Re: leftist hypocrisy

[asnider@moose.uvm.edu (Alfred C. Snider)]

Did you watch it? I taped it and have now watched just about every moment
that came from the stage.

Did you flow the same speeches I did?

1. It did not "belong" to Farrakhan. You really missed that one. Saying it
is the product of one person only (and you don't like that person) is
marginalizing the whole event. No wonder you may not have listened closely.

2. Cite for me the specific hate portions you mention. Come on, back it up.
I can think of a couple of marginally distressing ideas (Farrakhan's
reference to the White House as sending the orders to kill "black
prophets"), but I want to see the ones you don't like.

3. I thought Farrakhan's speech was mild, compared to some I have heard,
and I thought his Masonic numerology stuff was a bit strange. But, when he
led hundreds of thousands of African-American men in a pledge to improve
themselves and their relations with women, children, their communities,
etc. I thought it was the kind of pledge we all should make.

4. The real focus of the day seemed to be on recognizing the problems and
failures of African-American men and trying to reduce that. You got a
problem with that?

I find it much easier to oppose ideas than to oppose people. I have a lot
of problems with Farrakhan based on specific ideas he has and specific
statements he has made. I don't demonize him.

While I strongly oppose a number of his specific ideas, I think he is an
excellent speaker in terms of his delivery and style, which is important to
me as a communication professional.

You may have missed what I thought were the more important events of the day:

1. Karenga (Prof. at Cal State Long Beach) gave an excellent speech,
especially when he spoke about environmental racism (toxic dumping near
certain communities) and the need for African-Americans to take more
responsibility for following consumption patterns which are ecologically
sound. He also made some excellent points about how to deal with negative
stereotypes promoted by the media.

2. Jackson (you know, that Jesse guy) gave an excellent speech. Usually I
think he has too much poetic and not enough rhetoric, but this time he did
a very good job of focusing on some importasnt issues. I especially liked
the way he discussed the issue of how penalties for drug laws guarantee
that African-Americans end up with mandatory minimums for buying retail
crack while mostly non-African-Americans get away with probation and very
short sentences for wholesale coke powder.

3. The gang leaders from all over America who stood there and apologized to
the mothers of the children killed in gang warfare, who apologized to
African-American women for not being responsible to them and objectifying
them, and apologizing to each other for letting violence control their
relationships.

4. The statement from the Women's Support Committee about male-female
relationships in the African-American community.

5. The speeches made by 10-11 year old boys and girls about their hopes and
dreams for becoming proud and self-sufficient men and women.

In conclusion, I urge all of us to examine the ideas presented at the event
and critique them as necessary. But to do so in the absence of an analysis
of specific ideas is to merely label it with our own preconceived notions.
In a debate I vote for people and coaches I strongly dislike all the time.
I vote for the arguments. When you simply label it as a "hate fest" without
supporting it in any way, you resemble the kind of debate judge none of us
would want to have. If and when you have more specific things to say then I
can take your ideas a bit more seriously.

PS: I also taped Pat Robertson's "Washington for Jesus" march a few years
ago and I foundf that they had a number of important features in common.
Perhaps I can speak about those another time when I have more ... time.



Alfred C. Snider AKA Tuna
Edwin W. Lawrence Professor of Forensics
University of Vermont

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