That was the moment I lost respect for his alleged intellect, and began to see him for who he really was - a shallow and big-mouth opportunist. But Tavis and West had the perfect symbiotic relationship - Cornel West had the mouth, and Tavis Smiley had the television exposure.  

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Again, notice how arrogantly entitled West sounds in the above video, as though it was more appropriate for Obama to come kiss Tavis’ ring than to announce his candidacy in the shadow of Lincoln’s former statehouse. I remember becoming slack-jawed at his unmitigated arrogance. Up until that moment I had been a big fan of both Tavis and West, but that was when I first realized that they  were nothing but egomaniacal coons. That was also the morning that I started investigating them, and I’ve written nearly 30 articles on them since.

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The video is also ironically prophetic. Notice how even as West is lecturing the nation on how Obama is surrounding himself with people who can’t be trusted, and asking Obama where his money coming from, you can see Wells Fargo and Exxon/Mobil logos floating by in the background behind him. What makes that so prophetically ironic is, even as West asking Obama these questions, Tavis Smiley was  involved in the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loans" scam, where Wells Fargo ended up having to settled a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice agreeing to pay poor and middle-class minorities $175 million as a result of  swindling them out of their life savings. This was the biggest scam EVER perpetrated on the Black community involving a Black man as a front, and it was the second largest housing discrimination case in American history, and all the while Tavis was running around preaching to Obama about “accountability.”  But the establishment media was refusing to cover it. That’s how, and why, I became so fixated on bringing the machinations of these two demagogues to the attention of the Black community.

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So, tell me again, sister, how is this is a hatchet job?  You must be a relative of one of these brothers? 

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The Real History of The Poverty Tours

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The hostility that Tavis Smiley and Cornel West have for President Obama is so transparent that if it were glass we would have walked right through it and cut ourselves to shreds. These two are shameless, and it’s not only a national disgrace how the establishment media is allowing them to prance around posing as the savior of the poor and middle class, but they're actually helping them to perpetuate this fraud by providing them constant coverage and millions of dollars worth of publicly supported air time.
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These two thought that they were gonna become the Grand Dragons of the Black Community - which is a very profitable gig when you’re in the business of selling ALEC-connected corporations access to the Black community like Tavis Smiley. Tavis is the biggest corporate shill in the Black community. He fronts for Wal-Mart, Wells Fargo, Exxon/Mobile, Allstate Ins., Nationwide Ins., etc. - a veritable who’s who of the corporations that are most responsible for victimizing the poor and middle class in the country, and who are spending millions of dollars to obstruct minority voter rights. That’s what makes it so ironic that they’re trying to portray themselves as the saviors of "the poor minorities."
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During Obama’s first campaign for president Smiley and West had already hitched their wagons to Hillary Clinton. She was 37 points ahead of Obama in the Black community at the time, so they were all set to gain the clout, prestige, and riches of having presidential access and being acknowledged as the new grand viziers of the Black community. But then, Obama won the election - in spite of their most ardent efforts - and caught them by surprise. In fact, Cornel West tried to jump the fence and began campaigning for Obama when it became clear that Obama might actually win, but Obama wasn’t having it. That's what caused the controversy over West not being invited to the inaugural celebration.
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At the time, West tried to frame the issue like Obama was an ingrate for not inviting him to the inauguration after he campaigned for him. But he failed to mention the fact that less than an hour after Obama announced his candidacy for President of the United States West went on national television and told the Black community that Obama couldn’t be trusted.

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The video of Cornel's rant was ironically prophetic. Notice how even as West is lecturing the nation on how Obama is surrounding himself with people who can’t be trusted, and asking him where is his money coming from, you can see Wells Fargo and Exxon/Mobil logos floating by in the background behind him. What makes that so prophetically ironic is, even as that spectacle was taking placeTavis was involved in the Wells Fargo "Ghetto Loans" scam, where Wells Fargo ended up having to settled a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice agreeing to pay poor and middle-class minorities $175 million as a result of the scam. This is the biggest scam EVER perpetrated on Black community with the active involvement of a Black man, and the second largest housing discrimination case in the history of the United States but the establishment media refused to cover it. That’s why I’ve become so fixated on bringing the machinations of these two demagogues to the attention of the Black community.

So the Bottom Line is this - when people like myself criticize Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, or Boyce Watkins, we’re not criticizing them because they’re critical of President Obama; our problem with them is they’re cherry-picking their facts and telling half-truths to promote their own agenda.
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HEY, AREN'T YOU THE SAME GUY WHO SAID
I COULDN'T BE TRUSTED?

A prime example of that is they are going out of their way NOT to tell the Black community that the United States Constitution gives sole control of spending to the United States House of Representatives, which is controlled by the Republicans. So the only way that President Obama can spend any money to assist the Black community, or anyone else, is to get the Republican House to go along with him.
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That’s why it’s so important for the president to hold together a coalition of Blacks, women, gays, Hispanics, and every other segment of the American population. He needs ALL of us to place pressure on the Republicans to loosen the purse strings in order for him to get anything done. So anytime you hear Tavis, West, or Watkins pointing their finger at what President Obama is doing for any other segment of the population, they’re doing you a disservice.
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Here’s how politics works - "you support me when I need you, and I’ll support you when you need me." So whenever President Obama does anything for other segments of the population, he’s building up political capital so he can help you. But, of course, he doesn’t discuss what he’s doing for the Black community for a very good reason - as Cornel says himself (when it’s convenient), "Race Matters."
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These gentlemen know full well that if President Obama runs around bragging about what he’s doing for the Black community, the Republicans are going to use that as leverage to tear his coalition apart. They would tell women, gays, Hispanics, and everyone else in America that Obama doesn’t care about them; all he wants to do is help his own people, and that message hurts the Black community. Don’t these so-called intellectuals recognize that? If they don’t, they’re dumb. If they do, that means that they’re purposely trying to mislead you. The question, then, is why?
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So the fact is, when people like Tavis, West, and Watkins run around telling you that the proof that President Obama is not working for you is that he refuses to throw his fist in the air, these people are working against you, not for you - and they know it. You see, their primary agenda is NOT about helping the Black community. Their agenda is about tearing President Obama down, and again, that hurts you. But they don't care - and that's the problem.
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In the end, Cornel West tried to portray Barack Obama as an ingrate by claiming that after campaigning for him, Barack wouldn’t even return his calls.  But he failed to mention that he only started campaigning for Obama AFTER it became clear that Obama was going to win the election.  It was only then that Cornel tried to jump the fence away from Tavis Smiley and tried to ingratiate himself with Obama, but Barack wasn't having it - “Hey, aren’t you the one who said that I couldn’t be trusted?”
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So Cornel West has no shame. He tries to jump onboard any train that happens to be going his way. Now that Tavis Smiley has lost face in the Black community, Cornel won't even be seen with him anymore.  I know, because I've written over 30 articles on him. In my opinion, the only person who knows him better, MIGHT be his mother. That's why I have so much disgust for him. Cornel is the Liberace of faux intellectualism. He's the quintessential phony and the people have begun to recognize that fact.
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So now that he's outlived his usefulness as a Democratic saboteur for the corporatists, they've flushed him down the toilet like a used Tampon. "Dr. West," indeed.  That's a joke - the dude believes in talkin' snakes, and one of the biggest mistakes the Black community ever made was failing to thoroughly vet him in the very beginning - and we made the very same mistake with Tavis Smiley.
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This episode has taught me to be suspicious of EVERY Black person that the White establishment pushes to the forefront, so the first thing I do is thoroughly research them.  We could have avoided this disaster if we had taken note when Tavis Smiley was fired from BET, and also when Cornel West joined forces with Ralph Nader to help get George W. Bush elected in the 2000 election.  But we were too busy being mesmerized by the White establishment telling us what a powerful "Black" intellectual West was.  But in White establishment terms, that only means that he's useful to them and he can read without moving his lips.  And what made him particularly useful is his clown-like style of showmanship. The establishment figured that "ignorant" Black people would relate to that, and we did.  So over all these years Cornel West has traded on personal fame in return for being a Democratic saboteur.  Just look at his record.  He always manages to find something wrong with the side that favors the American people - his tactic is to attack the good for the sin of not being perfect - yet, he rarely utters a word against those who are trying to destroy us.  There's a reason for that, because those are his benefactors.  And Tavis Smiley has the exact same MO - ask Walmart. 
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So Shirley, that said, I just want you to know that I took your complaint very seriously.  I love my sisters and I never like to anger them, because I've recognized since I was a child that you are the glue that holds the Black community together, and you're forced to bear the greatest burden of our pain.  But if you think my speaking out on the petulant and self-serving ignorance of Tavis Smiley and Cornel West constitutes a hatchet job, you're just going to have to live with that, and I'm going to have to live with your anger.

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A Question For Both Tavis Smiley and Cornel West 

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-question-for-both-tavis-smiley-and.html

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Poverty Pimp, Inc.

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/01/poverty-pimp-inc.html

Eric L. Wattree 
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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TAP DANCING FOR THE KLAN

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

TAP DANCING FOR THE KLAN
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I'm not here to defend President Obama, because as I pointed out in previous articles, I have an issue or two with some of his policies myself, just like I've had with EVERY White president. But I think we owe this brother the benefit of the doubt. He's plagued with enough problems in having to deal with world affairs and our domestic crisis, while at the same time, having to fight off racist Republicans and envious, self-serving turncoats like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. So we shouldn't add yet another problem to his plate by forcing him to have to worry about whether he has the support of his own people.
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To be quit frank, I think there are only two kinds of people in this world - good people, and bad people. In addition, I believe the battle over race was a part of the last war. Those who are enlightened recognize that the current battle is over class, because the current powers that be don’t care any more about poor and middle-class White folks than they do Black people. Most White people recognize that fact. That's why Obama is president.  So while I often write about what’s in the best interest of the Black community as a whole, I rarely make race a part of my personal political calculations.
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But I consider the presidency of Barack Obama a unique situation, and what we’ve been watching with respect to many Black Obama critics should be regarded as a teaching moment, because it represents a cultural dysfunction that’s been played out thousands of times over the past four hundred years. Many of us have heard stories about Black self-hatred all of our lives, but due to President Obama’s high profile we now have the opportunity, as an entire culture, to see it being played out in all of its ugliness for the very first time.
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But of course, there are going to be a few of Obama's critics who are going to ask, "What are you saying, that Obama should be above criticism just because he’s Black?" Of course not, and the people who pose such a ridiculous question know that’s not what I’m saying before they even ask it. But just asking such a disingenuous question should also serve as a teaching moment - it shows the extraordinary lengths that such people will go to mask their "bligotry."
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Questioning President Obama’s policies is not the problem - it’s the mean-spirited way in which it’s being done. In fact, Black haters are not merely questioning Obama’s policies at all. More often than not these people are simply using policy differences as a pretext for making slanderous assertions about the president’s character as a whole - he’s a "war criminal," "a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats," "a Rockefeller Republican in Blackface," and even, "He has a certain rootlessness, a deracination" [WHAT!!!?].  Notice that three out of the four slanders are racial in nature, and these quotes are from just one man - Cornel West.
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None of the criticisms above were legitimate attempts to address the president’s public policies. They were racial slanders, clear and simple. That clearly demonstrates that many Black Obama-haters are not nearly as interested in addressing public policy as they are in attacking the man himself. These slanders also demonstrate the fallacious allegation that people who object to their criticism are merely Obama cheerleaders. That's simply not true - what we’re against is what we’ve always been against - racist attacks.
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But even those haters who have the good sense to refrain from blatant, racist attacks often make themselves known by going over the top in their allegations regarding policy. They’ll often say things like, "Obama is a part of the machine." But since we’re not privy to the information that Obama is basing his decisions upon, nor his motives for making any given decision, any allegation being made about his being a part of any "machine" are wholly without supporting substantiation at best. Critics who suggest this are merely commenting on what things LOOK like to their jaundiced eye - or what they're trying to convince you to think they look like - without having a shred of evidence to support their views. Their allegations have no more basis in fact than that of the birthers.
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The reality is, being the first Black President of the United States, Obama can’t approach the nation’s problems in the same way that they were approached by his White predecessors. In many cases he has to take a circuitous approach to addressing issues in order to prevent the GOP from mischaracterizing his efforts with their very special kind of malevolent spin. Thus, the way that things may look, may not always be what they seem. So anyone who would lend comfort to the most steadfast enemies of the Black community by helping to drag this Black man through the mud is on what my good friend, Playthell Benjamin, would call, a fool’s errand. 
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There were people in the Tea Party who were consistently calling Obama a terrorist sympathizer, right up until he brought Osama Bin Laden’s head home in a bag. Bush spent nearly eight years and close to a trillion dollars trying to pull that off with no success, but Obama did it with three helicopters and a handful of courageous men without busting a sweat bubble - and he did it while America thought he was just kickin’ it.
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So this brother ain’t no punk, and he’s not the kind of person we should second guess without very good cause.  So yes, I think everyone in the Black community should get behind this brother - period. If we have a comment on policy, we should voice our concern, but we should do it politely, and very respectfully. Because while Obama is, and should be, the president of ALL of America, he is also the most high profile representative of the Black community in the entire world. So to be disrespectful of him, is to be disrespectful of us; and his success, is our success. 
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With regard to Cornel West, I can only say this - any Black man who tries to publicly engage in the Dozens against the first Black President of the United States cannot be regarded as a serious intellectual. He deserves very close scrutiny, because his behavior is not only disrespectful of the president, but it betrays a gross disdain for the Black community as a whole. So he can say whatever he likes about his motives, but his behavior lends comfort to the most dedicated enemies of the Black community. Thus, the issue is not even debatable - the stupidity he’s engaged in amounts to tap dancing for the Klan.

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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HOW WILL OBAMA-HATERS BE VIEWED BY POSTERITY?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

HOW WILL OBAMA-HATERS BE VIEWED BY POSTERITY?

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WHAT WILL SHE HAVE TO SAY
ABOUT THOSE WHO

SLANDERED THE FIRST BLACK

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES?

I often wonder why Obama-haters tend to hate Obama so much more than they do the Republicans who have a much more malevolent agenda towards the American people. The GOP is engaged in an ongoing campaign to abolish Medicare, Social Security, organized labor, the minority's right to vote, and they repeatedly hold the American people, including the unemployed, hostage to promote the interest of the rich. In addition, they’ve staged a bitter war against women, gays, and the immigrant community - and this GOP assault on the rights of the poor, middle class, and minorities is not just being staged by a radical few. It’s clearly a concerted effort by the entire Republican Party.
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Thousands of Republicans have come together in a solid block of solidarity to embarked upon the exact same agenda. It involves corporations, congressmen, U.S. senators, state senators, state legislatures, city council members, judges, etc. They've come together all across this country, and they're hell-bent on cutting the throat of poor and middle-class America.
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Yet, Black, Obama-haters seem to be completely oblivious to this fact, because they are so totally fixated on this one Black man, Barack Obama, who was elected twice to be President of the United States by a large majority of the American people, that everything else seems to be irrelevant to them. One would think that, that fact alone would, at the very least, cause these haters to reflect on what's REALLY going on inside of their heads. Why, does it seem, that they'd be much more comfortable if President Obama was the White House butler rather than of the President of the United States? There's something very dysfunctional going on there.
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These are people that even the experience of Black history didn't prepare us for, though it should have, if we'd examined it closely enough. Again, they are so fixated on hating Obama that they’re completely blind to everything else. One can prove to them without a doubt that one of their leading and most high profile Obama-haters is connected to several members of ALEC - an organization that's spending HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS to obstruct the minority right to vote, and that he was directly involved in herding poor and middle class minorities into Wells Fargo's "Ghetto Loan" scam that caused the bank to have to pay a $175 MILLION SETTLEMENT to Black and Hispanic borrowers - and they’ll simply say something like "Yeah, but Obama played golf with a man who works for the oil company." Thereafter, they won’t say ONE WORD about anything else. Their total disconnection from reality is frightening.
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These people hate Obama so passionately that they’re allowing the GOP - the most insidious domestic threat to the American people in the nation’s history - to pursue it’s malevolent agenda with complete impunity. In fact, their behavior is enhancing the GOP effort. 
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I mean, one would think that their tunnel vision alone would send up a red flag signaling them to review their thinking. It’s absolutely amazing how it doesn’t, but it does clearly show why Black people are in such bad shape. The thoughtless behavior of these haters is undeniable confirmation that there are a handful of Black people in this country who hate other Black people - and especially this Black president - as much, or more, than any Klan member. But their hatred is even more insidious than that of a White, White supremacist - at least a White bigot recognizes his bigotry - but the bigotry of these Black "bligots" seem to be cloaked even from their own recognition in a camouflaging labyrinth of pretextural justifications. 
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If Malcolm, Martin, and the other Black icons of the past could see what’s currently going on among us, I’m sure they’d hang their heads in shame. But even if they can’t see what’s going on, there are many others who surely will.
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Due to the election of Barack Obama as the nation’s first Black president, scholars and historians are going to be scrutinizing this period in history with a fine toothed comb - and they won’t be alone. Due to the flawless memory of the internet, Black people who are yet unborn are going to be looking back and reading our posts, articles, and comments during this period, and I guarantee you that many of us are going to be a huge embarrassment to them.
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Remember, they’ll be reading our remarks with an objective eye. They’ll be able to examine this period in history absent the passions and fog of current politics and with a perspective of 20/20 hindsight. So it will be absolutely clear to them who was engaged in promoting malevolent and selfish agendas, and who were merely "bligoted" (Black bigoted) fools. As a result, many of us are going to be, at best, horrible embarrassments to our families, and at worst, in the case of some high profile people, even smears on their family names.
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You see, what the Obama-haters are engaged in has been going on for centuries - in fact, we were undoubtedly sold into slavery initially by such people in Africa. But back in the day, people were anonymous, so we don’t know whose family members helped to promote the interest of the slave masters. But during this information age, it’s all going to be a part of the public record, and I don’t think many of these people recognize that fact. So what many of us do today, may someday cause our great grandchildren to hang their heads in shame and public ridicule.
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Consider the following. Let’s say that President Obama ends up having a hugely successful presidency and history records him as being one of the nation’s greatest presidents. Many of these Obama-haters’ conspiracy theories and doomsday scenarios will live on as part of the public record. As a result, our great grandchildren and future historians are going to look back upon these people as un-American - and considering the fact that Obama was our first Black president - Black people of the future may even view them, and quite possibly their families, as race traitors.  
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I can hear it now: "Hey Willie, I was just reading some of the stuff that your great grandfather wrote. He was a world-class fool and an 'Uncle Tavis.'  Now I see where you get it from."

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A HISTORIC PORTRAIT OF TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST

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Black people of the future are going be focused on people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West like a laser due to the negative impact of our 400 year history of having to deal with Black turncoats. Black turncoats have been hugely demonized in the Black community throughout our history. Every Black person in America is familiar with the sentence, "Dim niggas talkin’ bout burnin’ OUR house down, boss" - or a variation thereof.

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The only limitation to the intense hatred and disdain that the Black community has for such people is the fact that history has obscured exactly who they were. But now, due to the flawless memory of the internet, Black people of the future will not only be able to identify these people, but connect them to their contemporaries with a simple people and Google search. Thereafter, they'll be able to connect them to specific families - and I guarantee you, that’s gonna be devastating to the Black families involved. In some cases it may even become a threat to their well being.
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In any event, I would hate to be connected in any way to an "Uncle Tavis," or a "Dr. West" (an educated fool), because these people are directly associated with bringing shame to the Black community during a seminal moment in Black History by not merely criticizing, but trashing, the first Black President of the United States - and their connection with ALEC (Walmart, Wells Fargo, etc.) is not going to help their cause a bit.

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I know my people, and they’re starved for a focal point in which to vent their hostility and frustration over the way that they’ve been treated over the years. So they're never, EVER, going to forget this episode in our history, and their response to people like Tavis and West isn't going to be any different than that of Jewish people who manage to identify Nazi collaborators. So I guarantee you, these two are going to be demonized like no other individuals in Black history.

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Tavis and West seemed to have been determined to ride President Obama’s coattail into American history. Well, they’ve done it, and I sincerely hope they enjoy their infamy, because Black people are going to make Benedict Arnold look like a rock star compared to these two.

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Just call me a prophet.

 

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POVERTY PIMP, INC.

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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