It was summer 2013 when I attended an event at the Ford Foundation commemorating the 50th anniversary of the US civil rights movement. Harry Belafonte, one of the speakers, graced the stage during the lunch session, alongside activist Dolores Huerta. Though I had met him once before, I was still awestruck, and this time, he delivered words that changed my life.
Wearing a cream suit, the 86-year-old civil rights activist was eloquent, erudite, and even poetic at times. As he spoke, I searched for notes but found none. His words had a fiery edge, and he spared none.
Belafonte criticized philanthropy, saying, “I think that philanthropy is a big part of the problem” as it fails to fund the real change-makers. He was tired of the process of begging philanthropies for money, only for them to send back proposals to be adjusted based on new criteria, uninterested in directly helping the affected communities.
Belafonte went on to condemn Black leaders who had been seduced by self-importance and silenced, saying, “We’ve become a shadow of need rather than a vision of power” and pointing out that they had lost sight of what was going on down below in the communities.
He chastised Black leaders for the cessation of pressure on the political establishment after the initial successes of the civil rights movement, and for surrendering to greed and joy, thereby destroying the movement. To make sure he covered all grounds, he also took time to comment on hip-hop, liking its street herald beginning but criticizing it for becoming corrupted by corporate greed.
Belafonte was unyielding in his assessment of President Barack Obama, stating that he had suffocated radical thinking by being too accommodating to establishment politics.
After Belafonte’s talk, I walked back to The Times’s offices and the question he posed throughout his talk kept repeating in my head, “Where are the radical thinkers?” It dawned on me that I had been playing small, covering and commenting on society without truly challenging it. So, I took up the challenge and changed what and how I wrote, eventually writing my most recent book, “The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto,” which was inspired by Belafonte’s words.
I have since written several columns mentioning Belafonte, and he has called me every time to express his gratitude. However, I am the one who should be thankful – he helped clarify my thinking and mission at a time when I risked trivializing them.
