Cenk on Alzawahri's video

sorry Cenk, but you got the whole content of the video wrong. you just covered as Fox news would do or any other media of that sort.

I mean obviously the guy is an idiot and used the wrong adjectives to describe obama, but the choice of his words were taken from Malcom-X speech which they showed at the end of his speech. Try to cover things with less bias next time :)

 I like the show and all the way TYT

 

This is an excerpt of Malcolm speech  

 

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To understand this, you have to go back to what [the] young brother here referred to as the house Negro and the field Negro -- back during slavery. There was two kinds of slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes - they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they ate good 'cause they ate his food -- what he left. They lived in the attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they loved their master more than the master loved himself. They would give their life to save the master's house quicker than the master would. The house Negro, if the master said, "We got a good house here," the house Negro would say, "Yeah, we got a good house here." Whenever the master said "we," he said "we." That's how you can tell a house Negro.

If the master's house caught on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?" We sick! He identified himself with his master more than his master identified with himself. And if you came to the house Negro and said, "Let's run away, let's escape, let's separate," the house Negro would look at you and say, "Man, you crazy. What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than this?" That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a "house nigger." And that's what we call him today, because we've still got some house niggers running around here.

This modern house Negro loves his master. He wants to live near him. He'll pay three times as much as the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about "I'm the only Negro out here." "I'm the only one on my job." "I'm the only one in this school." You're nothing but a house Negro. And if someone comes to you right now and says, "Let's separate," you say the same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. "What you mean, separate? From America? This good white man? Where you going to get a better job than you get here?" I mean, this is what you say. "I ain't left nothing in Africa," that's what you say. Why, you left your mind in Africa.

On that same plantation, there was the field Negro. The field Negro -- those were the masses. There were always more Negroes in the field than there was Negroes in the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn't get nothing but what was left of the insides of the hog. They call 'em "chitt'lin'" nowadays. In those days they called them what they were: guts. That's what you were -- a gut-eater. And some of you all still gut-eaters.

The field Negro was beaten from morning to night. He lived in a shack, in a hut; He wore old, castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was intelligent. That house Negro loved his master. But that field Negro -- remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the house caught on fire, he didn't try and put it out; that field Negro prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field Negro prayed that he'd die. If someone come [sic] to the field Negro and said, "Let's separate, let's run," he didn't say "Where we going?" He'd say, "Any place is better than here." You've got field Negroes in America today. I'm a field Negro. The masses are the field Negroes. When they see this man's house on fire, you don't hear these little Negroes talking about "our government is in trouble." They say, "The government is in trouble." Imagine a Negro: "Our government"! I even heard one say "our astronauts." They won't even let him near the plant -- and "our astronauts"! "Our Navy" -- that's a Negro that's out of his mind. That's a Negro that's out of his mind.

Just as the slavemaster of that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, the same old slavemaster today has Negroes who are nothing but modern Uncle Toms, 20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent. That's Tom making you nonviolent. It's like when you go to the dentist, and the man's going to take your tooth. You're going to fight him when he starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, to make you think they're not doing anything to you. So you sit there and 'cause you've got all of that novocaine in your jaw, you suffer peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don't know what's happening. 'Cause someone has taught you to suffer -- peacefully.

</quote>

 

 

 

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It is obvious that Cenk hadn't watched the al-Zawahiri video (available here and here), but got his information from newspaper stories (as Cenk notes at the start of the TYT clip). It is also clear that Cenk didn't glean that footage of Malcolm X talking about "house negroes" and "field negroes" was used by al-Zawahiri in his video. However, within the discussion Jayar pointed out that "house negroes" was a term used to describe black slaves, and how this reference missed the mark due to Obama not actually having any slave heritage. Even if the slave connotation had been entirely missed, the implication of Obama being the black puppet of a white ruling elite was clear. In any case, Cenk was trying to provide commentary on the (presumably reliable)  news story, rather than writing a news story himself. In addition, the al-Zawahiri video was 12 minutes long and covered numerous other points (eg references to Muslim fighters in Somalia), so focussing on a few key points in the analysis is not unreasonable, and the fact that all reference to Malcolm X was left out didn't detract too much (imho) from the analysis.

by jutewe on 11/20/2008 02:23:44 AM EST

Cenk did seem to gloss over this one, something I believe he does rarely. AS for Jayar/Jutway's point that it missed the mark because he doesn't have a history of slavery - you are wrong. The point of his message is not that Obama was a slave because he was black, the point of his message was that Obama is being used by America the same way that the old house negroes used to be used by their slave masters. Whether he personally has an ancestry of slavery has nothing to do with it.

Don't talk about religion or politics, my ass!

by TheRob91 on 11/20/2008 06:30:17 AM EST

"Even if the slave connotation had been entirely missed, the implication of Obama being the black puppet of a white ruling elite was clear."

by jutewe on 11/20/2008 07:10:05 PM EST

[ Parent ]
I'm the first one to admit my mistakes, but I did mention Malcom X at the end of this story. The You Tube clips are edited (mainly for length), but on the show I definitely mentioned it.

And I understood exactly what he was saying about house negro. I don't see how that changes my analysis on this one.

by Cenk on 11/20/2008 02:21:16 PM EST

you do indeed mention Malcolm X at the end of the story. However, you did seem surprised when Jayar mentioned that "house negro" was a term used to describe slaves (see 5.16 onwards of the youtube clip). Anyway, I have already said how I thought the analysis was fine anyway, wheteher or not Malcolm X was specifically brought up.

by jutewe on 11/20/2008 11:32:44 PM EST

[ Parent ]

Rob, you nailed it down.

Cenk, dunno man. the way you told the story sounded like that alzawahiri was being a racist. and to tell the truth, me as being a muslim i was furious at that time to hear somebody trying to insult Obama that way. But when I went to listen to the actual recording of that jackass, he wasn't implying any racial insult to Obama. The "house negro" phrase was used out of context by the media to criticise alzawahiri. Finally, to tell the truth, alzawahiri isn't a politician, he's a warlord, he wouldn't think of "political correctness" before saying such crap and probably wouldn't thought that people would take what he said out of context and would listen to his full speech (yeah, right!). Anyway, keep up the good work!

by libero on 11/20/2008 05:53:04 PM EST

in whatever context was at the very least  bizarre . Al-Queda is definitely afraid of Obama. That was made quite clear.

Republicans portray the government as the enemy. Then when they take over, they prove it.

by Chinese Democracy on 11/20/2008 07:13:26 PM EST

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