Juan Williams Takes The Buckwheat Seat At FOX
Maybe it was a good thing that I was headed out of town the day Juan Williams got whacked by the NPR head honchos. Because it probably wouldn’t have taken more than two or three hours before I would have had to write “take your handkerchief head wearing ass somewhere and sit the hell down.”
By the time I got back from the great state of Kentucky earlier this week, where people in wheelchairs and on walkers come a dime a dozen and sorely neglected teeth are de rigueur, but the populace still hates the thought of getting any help from the federal government even though government money is the only thing propping their state up these days, all I could do was watch as Magic Bishop Don Juan Williams took his pimp game to FOX News for a full-time gig.
So why do the commentators at FOX like Juan Williams so damn much? In an excerpt from one of my own short stories, The Black Folks Guide To Survival, the main character explains why “Our Gang”, the vintage show that had a black boy in a sea of white faces, loved their black friend so much:
The only two reasons Buckwheat was in “The Little Rascals” was because he didn’t challenge Spanky and the gang could laugh at him all they wanted. Is that what you want–to be a modern day Buckwheat?”
Is that what you want, Juan Williams? To be a modern day Buckwheat?
How you feel about Juan Williams often depends on how you were introduced to him and his work. If it was through his early books and documentaries there tends to be a degree of admiration for the philosophy major who became a leading political journalist.
If you discovered him after he joined the FOX News Network as a regular analyst and expressed what could be perceived as conservative views on the state of black families, you may see him as some sort of Racially-charged Judas, playing the Liberal pantomime on FOX News Sunday.
The irony of the whole Williams situation, especially with him being a long time critic of black identity politics, is that he is being paid millions to put forth his views on a cable news channel whose political commentators are heavily invested in promoting white identity politics.
For years, conservatives condemned “identity politics” on the left, the idea that our racial, ethnic, or sexual identities should determine what we found important and how we organized ourselves in the political world. Today, white identity politics is taking over the right.
The Fox News TribeThe American Prospect
You guys have heard enough from me—I could go on all day about people like Juan Williams, who might as well be working at a strip club since he is willing to shake his ass for anybody who throws a few dollars at him. But it seems that the same sentiments are running through the comment sections of a lot of the black blogs I frequent that have a political slant. Some samples of what I’ve come across this week are below:
“Juan seems like a “safe” Negro, the kind that Whites feel most comfortable with. He won’t burden them with stories about his people’s oppression, nor will he “make excuses” for them.”
“I’m laughing at all the hypocritical blubbering over Juan’s firing at NPR. Soo much sadness over a black man being persecuted..[sniff]..SOOOO much indignant anger over this oppressed male of color who has built his entire career on attacking OTHER black males who were nothing more than an embarrassment and objects of hate for Juan.”
“Juan Williams is a fence sitter always has been, he jumps from side to side depending on which side serves him better. Like many others of his ilk they proclaim to be black when it convenient.”
“You can’t say anything that goes against the people who SIGN.YOUR.PAYCHECK. unless they’re breaking the law. Juan knew that NPR doesn’t necessarily co-sign the propaganda network’s views, and he went too far about Muslims, so they should have exercised their right to fire his ass.”
“Juan has gone from writing “Eyes on the Prize” and the Thurgood Marshall biography, to being a black voice for a partisan racist news network.”
The most frequent comment I saw on these blogs? Some variation of “when Juan Williams outlives his usefulness at FOX they will throw him under the bus.”
