ANALYSIS: JUAN WILLIAMS LYNCHED BY NPR FOR NOT BEING "BLACK ENOUGH"

"TODAY IS A TRAVESTY... AND FROM MY STANDPOINT, AS A BLACK AMERICAN, as far as I am concerned, it is a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves, to have different ideas, and it is a message that, unless you kotow to an older order, this is what will happen to you. You will be lynched, destroyed, caricatured by committee... rather than hung from a tree."

No, those words did not come from NPR's recently fired political commentator, Juan Williams. Those were the grim but ultimately prescient words of then Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas during his 1991 Senate confirmation hearings, after being grilled and smeared in the most disgusting and vile ways by Democrats hell-bent on scuttling his confirmation. The same Clarence Thomas who was later reviled by filmmaker Spike Lee as a "chicken-and-biscuit eating Uncle Tom".


Although Thomas was eventually confirmed, mostly along party lines, his subsequent confirmation didn't quell the unrelenting hatred that emanated from the left.


Years later, when Thomas was being considered as an esteemed guest to debate national ACLU President Nadine Strossen about affirmative action at the Davis-Levin First Amendment conference in Hawaii, Faye Kennedy and Eric Ferrer, two African American members of the Hawaii ACLU chapter, sent a letter to the board strongly objecting:

"We strongly object to ACLU bringing and sponsoring Clarence Thomas to Hawaii. Bringing Clarence Thomas sends a message that the Hawaii ACLU promotes and honors black Uncle Toms who turn their backs on civil rights... Thomas is an anti-christ, a Hitler, and him discussing the merits of affirmative action is akin to having a serial murderer debate the value of life."

So, why all the vitriol toward Judge Thomas so many years ago? 


Answer: Because he was something a black person wasn't supposed to be -- shouldn't ever be, ever -- and that was a conservative.


For rabid leftists it was simple math, i.e. in their view Thomas wasn't "black enough". Because a truly black man couldn't possibly be anything but a liberal Democrat, with all the trappings that go with it. So, therein lay the rub, and, henceforth,Thomas became fair game for the ideologically driven left. Thus, no name nor label was too low or demeaning for true-believing Democrats with which to slime the accomplished Justice.


Fast forward to October 20th and Juan Williams' ignoble firing from NPR. His sudden dismissal has been the talk of every major cable talk show and the ink of many an op-ed piece and blogosphere opinion. And not just because of the cowardly manner NPR CEO Vivian Schiller dispensed of Mr. Williams, but for the dishonest and implausible reason she gave for his canning. 


Schiller cited that Williams was not merely fired for the noncontroversial controversial anti-Muslim remarks he made on The O'Reilly Factor last week, but for "offering his controversial opinions on several occasions, which were a breach of journalistic ethics for an NPR analyst". Schiller didn't bother naming those "other occasions", largely because there probably weren't any other occasions which to name. Either way, the reason was laughable given the numerous occasions other NPR commentators have spewed truly outrageous and offensive screeds throughout Schiller's tenure, mostly against conservatives, all with nary a peep of objection. 


Schiller's subsequent cheap shot at Williams while addressing the Atlanta Press Club was probably more revealing of the true motive behind Williams' firing. Schiller said that Williams "should have kept his Muslim comments between himself and his psychiatrist or his publicist -- take your pick".


Bingo.


On the surface, one could reasonably draw the incorrect, but justifiable, conclusion that Williams was fired for committing the liberal's cardinal sin of merely appearing on the scourge-of-the-left Fox News (Schiller and company even went so far as to demand that Williams not identify himself as a NPR commentator when commentating on Fox) or at the very least, by appearing without the proper "black attitude". To wit, even President Obama himself has made it abundantly clear how much he detests Fox News and views them as an imminent threat to the Progressive's radical agenda. Make no mistake, Williams' frequent appearances on Fox totally incensed the NPR chieftans; however, in solely blaming that for Williams' firing, one would be only half-right. 


The real truth is, Schiller's unbelievably snide and unconscionable "psychiatrist" snark goes straight to the heart of the matter -- namely, Williams wasn't "black enough" for NPR. And that, in their warped view, was reason enough for Williams to require a shrink. 


To the extreme leftists at NPR, a true deep-blue liberal would never had said such a politically incorrect thing to begin with. Ergo, Williams wasn't really one of them all along. Thus, the the traitor-in-their-midst had to go. And not just in a private meeting like Williams, the decorated, veteran journalist had requested and deserved. But in the most public of ways -- just like Clarence Thomas, "a high-tech lynching" -- to serve as a clarion warning to all liberals -- and by their definition, all blacks -- across the land, that perceived ideological dissent -- no matter who you are -- will be dealt with swiftly and severely.


Williams (a Democrat) and Thomas (not) are not the first African American public figures to be attacked by the left for his or her lack of blackness. History is replete with sorry example after sorry example -- many times from the mouths -- and fists -- of other blacks:


In 1967, Heavyweight Champion Muhammad Ali while unmercifully pummeling challenger Ernie Terrell, who refused to call Ali his Muslim name, instead referring to him as Cassius Clay:

"What's my name, Uncle Tom? What's my name?" 

Legendary singer/actor Harry Belafonte castigating former Secretary of State Colin Powell:

"There's an old saying, in the days of slavery, there were slaves who lived on the plantation and were those slaves that lived in the house. 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 is 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."

On the Web Site TNTalk! America, blogger Leon Walker saying of Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee:

"[Mr. Steele] has been initiated to sell some good old-fashioned Republican snake oil. After Michael Steele has allowed the GOP to use him like a twenty-dollar whore, he can take his place among the likes of J.C. Watts and Alan Keyes. The late great black pawns that the GOP has used and cast aside no longer possess any political capital, but must endure scarred public images in perpetuity for their brief effort at prominence." 

On the Web Site Election Ink, blogger HOTEP maybe sums it up best:

"Never trust the Uncle Tom who, for over four-hundred years of slavery and oppression, has remained ever-faithful to his white masters. The ever-loyal house nigger that sits on the white man's lap like a pet and spews forth critical observations of his own race. Four-hundred years of slavery and oppression has forever crippled the Black Race socially, economically, culturally and politically.  

Simply put, because of slavery the Black race as a whole has been put at such a disadvantage that they can never compete on a level playing field with the white man. Sure there are exceptions. Some blacks have risen above the damage with the help of their white master. These so-called House Negroes and Uncle Toms then tell the world that all blacks are capable of achieving what they themselves have achieved. They quote the exceptions to the rule, while their white masters parade out such successes as Oprah Winfrey and Bill Cosby on a leash for the entire world to see, as proof the white man is not racist.

Schiller and her ilk give folks like Williams, Thomas, Powell, Steele and Cosby no quarter when it comes to their demand for undying allegiance to the Progressive cause. 


It's simple to the Progressive mind. Blacks are victims by birth. All liberals are victims. Thus, all blacks are liberals. Period. 


And to these militant leftist overlords, there is no wiggle room nor fraternization. Obey, or suffer the wrath that you deserve.


The question then begs: Who are the real slaves -- and who are the real enslavers?