- LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Singer
Harry Belafonte said on Friday he stands by remarks likening Secretary
of State Colin Powell to a plantation slave who is "serving his master
well" but insisted he never meant to defame the former general.
-
-
- "This was not a personal attack on Colin Powell,"
Belafonte said in a statement issued through his New York-based publicist.
"However ... speaking on behalf of so many African American citizens,
I have found Colin Powell to be a tragic failure."
-
- Belafonte, 75, who like Powell is a black man of Jamaican
descent, responded in racially charged terms when asked during a radio
interview on Tuesday about Powell's position in the debate over possible
U.S. military force against Iraq.
-
- "...there were those slaves who lived on the plantation
and there were those slaves that lived in the house," Belafonte said
in the interview. "You got the privilege of living in the house if
you served the master exactly the way the master intended to have you serve
him. Colin Powell's committed to come into the house of the master."
-
- Reacting to Belafonte's remarks a day later on CNN's
"Larry King Live," Powell said the singer's slave reference was
"unfortunate" and a "throwback to another time and another
place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."
-
- In his follow-up statement on Friday, Belafonte said
he did not "intend to defame ... Powell as an individual." But
he went on to largely repeat his criticism of the Cabinet secretary.
-
- In characterizing Powell as "serving his master
well," Belafonte said, he was referring to President Bush.
-
- "My analogy to the plantation existence I say without
regret, and maintain that the overwhelming majority of black people in
this country agree that the impending war with Iraq is a colossal mistake,"
the entertainer said.
-
- Belafonte, who popularized calypso music with such 1950s
hits as "Banana Boat (Day-O)" and "Jamaica Farewell,"
is performing this weekend in San Diego.
-
-
-
- Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited
without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable
for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance
thereon.
|
