The High Priests of Hyperbole!

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By Anthony Barnes (about the author) Page 2 of 7 page(s)

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In fact, this is precisely the point I made a point of pointing out in his article's comments section. For the life of me, I couldn't figure out what premise Elder wished to prove by publishing samples of his own hate mail in this context. It most certainly can't be used to make the point that Kilpatrick's use of the over hyped "race card" will result in overwhelming support for him among blacks in Detroit. Recent polls there have shown that about half of the city's black residents want the Mayor to resign.

Perhaps for the often abrasively grandiloquent Elder, producing a sort of "greatest hits" compilation of ignorantly composed anecdotes provides some important underlying point, but damn if I know what it is.

Pimping the "Tom" Game

I'd bet Elder does, though. And, it probably has little to do with anything based in reality. What is a reality however, is the concept that serving as an effervescent black mouthpiece for the odious inner thoughts of a hopefully insignificant number of white haters can truly "soup up" any vehicle used by black pundits and other minorities who wish to ensure that their career trajectory stays on the fast track.

By way of comments I posted about the article, it was acknowledged that many examples of social pathology within many African-American communities often described by Elder and other black conservatives are a legitimate topic for discussion. But I also offered my personal belief that Elder and other black conservative pundits understand that if, in commenting on these problems, "the game" (i.e., race-card) is "played" in the proper manner, their own potential for the kind of social and financial "self-improvement" which they claim to be bête noire to most blacks, is significantly enhanced.

That means these pundits must "flip the script" on the traditionally accepted concept of pro-black race-hustling as personified, in the minds of many, by the likes of Reverends Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton and more recently, Jeremiah Wright.

It means that if you are black and "playing" it properly, you are, "pimping," in the traditional sense of the word, the "Uncle Tom" game. It also means, quoting the late Richard Pryor, that your followers -- who come from trust fund as well as trailer park backgrounds -- are your "biggest hoes." It means you must become a race-hustler, in reverse.

In Elder’s case, the perhaps Freudian aspect of his book's title could be viewed as an overt example of this premise. When someone likely as intelligent as a Elder, a graduate of Brown who also earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School, pens a book with a sub-title that insists there is a wrong way to play the race card -- a way which virtually guarantees you will lose -- the obvious implication is that Elder knows precisely the correct way to "play" it -- and win.

Perhaps one way would be to imply, through web articles where anecdotes serve as substitutions for empirical evidence to show that by and large, black America is gripped by "blame whitey" hysteria. Another is to insist that other than the presence of unremitting black racism, America's overall racial problems are over.

Obviously, my argument that Elder represents a reverse race-hustler who panders to whites in order to gain money and influence from them went over none too well with others participating in this conservative website forum. And, they were quite eager to tell me so. In response after response, the conservatives took me to task for taking Elder to task for writing a piece that came very close to being just as pointless as Fred Thompson's candidacy.

Most of their reactions were typical of what might be expected from some conservatives. However, I won't spend time rehashing responses that tended to be long on emotion and short on facts. If that's what you're looking for, Elder's "Hey Kwame" piece should suffice.

However, I will say that in my experience, most of their reactions were fairly typical. Over the years, I've found that rarely are the opinions held by some conservatives and most supporters of pundits like Elder, the product of actual interactions with a reasonable cross-section of African-Americans. Instead for many, their viewpoint is the tainted product of a minimalist's excursion into the cultural, social and political history of African-Americans.

I've interacted with enough conservatives to have been exposed to a significant amount of their sometimes comically trite views about race, society and culture. So much so in fact, that eventually it became logical for me to presume that many of their positions were ultimately shaped by the subliminal influence of caricature-laden television sit-coms and the deceptive sensationalism of shows like Cops; low-budget, hip-hop genre videos/movies; or the latest trend in subliminal suggestion, computer games and VH1-style "reality" programming."

"If It Bleeds, It Leads"

What is likely to have had the greatest influence however, is the sensationalized reporting by the print and electronic media (which many see as true "reality" television) that invariably focus on a narrow sector of events within the African-American community.

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