It was that damned award they gave you in Hollywood, wasn't it....went to you head....didn't it?
"There's an old saying," Belafonte began. "In the days of slavery, there were those 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's 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."
For close to twenty minutes, Belafonte ripped the entire Bush administration, including an attack on
Attorney General John Ashcroft.
"There's something wrong with men who think the way Ashcroft does and who manipulate the justice
system the way he does."
Belafonte likened Ashcroft's tactics to the McCarthy era:
"Families were destroyed, neighbors spied on neighbors. Now we find Ashcroft cutting in under the
guise of catching terrorists, suspending liberties and rights. To deny those rights, to any citizen,
to any people, is to cast a great shame on us and lead us back to another dark period."
Belafonte also sang the praises of the United Nations as a pillar of global democracy, and decried
President Bush for failing to attend the UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa
earlier this year.
"There were tens of thousands of peoples and leaders from all over the world gathered to discuss the
issue of race. It was an honorable arena... But by not showing up, by sticking it to the government
of Nelson Mandela... It was a dark page on our foreign policy."
Belafonte is best known for the international hit "Day-O (The Banana Boat Song)".