Why do the liberals have their purty lace panties all in a bunch now? Well, we can thank Florida Rep. Allen West for that. “I am the modern-day Harriet Tubman,” West said in an appearance on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor,” where Laura Ingraham was filling in for Bill O’Reilly. West added that he was just the guy to lead black Americans off what he called the “Democratic plantation.”
Now, if I had my druthers, I’d prefer that liberal and conservative black folks — and all those to the right, left and center of them — abandon all analogies and metaphors about slavery.
But I’m betting West had had just about enough of getting the Uncle Tom-Sambo-handkerchiefhead routine from black liberals, and decided to give them a dose of their own medicine. And here’s what West learned: The black liberals detested the taste of the medicine. It appears they can dish it out, but the poor little dears just can’t take it.
Some went nearly into whatever the equivalent of apoplectic is when it comes to writing. Here’s a comment some character calling himself Les Burns made on the Huffington Post Web site: “Hmmm, I wonder what Allen ‘Harriett Tubman’ West did when the black man was beaten and then ran over by and killed by white teans in Mississippi recently?”
Wow — improper verb form, misspelling Tubman’s first name and the gaffe on teens. A word of advice, Les boy: Next time you post a comment, follow moby49’s lead and don’t use your name. Here’s moby49’s Huffington Post comment on the West-Tubman controversy: “Harriett Tubman, really? How about acting like Frederick Douglas and lead social reform instead. Now that would really be heroic.”
Moby49 also misspelled Tubman’s first name, and Douglass’ last. Spelling errors aside, other Web sites and blog posts show the same derisive reaction to West’s comparing himself to Tubman.
My dear friend and colleague Tonyaa Weathersbee did a very fine column criticizing West and his Tubman comment on the Web site blackamericaweb.com.
But all of West’s critics are overlooking one thing: There’s already been a black Republican who said pretty much the same thing West did. The man’s name is Charles Evers. He made his observations 14 years ago in his autobiography “Have No Fear: The Charles Evers Story.”
If the last name rings a bell, it’s because Charles Evers is the older brother of Medgar Evers, the Mississippi NAACP field secretary and civil rights martyr who was murdered in 1963.
Older brother Charles was living in Chicago at the time, but he returned to his home state and took over where his younger brother left off.
Evers supported President Johnson in the 1964 presidential race and the late Sen. Robert Kennedy in 1968, so he can’t be dismissed as a lackey for Republicans, as Weathersbee did West.
But today Evers is a Republican. He switched parties, and devoted an entire chapter of his book to tell readers why.
“Democrats give low-down, dirty criminals endless legal appeals. Brutal criminals must be cut down quick. Think that isn’t Christian? Then do something Christian for the man’s victims.
“And Democrats don’t know that welfare’s a sickness, which ruins families. Deep down, most Democrats want the poor to stay poor, so they’ll always need the Democrats’ protection. And deep down, most civil rights leaders want racism to live on, so we’ll always need civil rights groups.
“To hell with that. I say let’s all climb out of poverty and vote whatever political party serves our needs. Let’s kill racism dead and put the NAACP out of business.”
Examiner Columnist Gregory Kane is a Pulitzer nominated news and opinion journalist who has covered people and politics from Baltimore to the Sudan.
