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Belafonte nyt { October 10 2002 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/politics/10POWE.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2002/10/10/politics/10POWE.html
October 10, 2002
Powell Finesses a Sour Note From Harry Belafonte, 'a Friend'
By TODD S. PURDUM
WASHINGTON, Oct. 9 — Harry Belafonte, the singer and liberal political advocate, denounced Secretary of State Colin L. Powell in a radio interview this week, likening him to a plantation slave who abandoned his principles to "come into the house of the master." Mr. Powell called the characterization "unfortunate."
In an interview Tuesday on station KFMB in San Diego, Mr. Belafonte offered a broad critique of the Bush administration's dealing with international organizations like the United Nations and its handling of civil liberties issues, singling out Attorney General John Ashcroft and Secretary Powell for special criticism.
"In the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and there were those slaves that lived in the house," Mr. Belafonte said, according to a partial transcript of the interview posted on the station's Web site. "You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master."
He added: "Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master. When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."
Tonight, in an interview on CNN's "Larry King Live," Secretary Powell said, "I think it's unfortunate that Harry used that characterization."
"If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine," Secretary Powell added. "If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine. But to use a slave reference, I think, is unfortunate and is a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."
The State Department spokesman, Richard A. Boucher, had earlier brushed off Mr. Belafonte's comments, saying that Secretary Powell had "smiled when I told him about it."
He said that Mr. Powell "also said that both the I.R.S. and his accountant thought he was better off as a field hand," earning high lecture fees before returning to government service with the Bush administration.
A senior State Department official later said that Secretary Powell considered Mr. Belafonte a friend, despite their obvious and well-known political differences.
In the radio interview, Mr. Belafonte criticized the Bush administration on a range of issues, comparing the tactics of Mr. Ashcroft's Justice Department to those of the McCarthy era when "families were destroyed, neighbors spied on neighbors."
Now, he said, "We find Ashcroft cutting in under the guise of catching terrorists, suspending liberties and rights."
He also faulted the administration for its decision to walk out of last year's United Nations conference on race in South Africa, after it fell into bitter disputes over criticism of Israel.
"What Colin Powell serves is to give the illusion that the Bush cabinet is a diverse cabinet, made up of people of color," when "in fact, none of that is what is true," he said.
Mr. Belafonte and Secretary Powell are both of Jamaican descent, and Mr. Powell is a huge fan of calypso music.
But on that score, the Secretary is known to favor the social commentary of the Mighty Sparrow, "the Calypso King."
Secretary Powell has often assured associates that Mr. Belafonte's calypso-style night-club performances are not the real thing.
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