Young Turks Or Just Another Jive Turkey...

Television commentator and podcaster Cenk Uygur of Young Turks (though he hardly looks "young" to me) was recently on with Brian Tyler Cohen. They reprised an earlier debate Brian had with Cenk. One where Cenk broadstroked all Progressives as living "in a bubble" because they were not sufficiently deferential to chump the brain dead comic carnival barker aka klueless the klown: a convicted criminal, con artist, rapist, and a traitor. If we give any thift to a report done by the NYTimes in an October 7, 2021, piece the "likes of which we have not seen before." Cenk was dismissive, disrespectful, feigning incredulity that anyone could believe there were no voices of dissension in trumpty dumpty's camp simply because Steve Bannon was not in lockstep with Elon Musk. The controversy stemmed from Cenk decision to appear at a conservative conference attempting to marshal support for an ill-fated run for President though he is not a natural-born American citizen (which is another issue altogether). Uygur's presentation to the conservative audience was an infuriating case study in capitulation, goveling, and pandering. I watched the entire sordid affair but was not shocked, just saddened. El Hajj Malik El Shabazz (Malcomb X) had warned us decades earlier that "white liberals" were in some ways worse than open racists. Cenk's positions harshly expressed to BTC illustrates why. But the problem I had is with the presumption, the privalege, Uygur felt he enjoyed to voice his opinion in strident, tones reminiscent of a stern parent scolding a wayward child. Like the vast majority of Black folks who supported and voted for Kamala Harris have "no rights [Cenk] is bound to respect" because this highly accomplished lawyer, public servant, and talented politician is a "corporatist" in Uygur's myopic worldview. Unlike Uygur, we did not just fall off the boat into the United States. In fact, the decendents of enslaved Africans, my ancestors, have been here in America for 406 years. That fact is the source of a controversial documentary called the "1619 Project" done by an award winning journalist, named Hannah Nicole-Jones, who is Dean of famed HBCU Howard University's journalism department. This may be novel to Cenk but Black folks are well-educated, sophisticated, and cultured. We do not have to be conciliatory Stinky without the Brain simply because it is not an "inclusive" position supported by liberalism. Some Black folks do support tRump, however. God bless 'em. I am not one. But I have learned decades ago not to subsidize my own oppression or sacrifice my dignity on the altar of expediency. Donald Trump is a bigot who is not deserving of any consideration by conscious Progressives. Or certainly not the scraps [ read that: concesissions] we may catch crawling on our bellies, instead of standing on our feet like men and women; whose forebears built this country, not Europeans who came here after the bowed, buised, and bollided backs of my ancestors had planted, cultivated, and harvested the four cash crops - e.g., cotton, indigo, rice and tobacco - that created the immense wealth enabling these immigants to have jobs.