It’s Time to Boycott Tavis, West, and All Black-on-Black Racists

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

It’s Time to Boycott Tavis,West, and All Black-on-Black Racists

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Like most black people I used to like and admire both Tavis Smiley and Cornel West a great deal, but after they made public fools of themselves on the very day that Barack Obama announced his intention to run for president, I decided to do a little research into them instead of simply buying into the hype. Not long thereafter it started to become clear that their images were merely facades that hid highly ambitious, self-serving, and untrustworthy clowns of the worst kind - and that assessment is not based merely upon my opinion. The most cursory review of the facts will easily bear that out.
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I found that Tavis is the most prolific corporate shill in the Black community, and he's closely associated with some of the most exploitive corporations of working class people in the country. So I began to ask myself, how can his so-called concern for the poor and middle class coexist with his association with Walmart, Nationwide Insurance, and other corporate manipulators of the poor and middle class?
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HERE’S A MESSAGE FROM A PRO-BUSINESS FRIEND OF MINE REGARDING NATIONWIDE INSURANCE.
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“One thing that caught my eye was the picture of Nationwide because it's personal. Sharon's sister was blind-sided by a drunk, uninsured motorist. Donna had been paying uninsured motorist insurance though Nationwide for years. Donna was barely conscious in the hospital when a Nationwide rep showed up with a document he told Donna to sign because it would pay the ambulance fees (about $4-5,000). Donna had broken arms, broken ribs and other major injuries. Donna barely scribbled her initials and the guy left. Several weeks later, when she got out of the hospital, her bill was in the tens of thousands of dollars. Required Physical would add thousands more, all within her policy limits. Nationwide refused to pay, citing Donna's initials on what she was told was the ambulance and ER bills. Donna was unable to have physical therapy and had to file bankruptcy. Like Sharon, Donna is an American Indian (Cherokee), lives in the country and knew/knows nothing about lawyers. By the time we found out, Nationwide's weird statute of limitations had run out and they were legally "off-the-hook". Donna is crippled and debilitated to this day.
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“Nationwide IS NOT on your side. They are scumbags to be avoided AT ALL COSTS! You have my permission to use this if you wish to help your community. Tom”
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I also began to ask myself how Tavis could possibly claim to be concerned about the plight of Black people, and then seek to pad his pocket by promoting R. Kelly, a man who became more famous for his alleged appearance in a graphic underground video of himself molesting a 14 year-old Black child than he is for his musical ability? Sure, Kelly beat the case, but the video is still out there, and it is what it is. http://newsone.com/384692/tavis-smiley-draws-child-rape-criticism-f...
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And then there's Cornel West, a man who's literally made a career of spewing the depth of his love for his people to anyone who will listen, for a fee. With West, it's always brother this, or my dear brother that, yet, as badly as we need educators in the Black community, why is it that he has never taught at a school that more than 1% of Black people could afford to attend in his entire career? If he loves his people so much, why isn't he teaching third grade in the hood, or at the very least, instructing young people at one of the many Historically Black Colleges or Universities? Isn't teaching poor and middle-class students prestigious enough for him? Doesn't he love his people enough to want to see them well educated? I guess not, because while his incessantly running mouth says one thing, his behavior consistently says another. Over the years it has become abundantly clear that he would much rather preach us a sermon than live us one.
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While it seems that West can't inconvenience himself to the point of busting a grape when it comes to helping to educate Black children, he wants us to believe that he loves the Black community so much that he was forced to join forces with Ralph Nader and help to elect George Bush in the 2000 election. Bush won the election by 537 votes. The Nader-West coalition peel off 97,488 votes in Florida alone. But, of course, West only helped to usher in the Bush-Cheney era, and the attendant misery that it brought to the Black community, in the interest of political chastity. You understand, right?
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But as horrific as that episode was, for me, its hypocrisy is more than rivaled by West's mere association with Tavis Smiley. In this latest coalition, West reminds me of a guy running down the street ranting about fascism after just having lunch with Mussolini. But many Black people can't seem to see that, because they've been so bedazzled by the hype over Cornel's resume that even though he doesn't make a bit of sense most of the time, they assume that he must be saying something so profound that their limited education is causing them to miss the point. But what point could possibly be missing when a man advocates that you become so disgusted with the Bogeyman that you elect the Devil? Dumb is dumb, even if it comes from Princeton.
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So my distaste for these two individuals run far, far deeper than their criticism of President Obama. The fact is, I’ve written several articles criticizing the president myself - as I do with every president - but I make sure that my criticisms are constructive, issue-specific, and I ALWAYS make sure that I afford the president all of the respect that he’s due. But the thrust of Tavis and West’s criticisms of President Obama are neither issue-specific, nor constructive. In fact, in the case of Cornel West, his criticisms are not only less than constructive, but they hover around a level of immaturity approaching The Dozens. So for the most part, Tavis and West are simply running around saying, "This guy ain’t no good and he can’t be trusted," under the guise of being concerned about poverty. But if you listen closely, after you get past all of the misleading rhetoric and disinformation, you'll find that the bottom line is, they’re campaigning for the Republicans as a cure for poverty, and you don't get no dummer than that. So we're dealing with one of two things here - either they're two turncoats, or they're so dumb that they shouldn't be allowed to hold a microphone.
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Thus, their mantra about "attacking the messagener" notwithstanding, I’d like to hereby assure both, Tavis and West, and the world, that my raging distaste for them has absolutely nothing to do with their criticizing Obama. My distaste for these two individuals is a direct result of what I perceive as a gaping flaw in their character. I am far less concerned about WHAT they’re saying, than I am about WHY they’re saying it. Because it's the "WHY" that's so toxic to the Black community.
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I’ve been around long enough to recognize that as African Americans, we’re products of the very same racist environment as White people. As a result, many of us are just as racist toward other Black people as any Hillbilly, and that’s exactly what I see in Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. I've never forgotten the very valuable lessons that I learned from the FBI's "Cointelpro" operation launched during the sixties to destroy the civil rights movement.
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During that time the FBI scattered turncoats, snitches, and provocateurs all through the Black community to intice us to destroy ourselves. I was just a kid, but I learned something I'll never forget during that period - always keep your eye on the ones who are always looking, acting, and talking the most militant. That's why Cornel West immediately got my attention. I also learned that a good rule of thumb when dealing with such people is to ignore what they say, and simply watch what they do. In that regard, what are Tavis and West doing at this very moment? As we speak, they're campaigning in the battleground states against Obama, and for the Republican Party.
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So it has long since become clear to me that these two are not the least bit concern about poverty. They’re simply using the term "poverty"as a convenient metaphor to misdirect the people. You see, once their criticism of President Obama backfired on them in Black community, Tavis and West had to find a way to spread their anti-Obama message without generating so much heat. So they simply started using the word "poverty" as a metaphor for "Obama," much like the Republicans use the word "welfare" as a metaphor for "Black people." So now, instead of saying, "Don't vote for Obama, they just use the word "poverty" to IMPLY that Obama’s presidency is inadequate. It’s an old psychological technique right out of the Republican playbook.
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You see, Tavis and West’s motives are exactly the same as Herman Cain’s, but they’re coming from a different direction. At least Herman Cain was honest enough to come at us as a Republican, but Tavis and West are so arrogant that they think the Black community is stupid, so they’re trying to use reverse psychology. Where Herman Cain’s message was, "Black people need to start voting Republican so the two parties will have to fight for their vote," Tavis and West are playing us stupid in a different way. They’re using militant rhetoric in order to get us to cut our own throats. They're trying to make unsophisticated voters so disgusted with Obama that they don't vote - and as every sophisticated voter knows, every Democrat who doesn't vote translates into a vote for the Republicans. So like I said, it's Cointelpro, revisited - the use of Trojan Horses to divide and conquer.
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Tavis and West are currently wrapping themselves in the legacy of Malcolm, Martin, and every other historic Black figure they can think of in order to send the message that Obama’s not being Black enough. Yet, in doing so, they know full well that it’s impossible for President Obama to become more strident in pursuit of exclusively Black issues, because then, the Republicans would use it as a weapon to tear away his White support - and he can’t get anything done without White support. Just imagine what the Black response would be if a White President said, "I’ve got to put things on hold for a moment so I can do something for White people." Black people would go berserk, but essentially, that’s exactly what Tavis and West are demanding that Obama do - but again, just like the Republicans - they're making their demand in race related buzz words.
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So Tavis and West have President Obama in a position where if he continues to be the president of ALL the people, as he should be, they’re going to divide his Black support; but if he caters to their call for him to pay special attention to the Black community, he’s going to have two problems - congress is going to dig in, so he won’t be able to get anything passed, and beyond that, it’s going to divide his White support. So instead of doing everything they can to help improve the condition of the poor and middle class (Black and White), Tavis and West are playing silly, self-serving little games to divide the people, help the Republicans, and promote their own mean-spirited agenda.
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So why are Tavis and West playing these games when they know it’s hurting both the country, and the administration of the first Black President of the United States?
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It’s simple - for spite. As I mentioned previously, since Black people are a product of the very same racist environment as White people, many Black people have attitudes that are just as arrogant, condescending, and racist toward other Blacks as any White racist, and this is clearly the case with Tavis and West. They think that they're above us, and that we're undereducated and politically unsophisticated idiots that they can play to their advantage.
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You see, contrary to what they would have us believe, these two don’t love Black people - they think they OWN us. They don’t see us as people - they see us as a commodity to be manipulated, bartered and sold. That explains why Tavis and West are so upset with President Obama. When he went around them to get our vote, as far as they were concerned, he stole something from them.
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If you go back and review the video of Cornel West ranting over the fact that Obama decided to hold a press conference to announce his intent to run for President of the United States instead of attending Tavis Smiley’s "State of the Black Union" broadcast, you’ll notice a clear sense of entitlement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXj3_pjTTwg&feature=player_embedded. West takes the position that when Obama failed to come on Tavis's show, he turned his back on the entire Black community. I'd never heard such balloon-headed arrogance in my life! When was Tavis Smiley appointed the Grand Vizier of the Black community? 

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Tavis and West were clearly under the impression that they OWNED the Black community, and when Sen. Obama went around them to announce his intent to run for president instead of coming on the show and asking, "Mother may I?" it constituted a slight to their authority, and a huge failure in protocol on Obama’s part. They obviously believed that the proper thing for Obama to do was to come on the show and ask for their permission to borrow THEIR Black votes! Even now, they're trying to force President Obama to meet with them. Who the hell do they think they are?  We've got to bring these two egomaniacs down to Earth.

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This bears repeating. Tavis and West hate Obama because in their unmitigated arrogance they feel like he stole something from them - us, Black voters. They felt that they had us in their pocket like a commodity to be bought and sold, and they were right. They were - and they or - making money off of us. Large corporations, like Walmart will come to Tavis Smiley and ask, "How much would you charge to deliver the Black community to us?" And he tells them. So while Tavis and West speak of "loving their people," that's not exactly what it is. They don't see us as their loved ones; they see us as their whoes, and the evidence of that is glaring.

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DO YOU BELIEVE THAT NATIONWIDE IS ON YOUR SIDE?
DO YOU BELIEVE THAT TAVIS DOES?
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Tavis’ Solicitation To Corporate Sponsors (like Nationwide)

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"Tavis Smiley builds brand identification and strengthens your corporate image. Sponsors benefit from the "HALO EFFECT" of being associated with PBS and NPR and its mission to make a meaningful contribution to our community. Nearly 85% of consumers believe such HIGHER-PURPOSE, CAUSE-RELATED marketing creates a positive image for sponsors. And almost two-thirds of PBS viewers and NPR listeners are MORE LIKELY TO PURCHASE the product or service of a PBS or NPR underwriter."
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As for West, the man is greedy, immature, and petty. He complained because "The guy who carried my bags into the hotel" got tickets to the inauguration and he didn't. Wouldn't you think that a person who fights for equality would love the symbolism of a worker getting into the inauguration of the President of the United States over a self-appointed VIP?  But not Cornel, he felt slighted and insulted. He felt like he was more deserving than the "HELP." And when Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry got the job with MSNBC. Wouldn't you think a man who fought for equality and loves the Black community would be delighted to see another intelligent Black female voice getting national exposure? Of course you would. But not Cornel, he issued a public statement calling her a liar and a fraud. How did that promote the interest of the black community? And is that the behavior of an enlightened intellectual? I don't think so.
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We’ve got to bring this kind of petty, self-serving, Black-on-Black racism to an end. That’s why it’s time to boycott Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and any corporation, product, or media outlet that’s associated with them. After over 400 years of manipulation, it’s time for the Black community to send out one message loud and clear - BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT FOR SALE! And we're not going to tolerate ANYONE thinking that they can walk around with us in their pocket.

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Related Articles
Suit Alleges Trusted Blacks Drew Minorities to High-Rate Loans
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TSU Drops Tavis Smiley's Name From School
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SUNY Oneonta Paid Dr. Cornel West $30,000 for one Lecture
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Cornel West is an expert showman but nothing more
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com

Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class (CARMA) 

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WHY AM I SO FIXATED ON CORNEL WEST?

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

WHY AM I SO FIXATED ON CORNEL WEST?

IS THIS THE SAME CORNEL WEST WHO WAS
BAD-MOUTHING OBAMA BEFORE IT BECAME CLEAR
THAT HE WAS GOING TO WIN?

A lot of people ask me why I’m so fixated on Cornel West. The reason is simple. I grew up with brothers like West in the hood - they were a dime a dozen - so I know exactly what he’s about - nothing.
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Contrary to popular belief, there’s a wealth of both knowledge and intellect in the Black community. Johnny Cochran came out of the hood, and so did Colin Powell, Barack and Michelle Obama, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, and Charlie Parker. Langston Hughes came out of the hood - and hell, so did I. So contrary to what's reflected in the media, a large part of this nation's most valuable resource is lying dormant in the inner cities across this nation, because there, you've got to be sharp just to survive.
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But what's generally reflected in the media are the dregs of the Black community.  For every 'gangsta' in the hood, there are literally thousands of young people struggling to get ahead. But the problem is, far too many of us have allowed the media to define who we are, so we no longer have respect for our own intelligence. As a result, many young people tend to have more confidence in the intelligence of frauds like Cornel West than they have in their own ability to think.

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Many of our young people are simply taking the media's word for the fact that Cornel West is suppose to be this powerful intellect instead of actually assessing what West is saying for themselves. The problem is, they’ve been brainwashed into believing that the White man’s water is wetter than their own, so when they hear the words "Harvard" and "Princeton" connected to Cornel West’s name, they simply assume that he possesses a greater ability to think than they do, and that he can see things that they can't. That's nonsense, and it didn't used to be that way. Brother's used to define themselves based upon their ability to think, not by how 'fresh' their tennis shoes look - in fact, unless they ran track, they didn't even wear tennis shoes, because their primary goal in life was to get away from having to wear tennis shoes.
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I remember how much pride my grandparents took in me when I went off to college.  And later, when I got my degree, they stopped debating issues with me all altogether. It was like all of a sudden I went from being one of the kids to becoming the head of the family. I remember my grandmother used to say, "Well, Eric, you’re educated, so you know about all that stuff. We don't understand it."
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They didn't understand it?  They understood enough to waltz through the Great Depression while White folks were throwing themselves out of windows, and they also understood enough to managed to become financially secure in a world that threw every stumbling block before them that it could muster - and without busting a sweat bubble. I don't ever remember them having to suck-up to a landlord.  They always owned their own home.  Yet, even as they were keeping an eye on me and my young family to make sure we didn't falter, my grandmother was saying, due to my education, they didn't understand life like I did.
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I knew my grandmother was giving me much too much credit, but I didn’t say a word, because my young ego had me soppin' up the props like gravy.  But I knew in my heart that even though I’d gone off and gotten a degree, that she - and especially my grandfather - could think circles around me.
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Because even back then, I understood that there was a big difference between innate intelligence and its attendant wisdom and knowledge, and simply going out and picking up a degree. You see, if a ghetto kid who dropped out of high school has an IQ of 140, and a brain surgeon has an IQ of 120, due to his education, the brain surgeon may be in possession of more information, but he'll never be able to connect the dots as efficiently as that high school dropout, because the kid is smarter, and he always will be. Well, I had enough education to recognize that my grandfather was naturally smarter than me, and regardless to how much education I obtained, he always would be - in fact, he was so smart that he had the wisdom not to humiliate me by ramming that fact home. He understood how important it was to let me THINK that I was his peer, so he placed my self-esteem above his need to be 'the man.' That took wisdom, the kind of wisdom that still benefitting from to this day.
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So I knew what my grandfather was doing - after all, I was his grandson - but in spite of that, his actions taught me a far greater lesson - that no institution of higher learning can confer either wisdom, knowledge, or intelligence upon any individual. The only thing that Harvard, Princeton, Yale, or any other institution can confer upon an individual is a receipt indicating that the individual paid his tuition and occupied a seat in a room where knowledge was shared. And while that receipt might also indicate that the individual was able to regurgitated the information once or twice, it cannot certify that any of the information was absorbed, or that it can be effectively manipulated to draw further insight. Education is a solitary pursuit, so the only one who can educate you, is yourself.
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Thus, what my grandmother failed to understand was, my degree didn’t certify that they’d taught me to out-think her, the only thing it certified was that I had been exposed to, and learned to regurgitate, the thoughts of dead White folks. It said absolutely nothing about whether or not I’d learn to think for myself. After all, George W. Bush obtained a receipt from Yale, and we all have a firsthand knowledge of how little that was worth.
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Therefore, it’s important that we in the Black community learn that the very same thing is true of Cornel West, Boyce Watkins, and many other so-called public "intellectuals." While we should have all of the respect in the world for education, we must also have a clear understanding of what constitutes an education. An education is the consumption of knowledge, regardless to whether we consume that knowledge at Harvard, or at the corner library. Knowledge is knowledge, and it's free. So Harvard's knowledge is no more knowledgeable than anyone else's - you just pay more for it, and it comes with public relations support. So if you can't afford to go to college, seek your knowledge from elsewhere - anywhere else - but continue to seek it. And always remember this - Harvard was built to teach what insightful men had ALREADY thought.
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So what most of us fail to understand is, a person cannot BE educated. Each individual must educate himself. Thus, to allow someone else to educate you is not education at all - it's indoctrination. So while having a string of letters behind one's name makes for an excellent calling card and has immeasurable economic value, it says aboulutely nothing about an individual's ability to think. Titles, robes, badges, and all of the other accouterments of alleged knowledge and stature are society’s way of dictating who we listen to, and that’s not always in our best interest. So unless we’re dealing with a highly specialized area of knowledge - like medicine, for example - we should NEVER give anyone else’s ability to think priority over our own, because when we allow someone to think for us, we're also allowing them to control us.
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Consider this - simply having influence over the minds of other people is big business. It can be worth literally millions of dollars to any person who can convince you and others to let him control your attitudes, thinking, and behavior. During the 2008 primaries, one preacher in the south charged Hillary Clinton a specific dollar amount for every brian that he controlled in his congregation.
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A perfect example of how valueable having influence over others can be is, even as we speak Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are on the road trying to portray President Obama as the Bogeyman in an attempt to get Black people to elect the Devil - the Republican Party. Can you imagine how much money the billionaires in the Republican Party would be willing to pay them, not to actually deliver the vote, but to merely keep Black people away from the polls? Now, I have no evidence to suggest that that's what's going on, but it wouldn't be the first time that Cornel West has engaged in the tactic of dividing the vote. West joined forces with Ralph Nader in the 2000 election and helped to get George Bush elected ("Once Again, Nader and West Team to Elect a Republican President").

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DO YOU REALLY BELIEVE THAT NATIONWIDE
IS ON YOUR SIDE?
DO YOU THINK TAVIS SMILEY BELIEVES IT?
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But if you confront members of the Nader/West coalition with the fact that they helped to elect George Bush, they’ll immediately begin to obfuscate and engage in intellectual gymnastics in an attempt to avoid responsibility for the horrific fate that they brought upon this country. They’ll say things like, "It’s not our fault that Gore lost. He just didn’t fight hard enough for a recount." But by using such arguments what they’re actually saying is, "Gore just didn’t work hard enough to undo the damage that we’d done." But here are the facts - Gore lost the 2000 election to Bush in Florida by 537 votes, and the Nader/West coalition peeled off 97,488 votes from Gore in Florida alone. So don’t take my word for it, you do the math. The bottom line is this – Cornel West is more than partially responsible for the very poverty that he's reportedly being paid $10,000 a speech to complain about - period, and case closed..

That's why back in the hood we used to routinely dismiss people like Cornel West. We recognized them as self-serving individuals who couldn't be trusted, because they would do or say anything to get attention. So even if we allowed them to hang around, the minute they opened their mouths we’d simply tell ‘em to shut the hell up, and that would be that. But back then, people like West were simply a source of irritation, under the current circumstance, however, West’s propensity for self-service and chasing public attention is in direct conflict with what’s in the best interest of the Black community. So for that very reason, I try to drag his tired ass through the mud every chance I get. I have a Google Alert on both Tavis and West. I call it the Mutt and Jethro Alert - and I'm about to add Boyce Watkins to it as well, and change the name to the Treacherous Trio Alert.

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At first I tried to prevent it, but this has become a personal thing with me. One of my primary missions in life has become getting Black people to see Tavis and West for who and what they are - two ruthlessly self-serving and dangerous individuals who crave public attention so desperately that they're willing to drag the entire Black community under a bus to get it. West is all affectation, contrived image, and gesticulation, and if you take off his costume and cut off all the fuzz from about his head and face, the only thing you’ll be left with is a goofy-looking little bucktooth punk who takes a very long time to say very little.

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Think about it. Tell me one thing that Cornel West has said in his 30 years of public prominence that’s been either profound, or even the least bit memorable?  Let me answer that for you - not a damn thing. Cornel is best known for two things - slandering the first black President of the United States, and publicly calling his Black female colleague, Dr. Melessa Harris-Perry, a liar and a fraud.  Never mind that it was grossly disrespectful to the President of the united States, Dr. Harris-Perry, and Black women in general, it got him public attention, and that's all he cared about - and this, from a 'brother' who claims to love his people, yet, has never taught at a school that the average Black person can even afford to eat lunch at in his career.

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So in the hood we had a rule of thumb regarding people like West - "Never trust a brother who's always trying to be the coolest thing in the room, because he’s putting so much brainpower into his image that there’s nothing left for him to think with. Hood Rat Wisdom 101.

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LESS WE FORGET  

Here’s a 2008 video of Cornel West calling himself giving, then, Senator, Obama a tongue lashing for deciding to announce his intent to run for president instead of postponing it so he could appear on Tavis’ dog-n-pony show. Think about that for a minute. Tavis was so big headed that he thought the democratic process should be put on hold just for him! And Cornel, latching on to an opportunity for publicity, jumped right on his bandwagon.  I’ve never seen such presumptuous arrogance in my life. Who the hell do Tavis and West think they are!!!?

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Here’s Old-schooler, Dick Gregory, on the same show, essentially telling Tavis and West that they’re damn fools.

 

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Related Article

Dr. Cornel West and intellectual Rice Cake

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/07/dr-cornel-west-and-intellectual-rice.html

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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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ONWARD CHRISTIAN FASCISTS

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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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ONWARD CHRISTIAN FASCISTS 

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It is easy to claim you love the Lord

as you show up on Sunday to pray;

Then denigrate as heathens all those
at home sleeping

instead of living their lives your way."

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It is easy to cry out,

"Oh save them, Lord!"
of those
immune to the games you play,

As you worship the scriptures

that serve your purpose,

and ignore
those that don’t go your way.

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While the "heathens" do rest

like God did suggest

on this 7^th and most sacred day,

You spend the day frowning

while literally drowning

in hatred even as you pray.

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THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF CRYSTAL SPRINGS

THE HOUSE OF SATAN

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GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS

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It’s indeed ironic that the task of saving this country from fascist hypocrites and corporate thugs has fallen on the shoulders of one lone Black man. It shows that God has a sense of irony. God seems to be saying, "This nation’s greatness has been built upon lies, injustice and hypocrisy, so now you have a choice - you can either confront your hypocrisy, or allow it to become the instrument of your destruction."
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Did God talk to you about that, Pat?
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Related Post:

The Religious Right: A Threat to America

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

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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Reflections on the Stanley Crouch, Mtume Debate on Modern Jazz

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Reflections on the Stanley Crouch, Mtume Debate on Modern Jazz

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I recently watched the debate between columnist Stanley Crouch and percussionist James Mtume on the evolution of modern jazz with great interest. Crouch, the steadfast jazz purist, essentially took the position that much of what’s passing for jazz today is actually a corruption of the art form, while Mtume took the position that Crouch was simply out of touch with the new face of jazz.
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In my opinion, Stanley Crouch was right, and James Mtume was simply remaining consistent with what his musical philosophy seems to advocate - playing to the audience and giving applause priority over substance. But Crouch made the mistake of not framing the issue in a way that would allow him to sieze the bottom line. It’s not about the new versus the old; what the discussion is actually about is quality versus lesser quality, and that can be measured.
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First, just because something is new doesn’t mean that it’s better. The problem with a lot of electronic music is electronics is being used to camouflage a lack of technical competence. There’s so much noise and electronic distortion going on that it gives the musicians the "freedom" to play bad notes, be less than melodic, and play musical nonsense. Where, on the other hand, acoustic music is intimate. It’s purely about the musician and his technical ability. Period. If Bud Powell played a bad note, or played the wrong chord progression, it would stick out like a soar thumb. But if he was playing electronic music there’s so much chaos and distortion going on that nobody would notice.

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Mtume was also talking about "technical exhaustion." He said that after a given time, in a given context, everything has been played that can be played in a given form of music. That’s also nonsense - in fact, the ability to do something new with the rhythm and chord progressions of "Stella by Starlight" is exactly what we mean by art.
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Wattree's Chord Chart

There are only ten basic numbers known to mankind - 0 to 9. Yet we can take those ten numbers and combine them in an inexhaustible number of ways. On the other hand, there are TWELVE notes in music, and just like with numbers, you can build an infinite number of scales, chords, and rhythmic constructions with those twelve notes. So Mtume’s claim that you can "exhaust" the possibilities of what can be played on a saxophone is total and demonstrable nonsense.
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The fact is, Miles started having problems with his chops so he went into retirement. But he loved music so much that he wanted to get back into the game, so being the genius that he was, he simply INVENTED a form of music that he could play. Then we had a generation of musicians who came along behind him, who didn’t have a vision of their own, that built an entire musical movement based on what Miles created to accommodate his old age and disability.
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And finally, Mtume justified this "new music" by saying that it inspired young people who weren’t previously into jazz. But the fact is, art is NEVER suppose to lower itself to accommodate the tastes of the lowest common denominator of the people. Art is suppose to raise the consciousness of the people up to it. That’s why it’s called art.

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But the fact is, there’s a very simple way of resolving this debate over the relative merit of this so-called "new thing" over what I'll simply call conventional progressive jazz.  Much like with good parenting, you can measure quality by what quality produces. So we can easily measure the relative quality of the two eras by measuring the quality of what the two respective eras have produced. Where is today’s equivalent of Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Miles Davis, Dexter Gordon, or Jackie McLean?  And where are today’s jazz standards, like 'So What,' 'Round Midnite,' 'Moody’s Mood for love,' 'Impressions' or 'A Night in Tunisias?' I’ll tell you where - they don't exist.
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The great jazz standards of the past are no longer being produced because the towering jazz giants who produced them have become all but a thing of the past. I can’t think of one person of the stature of Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, or Jackie McLean that’s been produced in over thirty years, and there’s a good reason for that - the quality of the music that’s been produced over the past thirty years is not conducive to producing people of that stature and creative ability. That in itself should close the case on this debate.
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But now let’s look at how young some of the old-school giants of jazz were when they reached their musical maturity. Charlie Christian, the father of the modern jazz guitar - died at 25. Charlie parker - died at 34. Clifford Brown - died at 25. Booker Littler - died at 23. Paul Chambers - died at 33. Fats Navarro - died at 26. So John Coltrane and Eric Dolphy were relatively old men when they died - John Coltrane died at 41, and Eric Dolphy at 36. So many of the giants of the past made their mark on the world and moved on long before many of today’s musicians have even gotten all of their scales together. And there’s a reason for that - because in the past young musicians were held to a much higher standard and exposed to a far superior quality of music and musicianship.

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The Jazz Crusaders as young up-and-comers

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The musicians of the Bebop and Hard Bop eras understood from the outset that they weren’t going to get rich playing the music that they loved, so they sought to validate themselves through excellence, while many of today’s musicians are in a hurry to learn their chromatic scale so they can run out and achieve wealth and fame - they figure they can learn to play in Gb Maj while they're on the road. Then they get out and play distorted chord progressions, add a thunderous beat and loud electronic distortion to camouflage their limitations, and label it as "The New Thang." Thereafter, they slap one another on the back as brilliant, and dismiss those of us who recognize it as noise as being "out of touch."
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So the bottom line is, many of the so-called musical "revolutionaries" never took the time to learn what jazz is really about. Jazz is more than just another form of music, and it's not just fun-n-games. Jazz is also a way of life. There’s a political component to it - a way of thinking that reflects a unique way of viewing reality. So jazz purists are not simply upset over a modified beat and the introduction of electronics, they're also upset over the caving in to mediocrity and the abandonment of the political principles and qualities that jazz represents.
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After all, one of the greatest contributions that jazz has made to the black community is informing the world that we're not the frivolous and thoughtless people in which we'd previously been portrayed. The harmonic complexity of bebop served to bring the dazzling intellectual capacity of black people to the world stage. So naturally, jazz purist are both reluctant and hostile to going back to the people-pleasin' days of what is essentially a musical form of Steppin'-Fetchism.      
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Jazz has traditionally been the cultural anthem of social revolutionaries - both Black and White - who are willing to fight the good fight. Thus, jazz purists resent the mongrelization and surrender of those principles in lieu of "Can we all just get along?" To them, that represents the selling of our principles. That's why the word "commercialism" is looked upon with such disdain by those of us who have come to be known as jazz purists. We're not merely fighting to defend our right to be snobs, we're fighting to defend excellence from sliding down the slippery slope of corporate profit and mediocrity; we're fighting for a way of life, and we're fighting a political battle against the dumbing down of America as a whole. Our fight is an essential part of our jazz tradition. It's expected of us, because that's what jazz is all about - pushing the envelop, and never caving in to convention.
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So you can’t just put a funky beat behind noise and call it jazz, because once you go frivolous, the spirit of jazz has been abandoned. While jazz does kick up it's heels on occasion, it's a very serious form of music that’s designed to appeal to the mind, not just the ass. For that reason, a logical and organized structure is essential to its character. Without that, and it’s arrogantly distinctive swagger, it's not jazz - Period.

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SO THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEN AND NOW? 
LOOK AT THE EXPRESSIONS ON THE FACES OF THE OLD-SCHOOLERS BELOW. THEY SAW THEMSELVES AS ARTISTS, NOT COURT JESTERS.

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MILES
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We knew him as Miles, the Black Prince of style,
his nature fit jazz to a tee.
Laid back and cool,
a low threshold for fools,
he set the tone
of what a jazzman should be.
*
Short on words, and unperturbed, about

what the people thought;
frozen in time, drenched in the sublime,
of the passion his sweet horn had wrought.
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Solemn to the bone, distant and torn,
even Trane could scarcely get in;
I can still hear the tone of that genius who mourned,
that precious note that he couldn't

quite bend.
*

The old-schoolers had a word for many of the people we're applauding as geniuses today - students.  But the problem is, they can't seem to get beyond that point. 

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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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Presenting Ms Rita Edmond - The Contemporary Face of True Jazz Royalty

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Presenting Ms. Rita Edmond - The Contemporary Face of True Jazz Royalty
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If you’re a jazz lover and want to look upon the contemporary face of jazz royalty, take a moment to go check out Ms. Rita Edmond on Youtube. She's the jazz world's best kept secret.  She's currently working on her third CD, but even on her first CD, she made it abundantly clear to this writer that she hit the ground fully seasoned as one of the greatest jazz singers alive today. I know, that's a mighty lofty claim to heap onto the shoulders of a relatively new artist, but I'm not given to hyperbole, so I fully intend to back up my assertion with the contents and attachments to this piece.

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Ms. Edmond moves between sultry sophistication, hard driving swing, and childlike innocence without any effort at all. There are many great singers out there, but from the very first bar of anything Rita does, she clearly distinguishes herself as one of those rare individuals who was born to do exactly what she’s doing, and nothing else. She swings with the effortless grace of a Sliver Shadow cruisin' down Pacific Coast Highway, and her ballads are lush with sultry passion, personal depth, and individuality.

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You can't "learn" to sing like Rita Edmond. You either have it, or you don't, and there's only one or two lucky few in a generation who do - but Rita, like Ella and Sarah, is one of those lucky few. But don’t just take my word for it, go check her out for yourself and I’m sure you’ll agree with me that she’s a once in a generation talent, and clearly the heir apparent to some of the greatest divas that jazz has ever known.

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Along with this piece I'm attaching three links to make my point - ‘Here’s to Life,’ ‘Embraceable You' (Live at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art), and ‘It Might As Well Be Spring’ - and each tune shows a different side of her tremendous, and still growing, musical personality.

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‘Here’s to Life’ is a beautiful ballad that’s been done by some of the greatest singers who’s ever lived, yet Ms. Edmond’s version is as good or better than any version of this tune that’s ever been recorded. The soaring passion that she brings to this tune makes it almost impossible for anyone who’s ever had to struggle through life’s adversities and then managed to survive to continue to fight the good fight, to listen to with a dry eye.

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'Embraceable You,' (featuring Harold Land, Jr. on piano) demonstrates the ease in which she can establish the mood of a song and captivate an audience. It also shows an artist who is so comfortable in serenading an audience that it seems like she was born on stage. And after the piano solo, notice the effortless spontaneity in which she throws in a lick that's so exquisite that it sounds like it should have been written into the tune. You won't be able to miss it, because the audience places an exclamation point of approval immediately afterward, as she casually, and routinely, moves on to the next phrase, as though it's all in a night's work. 

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Finally, she does ‘It Might As Well Be Spring,’ a tried and true jazz standard. Not everyone can do this tune well, because it’s such a jazz staple that it’s hard for a singer to put their personal stamp on it, and whenever they try, they either over sing or under sing the tune.  But Rita swings through it effortlessly and makes it her own. King Pleasure himself would smile at her rendition.

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I also wanted to add Ms. Edmond's rendition of ‘This Can’t Be Love’ as an attachment, but unfortunately, it's not available on Youtube. Nevertheless, it deserves a mention. On that tune Ms. Edmond displays yet another part of her musical vocabulary - her growing chops as a scatter and her ability to swing with the best of them. In this case, she scats in unison with yet another powerhouse, tenor sax player Ricky Woodard, and they’re pushed forward by the hard driving rhythms of Albert ‘Tootie’ Heath of the illustrious Heath Brothers on drums - and when it comes to the aristocracy of jazz, they don’t come any more blue-blooded than Tootie. She was also accompanied by Nancy Wilson's long-time pianist LLew Matthews, and the sweet-struttin' Edwin Livingston on bass. So Rita is being tested by fire here, and she literally danced through the flames with blissful abandon.

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So in spite of Ms. Edmond’s unassuming manner, whenever she picks up a mic, her tremendous confidence, individualism and flawless delivery seems to say, “There’s a new diva in town” - and I say, it’s about time! 

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Related Post
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Embraceable You
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4SZXO9-jrc
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It Might As Well Be Spring
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVXzYTrrCVE
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Rita Edmond: A Glance At Destiny

(Article)

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/11/ms-rita-edmond-glance-at-destiny.html

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Eric L. Wattree

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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Republican Greed and Fiscal Irresponsibility: A Brief Look at the Facts

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Republican Greed and Fiscal Irresponsibility: A Brief Look at the Facts

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Am I the only one becoming nauseous over the Republican Party’s claim that they’re the party of fiscal responsibility?  And what about their claim that they're the only ones qualified to save the American middle class, or that they’re the nation’s job creators, and that they have a plan to rebuild our economy? Well, since we don’t want to go back and forth with a lot of partisan bickering over this issue, let’s just take a brief look at the Republican resume. A cursory look at the facts will tell the true story.   
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Due to the freewheeling fiscal policies of conservative Republicans, between 1986 and 1989, spanning the presidencies of Reagan and Bush Sr., the FSLIC had to pay off all the depositors of 296 institutions with assets of over $125 billion.
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Then in 1988 Silverado Savings and Loan collapsed, costing the taxpayers $1.3 billion. It was headed by Neil Bush, brother of George W. The investigation indicated that Bush was guilty of "breaches of his fiduciary duties involving multiple conflicts of interest." The issue was eventually settled out of court with Bush paying a mere $50,000 settlement.
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Then there was the Lincoln Savings and loan scandal in 1987, involving John McCain. The scandal was very similar to the one that is currently playing out on Wall Street. He was one of a group of senators dubbed "The Keating Five" involved in a scandal by the same name.
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In 1976 Charles Keating moved to Arizona to run the American Continental Corporation. In 1984, shortly after the Reagan era push to deregulate the savings and loan community, Keating bought Lincoln Savings and Loan and began to engage in highly risky investments with the depositors' savings. In 1989 the parent company, which Keating headed, went bankrupt, and it resulted in over 21,000 investors losing their life savings. Most of the investors were elderly, and the loss amounted to about 285 million dollars.
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After having received over a million dollars from Keating in illegal campaign contributions, gifts, free trips, and other gratuities, the Keating Five--Senators John Glenn, Don Riegle, Dennis DeConini, Alan Cranston, and Sen. John McCain--attempted to intervene in the investigation into Keating's activities by the regulators. Later, they were admonished to varying degrees by the senate for attempting to influence regulators on Keating's behalf. Charles Keating ended up being convicted for fraud, racketeering and conspiracy, for which he received 10 years by the state court, and a 12 year sentence in federal court. After spending four and a half years in prison, his convictions were overturned. But prior to being retried, he pled guilty to a number of felonies in return for a sentence of time served.
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So we mustn’t allow ourselves to be blinded by the GOP’s incendiary political rhetoric. Just take a moment to ask yourself, who was the last Republican president who DIDN’T drag America under a bus? If you answer that question truthfully, objectively, and honestly, it will become immediately clear that entrusting this government and economy to the Republican Party would be like entrusting our children to convicted child molesters.
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The Republican congress ran in the 2010 election on the claim that their number one priority was bringing economic relief, and creating jobs for the American people. As of June of 2012, here is a list of what they’ve done in that regard:

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WHERE ARE TAVIS SMILEY AND CORNEL WEST ON THIS ISSUE?

WHY AREN'T THEY TALKING ABOUT IT?

ALL WE HEAR FROM THEM IS IT'S OBAMA'S FAULT.

HMMMMM . . .

*

Related Post

http://republicanjobcreation.com/

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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Sweet Bearer of Burden’s Plate

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Sweet Bearer of Burden’s Plate

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Sweet and innocent

Ebony woman,

Proud bearer of burden's plate,

How regally

You bare your burdensome load,
The essence of dignity

With classless mate.

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Nine months

plus ten and six you bore

Your sentence from shiftless mate;

Now

All alone, you’re left to grieve,

Your gift of love,

and your child’s cruel fate.

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Tears of sorrow in the rain,

All alone

You absorb your pain;

Four years short of twenty-one,

Of God's sweet gift

You now have none.

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But
One last task yet left to do

For your gift of love

Before you're through;
Look to God,

through lonely tears,
and thank him lovingly,

for

sixteen years.

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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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Scott Walker Recall: A Referendum on American Democracy

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

Scott Walker Recall: A Referendum on American Democracy

The effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker in tomorrow’s Wisconsin election will undoubtedly have repercussions far beyond the boundaries of the state. Walker has come to be seen as the point man in the GOP’s concerted assault on the American middle class. All across the country GOP governors and Republican-controlled legislatures have launched aggressive campaigns to obstruct voting, bust unions, make draconian cuts to the police, fire departments, education, and social programs, all in the name of deficit reduction, only to use the resulting revenue to give huge tax cuts to large corporations and the top 1% of the population.
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In August of 2011 ThinkProgress.org reported that Walker turned away more than $9 million in grants from the Affordable Care Act. The funds were intended to address the state’s problems with drug and alcohol abuse, assessing the impact of public policies on the health of its citizens, and for signing up residents who qualify for state health programs. According to the article, health commissioners were "outraged." Reportedly, Walker indicated that the funds "duplicated existing efforts." This, in spite of the fact that Walker had "slashed $500 million from Department of Health Services and instituted a $1.6 billion reduction in public school funding." In addition, "Wisconsin is also near the very bottom of states for public health funding, ranking 49th in the nation for state funding of prevention services per capita."
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And according to an article in "Labor Notes" written by Eleni Schirmer and Lenora Hanson,"When Walker entered office in January 2011, the state had a budget surplus of more than $120 million. Walker made quick work of creating a budget crisis, allocating $140 million in corporate tax write-offs and giveaways during his first weeks in office." Thus, the GOP’s ostensible concern over the deficit appears to be nothing more than a pretext to redirect funds to corporations, the top 1% of the population, and to make absolutely certain that the poor and middle class remain miserable, angry, and divided until after the next election.
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Did I say this is a concerted effort on the part of the GOP? Absolutely.
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The Republican Party has done everything in their power to ensure that the American people remain miserable, divided, and angry until the 2012 election every since Rush Limbaugh gave them their marching orders early in Obama’s presidency. Limbaugh said, "I don't want this to work . . . I hope he [Obama] fails." And the Republicans have been on a single-minded mission to ensure Obama’s failure every since - which also means America’s failure. Thus, the GOP has, literally, been on a mission to sabotage America.
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From the moment Rush Limbaugh gave the Republican Party their marching orders, every initiative that President Obama has put forward to improve the economy and create new jobs has been met with fierce Republican opposition. They could care less that America is suffering. In fact, they want America to suffer - the more the better. All the GOP cares about is making absolutely sure that President Obama doesn’t succeed in bringing relief to the misery they caused the American people under eight years of George W. Bush..To that end, the Republicans in congress have engaged in a record number of filibusters in an attempt to block every initiative that Obama has put forward to rescue the American people. Their determination is so fierce in that regard that any Republican who fails to go along with their strategy is in dire jeopardy of being banished from congress. The attack on Utah Republican Orrin Hatch, who has spent 36 years in the U.S. Senate, is clear warning to all others who fail to fall in line.
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And even those initiatives that did manage to miraculously survive were being blocked from implementation by Republican Governors across the country, under the pretense that rescuing America constituted "wasteful spending." But their concern over the budget deficit didn’t prevent Republicans for a minute from holding the unemployed hostage to extend the Bush tax cut for the rich which, to a large extent, is what brought us to this point in the first place
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The Houston Chronicle reported Texas governor, Rick Perry, as saying the following regarding federal money allocated for Texas to assist the unemployed:
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"The money would come with too many strings attached. Taking the half billion would require the state to assist qualified out-of-work residents seeking part-time jobs, an idea that Perry said the state has rejected before, partly because it could discourage them from seeking full-time employment. The federal money injection would also make Texas extend benefits to more low-paid workers, and Perry said the overall expansion would force business to make higher unemployment insurance payments."
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Perry neglected to point out that the money would also be used by the unemployed to purchase goods and services. That would stimulate the economy, and the Republicans can’t have that. Yet, after initially turning down federal money targeted at creating jobs, Perry eventually took the stimulus money. But instead of using it to create jobs and bring relief to the poor and middle class, he used it to plug his budget shortfalls and save his "rainy day fund." CNN Money reports the following:
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"Texas, which crafts a budget every two years, was facing a $6.6 billion shortfall for its 2010-2011 fiscal years. It plugged nearly all of that deficit with $6.4 billion in Recovery Act money, allowing it to leave its $9.1 billion rainy day fund untouched . . . Now that the stimulus money has dried up, state lawmakers last week unveiled an austere budget for the 2012-2013 fiscal years that cuts $31 billion in spending. Schools, colleges, Medicaid and social services for the needy will be hit especially hard."
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So while Gov. Rick Perry of Texas has undoubtedly done his part to promote the GOP obstructionist agenda, in terms of symbolism he pales in comparison to Scott Walker. Walker’s shamelessly blatant assault on the rights and livelihood of the poor and middle class makes him the walking, breathing, embodiment of the Republican effort to lower the standard of living of working-class America. That’s what makes it essential that he’s recalled in tomorrow’s election. He represents the GOP’s trial balloon. If Walker survives, the Republican assault on the rights and livelihood of the working class will go into high gear all across America.

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Related Article:
THE GOP: A ONE HUNDRED YEAR RECORD OF SWINDLING THE AMERICAN PEOPLE

Eric L. Wattree 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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HERE’S TO THE UNDERDOG

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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TO THE

HARD WORKING AND COURAGEOUS

MEN AND WOMEN OF LITTLE CLOUT

WHOSE COLLECTIVE EFFORTS BUILT

AND DEFINES THE CHARACTER  

OF THIS GREAT NATION

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HERE’S TO THE UNDERDOG

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Here's

to the magnificent underdog,

majestic--just look at that face;

who struggle each mile, yet, manages a smile,

while the powerful spits in his face.

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Yes,

a toast!

To the illustrious underdog,

whose courage holds chaos at bay;

for the unshakable steel, which makes up his will,

to stand-up through yet one more day.

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Let’s hear

a cheer!

For the tireless underdog.

His heart firmly girdered in place;

who finds just enough to survive when life's tough,

while the "powerful" stands in disgrace.
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Let us

cherish

the heroic underdog,

who walks water routinely each day;

who braves lion Jaws and shun all applause,

then quietly goes on his way.

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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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