Harry Belafonte final appeared on Democracy Now! in 2016 at a particular occasion on the historic Riverside Church in New York to have fun our twentieth anniversary. He co-headlined the occasion with Noam Chomsky of their first public look collectively. Belafonte spoke about Donald Trump, who had simply been elected president, and ongoing struggles for freedom and justice in america. “We simply need to get out our outdated coats, mud them off, cease screwing round and simply chasing the nice instances, and get all the way down to enterprise,” he stated. “There’s some ass-kicking out right here to be accomplished. And we must always do it.”
This can be a rush transcript. Copy is probably not in its ultimate type.
AMY GOODMAN: Harry Belafonte final appeared on Democracy Now! in 2016 at a particular occasion on the historic Riverside Church in New York to have fun Democracy Now!’s twentieth anniversary. He co-headlined the occasion with Noam Chomsky. It was the primary time that they had accomplished a public occasion collectively. Harry Belafonte spoke about Donald Trump, who had simply been elected president.
HARRY BELAFONTE: I consider that Trump, in bringing a brand new power to the belief of the vastness of the attain of the Ku Klux Klan, will not be one thing that has been out of our primary purview of thought. The Ku Klux Klan, for a few of us, is a continuing — has a continuing existence. It isn’t till it touches sure points of white America that white America all the sudden wakes as much as the truth that there’s something referred to as the Klan and that it does its mischief.
What causes me to have nice thought is one thing that’s most unusual to my expertise. And as I stated earlier tonight, on the doorstep of being 90 years of age, I had thought I had seen all of it and accomplished all of it, solely to seek out out that, at 89, I knew nothing. However essentially the most peculiar factor to me has been the absence of a Black presence in the course of this resistance, not simply the skirmishes that we’ve seen in Ferguson and Black Lives Matter — and I feel these protests and people voices being raised are extraordinarily necessary. However we blew this factor a very long time in the past. Once they began the purge in opposition to communism on this nation and in opposition to the voice of those that noticed hope in a design for socialist concept and for the sharing of wealth and for the equality of humankind, once we deserted our vigil — our imaginative and prescient and vigils on that matter, I feel we offered out ourselves.
A bunch of younger Black college students in Harlem, only a few days in the past, requested me what, at this level in my life, was I searching for. And I stated, “What I’ve at all times been searching for: The place resides the insurgent coronary heart?” With out the rebellious coronary heart, with out individuals who perceive that there’s no sacrifice we are able to make that’s too nice to retrieve that which we’ve misplaced, we are going to ceaselessly be distracted with possessions and trinkets and title. And I feel one of many large issues that occurred was that when Black individuals started to be anointed by the trinkets of this capitalist society and started to turn out to be big-time gamers and started to turn out to be heads of companies, they grew to become gamers within the sport of our personal demise. …
I feel individuals need to be extra adventurous. The center has to seek out better area for revolt. So, we pay a penalty for such thought, as a result of I used to be only in the near past reminded of Schwerner, Goodman and Chaney. They sit significantly near my very own emotions and ideas, as a result of I used to be one of many voices that was raised in recruiting these younger college students to take part in our revolt.
AMY GOODMAN: David Goodman, Andrew’s brother, is right here in the present day.
HARRY BELAFONTE: I’m certain of it. He’s at all times on the proper locations.
However I feel that there are these sorts of extremes that will probably be skilled within the wrestle, however the actual the Aristocracy of our existence is: Are we ready to pay that value? And I feel as soon as the opposition understands that we’re fairly ready to die for what we consider in, that loss of life for a trigger doesn’t simply sit with ISIS, however sits with individuals, staff, people who find themselves genuinely ready to push in opposition to the theft of our nation and the distortion of our Structure, and that, for many people, no value is just too nice for that cost. …
I’ve been via a lot on this nation. I got here again from the Second World Conflict. And whereas the world rejoiced in the truth that Hitler had been met and defeated, there have been a few of us who have been touched by the truth that as a substitute of sitting on the desk of feast at that nice victory, we have been anxious about our lives, as a result of the response from many in America was the homicide of many Black servicemen that got here again. And we have been thought-about to be harmful, as a result of we had discovered the capability to deal with weaponry, we had confronted loss of life on the battlefield. And once we got here again, we had an expectation, because the victors. We got here again understanding that, sure, we would have fought to finish Hitler, however we additionally fought for our proper to vote in America, that within the pursuit of such rights got here the civil rights motion. Properly, that may occur once more. We simply need to get out our outdated coats, mud them off, cease screwing round and simply chasing the nice instances, and get all the way down to enterprise. There’s some ass-kicking out right here to be accomplished. And we must always do it.
AMY GOODMAN: Harry Belafonte, speaking in 2016 on the historic Riverside Church in New York to have fun Democracy Now!’s twentieth anniversary. He co-headlined the occasion with Noam Chomsky. Harry died on Tuesday on the age of 96 of congestive coronary heart failure at his residence right here in New York Metropolis. You may go to democracynow.org to see the full event, in addition to all of our interviews with Harry Belafonte, Harry giving his speech in 2003 in opposition to the Conflict in Iraq, Harry in Venezuela, Harry on the Sundance Movie Pageant, when the documentary about him premiered, speaking totally about his life and a lot extra.
That does it for our present. On Saturday, Juan González will ship the opening plenary handle at a daylong coverage discussion board at American College titled “In Search of a New U.S. Coverage for a New Latin America: Burying 200 Years of the Monroe Doctrine.” Go to democracynow.org for extra data.
Oh, and particular due to our archivist Brendan Allen and Charina Nadura for in the present day’s present. Democracy Now! produced with Renée Feltz, Mike Burke, Deena Guzder, Messiah Rhodes, Nermeen Shaikh, María Taracena, Tami Woronoff, Charina Nadura, Sam Alcoff, Tey-Marie Astudillo, John Hamilton, Robby Karran, Hany Massoud, Sonyi Lopez. Our govt director is Julie Crosby. I’m Amy Goodman. That is Democracy Now!
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