Editing Harry Belafonte (section)

===Opposition to the George W. Bush administration===
Belafonte achieved widespread attention for his political views in 2002 when he began making a series of comments about President [[George W. Bush]], his administration and the [[Iraq War]]. During an interview with [[Ted Leitner]] for [[San Diego]]'s 760 KFMB, on October 10, 2002, Belafonte referred to [[Malcolm X]].<ref name=CNNpowell /> Belafonte said:

{{blockquote|There is an old saying, in the days of [[slavery]]. There were those slaves who lived on the plantation, and there were those [[House slave|slaves who lived in the house]]. You got the privilege of living in the house if you served the master, do exactly the way the master intended to have you serve him. That gave you privilege. [[Colin Powell]] is permitted to come into the house of the master, as long as he would serve the master, according to the master's dictates. And when Colin Powell dares to suggest something other than what the master wants to hear, he will be turned back out to pasture. And you don't hear much from those who live in the pasture.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2003/02/08/powells-mastery/c571df88-70d8-47c2-80eb-032d1cbdd919/|title=Opinion: Powell's Mastery|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|access-date=March 3, 2024}}</ref>}}

Belafonte used the quotation to characterize former [[United States Secretary of State|United States Secretaries of State]] Colin Powell and [[Condoleezza Rice]]. Powell and Rice both responded, with Powell calling the remarks "unfortunate"<ref name=CNNpowell>{{cite news | url=http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/10/15/belafonte.powell/ | work=CNN | title=Belafonte won't back down from Powell slave reference | date=October 14, 2002 | access-date=May 4, 2010 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091225224441/http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/10/15/belafonte.powell/ | archive-date=December 25, 2009 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> and Rice saying: "I don't need Harry Belafonte to tell me what it means to be black."<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,66288,00.html | work=Fox News | title=Powell, Rice Accused of Toeing the Line | date=October 22, 2002}}</ref>
[[File:Harry Belafonte-IPS.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.9|Belafonte in 2003]]
The comment resurfaced in an interview with [[Amy Goodman]] for ''[[Democracy Now!]]'' in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/30/157217&mode=thread&tid=25 |title=Harry Belafonte on Bush, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and Having His Conversations with Martin Luther King Wiretapped by the FBI |website=Democracy Now!|access-date=November 5, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116221213/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06%2F01%2F30%2F157217&mode=thread&tid=25 |archive-date=November 16, 2007 }}</ref> In January 2006, Belafonte led a delegation of activists including actor [[Danny Glover]] and activist/professor [[Cornel West]] to meet with [[President of Venezuela|Venezuelan president]] [[Hugo Chávez]]. In 2005, Chávez, an outspoken Bush critic, initiated a program to provide cheaper [[heating oil]] for poor people in several areas of the United States. Belafonte supported this initiative.<ref>{{cite news| url= http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2006/01/08/2003288040 |title=Venezuela plans to expand program to provide cheap heating oil to US poor | newspaper= Taipei Times |date=October 29, 2013|access-date=November 5, 2013}}</ref> He was quoted as saying, during the meeting with Chávez: "No matter what the greatest tyrant in the world, the greatest [[terrorism|terrorist]] in the world, George W. Bush says, we're here to tell you: Not hundreds, not thousands, but millions of the American people support your revolution."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10767465 |title=Belafonte calls Bush 'greatest terrorist' – World news – Americas|website=[[NBC News]] |date=January 8, 2006|access-date=November 5, 2013}}</ref> Belafonte and Glover met again with Chávez in 2006.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214973,00.html | work=[[Fox News]] | title=Chavez Repeats 'Devil' Comment at Harlem Event | date=September 21, 2006}}</ref> The comment ignited a great deal of controversy. [[Hillary Clinton]] refused to acknowledge Belafonte's presence at an awards ceremony that featured both of them.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/382483p-324705c.html |location=New York |work=Daily News |title=Hillary's not wild about Harry |first=Katherine|last=Thomson|date=January 12, 2006| url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070218064934/http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/382483p-324705c.html |archive-date=February 18, 2007 }}</ref> [[AARP]], which had just named him one of its 10 Impact Award honorees 2006, released this statement following the remarks: "AARP does not condone the manner and tone which he has chosen and finds his comments completely unacceptable."<ref>{{cite press release |url=http://www.aarp.org/research/press-center/presscurrentnews/harry_belafonte_comments.html |title= Harry Belafonte Comments |publisher=AARP.org |date=November 1, 2013 |access-date=November 5, 2013}}</ref>

During a [[Martin Luther King Jr. Day]] speech at [[Duke University]] in 2006, Belafonte compared the American government to the [[9/11 hijackers|hijackers]] of the [[September 11 attacks]], saying: "What is the difference between that terrorist and other terrorists?"<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/30/157217 |title=Harry Belafonte on Bush, Iraq, Hurricane Katrina and Having His Conversations with Martin Luther King Wiretapped by the FBI |website=[[Democracy Now!]]|access-date=November 5, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071114183807/http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06%2F01%2F30%2F157217 |archive-date=November 14, 2007 }}</ref> In response to criticism about his remarks, Belafonte asked: "What do you call Bush when the war he put us in to date has killed almost as many Americans as died on 9/11 and the number of Americans wounded in war is almost triple? ... By most definitions Bush can be considered a terrorist." When he was asked about his expectation of criticism for his remarks on the war in Iraq, Belafonte responded: "Bring it on. [[Dissent]] is central to any democracy."<ref>{{cite web |last=Williams |first=Brad |url=http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=50447 |title=Audience applauds Belafonte |work=[[The Daily Beacon]] |publisher=University of Tennessee, Knoxville |date=September 13, 2006|access-date=November 5, 2013|url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016110632/http://dailybeacon.utk.edu/showarticle.php?articleid=50447 |archive-date=October 16, 2007 }}</ref>

In another interview, Belafonte remarked that while his comments may have been "hasty", he felt that the Bush administration suffered from "arrogance wedded to ignorance" and its policies around the world were "[[morally bankrupt]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35313 |title=Politics-US: Belafonte on Thinking Outside the Ballot Box |publisher=Ipsnews.net |access-date=November 4, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120220131219/http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35313 |archive-date=February 20, 2012 }}</ref> In a January 2006 speech to the annual meeting of the Arts Presenters Members Conference, Belafonte referred to "the new [[secret police|Gestapo]] of [[Homeland Security]]", saying: "You can be arrested and have no [[right to counsel]]!"<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,182413,00.html | work=Fox News | title=Belafonte Blasts 'Gestapo' Security | date=January 23, 2006}}</ref> During a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech at [[Duke University]] in [[Durham, North Carolina]] in January 2006, Belafonte said that if he could choose his [[epitaph]], it would read "Harry Belafonte, Patriot."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.democracynow.org/2011/5/16/sing_your_song_harry_belafonte_on |title=''Sing Your Song'': Harry Belafonte on Art & Politics, Civil Rights & His Critique of President Obama |last1=Goodman |first1=Amy |website=[[Democracy Now!]]|date= May 16, 2011|access-date=December 10, 2013}}</ref>

In 2004, he was awarded the Domestic Human Rights Award in San Francisco by [[Global Exchange]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2023}}