Powell lashes back at Belafonte slave remark

2002-10-10 11:29

Steve Gorman

Los Angeles - Secretary of State Colin Powell lashed back at singer Harry Belafonte on Wednesday for remarks likening the former general to a plantation slave who curries favour "to come into the house of the master".

Appearing on a segment of CNN's Larry King Live, Powell said he was "very proud to be serving" President Bush and called the racially charged criticism levelled at him by Belafonte "unfortunate".

"If Harry had wanted to attack my politics, that was fine. If he wanted to attack a particular position I hold, that was fine," Powell said, according to a transcript of his remarks. "But to use a slave reference, I think, is ... a throwback to another time and another place that I wish Harry had thought twice about using."

Powell, the first black American named chairperson of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff and secretary of state, initially brushed off the performer's remarks with humour, saying through a spokesperson that his accountants thought he was "better off as a field hand" - a reference to his earning a lot more money in private life than in public service.

Belafonte (75), who like Powell is a black man of Jamaican descent, lashed out at the secretary during a talk show appearance on Tuesday on KFMB in San Diego.

Long outspoken on civil rights and other political issues, Belafonte was asked by San Diego radio show host Ted Leitner whether he thought Powell had taken a low profile as the Bush administration pressed its case against Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

Powell initially had been seen as a leading proponent for seeking UN support for any military force against Iraq as opposed to unilateral action by the United States.

Not a Belafonte fan

"There's an old saying, in the days of slavery, there were those slaves who lived on the plantation and there were those slaves that lived in the house," Belafonte said. "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," the performer continued. "When Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture."

In Washington, state department spokesperson Richard Boucher told reporters that Powell "smiled" when told of Belafonte's remarks.

Sources close to the secretary said Powell, whose parents are Jamaican immigrants, is a fan of the calypso singer Mighty Sparrow and not of Belafonte.

Leitner, a local sportscaster, said that Belafonte was in San Diego for an upcoming performance and that he was struck by the bluntness of Belafonte's remarks.

"People have become so politically correct," Leitner said. "Even on talk radio nowadays, for someone to come out, an African American, to go after Colin Powell like that ... was so unusual in this day and age that it really stood out."

- Reuters