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Fear and Loathing* in Memphis
WPLX commentator Thaddeus Matthews sloshes in the muck for Herenton

And shows us race and religion baiting continues to be the least effective
campaign tactic in 21st Century Memphis -- by Ben "Benqq" Harrison


photo unattributed
According to Matthews: the man on the right is a "bourgeois Negro" manipulated
by Jewish interests in Memphis and the man on the left is, yes, a Jew. On air last week
he said, "Blacks are still black in America and your Declaration of Independence has
nothing to do with you. Your good white man Steve Cohen has not changed that. He is a
trick of a congressman. He is tricking black folk in this community. He comes back
with this apology for slavery. We ain't been given no reparation but the Jew got
reparation from this country."
(posted July 25, 2010)
Racial (and religious) politics make ink elsewhere, this time none other than in the New York Times and you can bet its going to be national news August 5, primary day. Though giving Herrenton his due for "improving the city's economy, luring corporate investment and revitalizing downtown," the story is about Herenton's penchant for injecting the racial element into the Congressional campaign. The well balanced story goes on to say, "He surrounds himself with a small cadre of longtime friends," (one of whom may be Thaddeus Matthews, his campaign's conduit to radio discussed below) instead of young campaign workers.
(posted July 22, 2010)
Last week the media, administration and commentators self flagellated themselves for unfairly villifying black USDA executive Shirley Sherrod while black commentator Thaddeus Matthews got a pass for his racial rhetoric: Is Steve Cohen, primary Democratic candidate running against former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton, a Jewish trickster, bent on fooling unsuspecting black voters in Memphis? Moreover, is Obama betraying his race by endorsing Cohen? Or has Obama simply been taken in by the wiley Jew from Memphis? Is Obama really in connivance with Cohen to take blacks to the "Plantation days?" And did long time local civil rights activist Maxine Smith "sell out" to the "damn Jew" Cohen? These and other important issues are raised daily on WPLX 1180 AM.

Bash a Jew for Herenton

Judging from listeners who call into his radio show and his own comments, you might think you were listening to German Weimar radio instead of Memphis radio 2010. Not infrequently Jews are cast in the wiley, greedy roles that helped make possible the pogroms in Eastern European villages. But this isn't Berlin 1936, though sometimes you might think so. Is this guy trying to outdo Mel? Where did the old Thaddeus, who albeit was a functioning racialist for his own benefit in building an audience, go? I turn on the radio and now he's bashing Jews for Herenton. I wouldn't be surprised to see Herenton come up with another brilliant campaign strategy that transcends "Just One"--"Bash a Jew for Herenton." Has a certain ring to it.

His prattle goes further with callers. For reasons I can only surmise he thinks are beneficial to Herenton, WPLX AM owner Thaddeus Matthews, openly links Cohen to his Jewish religion and even allows callers to threaten violence in his self-declared "war" to get Herenton into the US Congress. This week, as opposed to last, he reminded callers he cannot condone or recommend violence (wink, wink) but "this is war" nevertheless. This Farakhan style rhetoric about Jews, who were stalwart allies to blacks during the civil rights movement, proves the eternal truth of the cynic: no good deed goes unpunished.

But the vituperation isn't only directed at members of the Jewish religion. One caller actually said fellow blacks who did not vote for Herenton should be "burned," apparently referring to the quaint African tradition of "necklacing" (burning a tire around someone's neck) or they "should have a gun put to their head" and forced (to vote for Herrenton). Matthews remained silent but when someone calls in to describe Jews in a stereotype, he laughs in approval sounding like the first great American black actor, Paul Robeson, from inside O'neil's play The Emperor Jones about an African-American who gets himself annointed to emporer on a remote island.

Over Memphis air Matthews waves the mic, the king's scepter over his subjects, most of whom adore him without question for his pure on air adventurism, me, I gotta admit, included. If he ever replaces his own rank prejudices with rationality, he might be syndicated material to a broader audience. He certainly has the raw talent for it.

But here in Memphis, in the relative onscurity of an inner city audience that is mostly poor and uncritical, Matthews goes unnoticed in his racialist, and now distinctly unfun anti-Semitic, tirades on behalf of his objet d'poli Willie Herenton. Jews bad. Cohen Jew. Cohen bad. Blacks good. Herrenton black. Herenton good. Anti-semitism reduces even Thaddeus' lingua to the basics. Thus his people annoint Emporer Matthews on the remote little island of Memphis.

To be fair...

Matthews does stay within the realm of comparatively standard race-baiting demagoguery, without making Cohen's religion an extended topic. That's reserved for the general population of whites, about whom Matthews advocates doing no business if equally qualified black businesses are available. Other memorable themes are how whites are keeping blacks down and how Cohen as a white Jew is somehow devilishly connected to the slave master Willie Lynch in the 1700s, whose famous letter he quotes often. There are lots of dotted lines, but little hard line connection among the local white evil doers he identifies by name. Heck, I'm still waiting on finding out who the "white power brokers" he said forced him out of his slot on KWAM.

All Conspiracy All the Time

His is an all inclusive conspiracy theory, that is kind of like string theory in physics: it explains everything--from why its impossible for blacks to be prejudiced--which undoubtedly permits him to be racist without defining it as such--to existential black ownership of the 9th Congressional District--the "Just One" campaign theme of Willie Herenton. Of course, Charlotte Bergmann, who is black, may be Herenton's opponent. Then, of course, Herenton and Matthews will have to base their campaign on who is "blacker."

No, its not bad for people to like to see members of their race as a representative. But to make it the highest qualification for membership into the US Senate reduces the options to the voter, as well as diminishes the conversation between voter and candidate. That's why we hear Matthews remind his listeners Herenton is black and Cohen is white and Jewish, trying to be "pretend to be black." I believe many black voters, especially the younger ones who now self-identify outside of the struggle, may independently see advantages of a white candidate over a black, without compromising loyalty to race Herenton and Matthews so loudly tout. But that's an impossibility according to Herenton and Matthews.

Jew, Jew, Jew

Matthews himself claims to be a preacher. Which explains his black church cadence when he gets on a roll and smoothly inserts the J-word in hypnotic refrains. In one such cadence, he asked if Cohen, instead of pretending to be black, was going to pretend to be a Baptist minister, thus making Cohen's religion alien and to be distrusted to his listeners. Perhaps he's tapping into the shameless reception given him by a black ministers group three years ago in which he was attacked for his race. Oh, I get it. How dumb of me as "student" of professor Matthews (borrowing the brand from Limbaugh), Christian charity is only dispensed to members of the group. (cont. above)


Dollars for Genocide or American Security?

Not that this is intended as an endorsement for Cohen. No, I don't like Cohen's politics, but not because he is a Jew.

But a campaign devoted almost exclusively about race and religion should be a factor in any voting decision. Herenton has not repudiated Matthews', with whom he has an ongoing political relationship according to Matthews himself, extreme comments and agitations.

One white caller in Southern California listening via the internet said Cohen had received money from Turkish interests to vote against persistent resolutions to condemn that country for the genocide of the Armenians. (This is also an interest of mine, but I doubt I represent any voting block among non-Armenians in this district. Recomendation: THE BURNING TIGRIS, The Armenian Genocide and America's Response By Peter Balakian, New York: HarperCollins Publishers.)

Anyway, turns out the caller is an Armenian Genocide documentarian that Cohen, who opposes recognition of the genocide on pragmatic grounds regarding Turkey, an American ally adjacent to a war theatre, had physically by Cohen's own hands thrown out of a press conference in August, 2008 at his home. At any rate, the documentarian, Peter Musurlian, was glad to accept Matthews invitation as telephone guest before the primary to dish dirt on Cohen. From what I remember seeing on TV of Cohen throwing the guy out his front door, I would be too. Here may be a commonality between Cohen and Herenton: similar media skills.

Anyway, Matthews didn't bite and chew like a dog on a bone, as he does with any flimsy issue in which he can insert a race component. Here allegedly was a Jew accepting money to keep the spotlight off a genocide. Given Matthew's race binges, how exploitable is that? Maybe its just too hard to be an anti-Semite on one hand and object to our country's unwillingness to recognize a another genocide on the other. Somehow, doesn't feel quite right to pick and choose genocides for political reasons.

WMC-TV's Cabal with Yacoubian

Back to the theme of this piece: the utter lack of need to invoke racialist rhetoric. Even if you were thinking in purely Machiavellian terms, to deploy divisive race and religion within local politics, is just one of Herenton's strategic blunders that begin with the conceptually flawed "Just One" campaign theme, a concept for which Matthews takes credit, not unsurprisingly.

"Just One" refers to the makeup of the Tennessee Congressional delegation, composed of eleven members, all white. The idea goes like this: "one" refers to having one black in the delegation because blacks deserve "at least" one black member because the 9th Congressional District was redrawn specifically for black representation, Matthews contends. If that racial appeal fails Herenton--and it looks like it will as of the recent Yacoubian poll (below)--will Matthews, and/or Herenton, consider the election to be illegitimate?

But his racial arguments to get votes among Memphis blacks has not only not worked, especially among young blacks judging from voter returns and lack of young callers on his show, it gets in the way of otherwise valid, discussable arguments. Case in point, according to WMC-TVs Yacoubian poll issued Monday, Herenton doesn't have a chance. But it's not that Matthew's criticism is necessarily off--yes, its hard to believe Herenton would only get fifteen percent of the vote, thus raising questions about methodology, wording and population characteristics polled. But the low and easy road on how and why Yacoubian arrived at his numbers is apparent to Matthews, if not Herenton: The poll was done by a Jew for a Jew.

Exhorted Matthews on air,"All of this is a part of a bigger scheme to keep you away from the polls, but don't be tricked. Do not be bamboozled. Do not be fooled. [3 words unintelligible] Now you know. You got Channel 5 that goes to a Jew to do a poll on another Jew. When have you known Jews not to stick together? Not like us! They ain't like us! When have we known a Jew not to stick with a Jew? So Channel 5 gets themself a Jew to poll a Jew and the Jew comes back and says that the other Jew is going to beat the black by sixty five percent!"

To reinforce his pet theory, he says it again a few minutes later. "Is there any area you do not understand? That Channel 5 got a jew to poll a Jew and the Jew that did the polling for the other Jew came back and said that the Jew was going to get sixty five percent of the vote." The Minister of Propaganda would be proud.

Here's Your Improvised Explosive Device for Your Little Campaign, Fellas

But one politician doesn't support Thaddeus' buddy Willie Herenton: President Barach Obama, who endorsed, in writing and in a primary, Cohen.

The most powerful man in the world, uh, who happens to be black elected by a majority white nation, set off a presidential IED underneath the soft underbelly of their flawed political tank. Nomatter how nervously they pretend to downplay it and ask themselves in mock innocent confusion "why?" (OH, GOD WHY!) the answer is obvious, other than political payback for Cohen's support in his health care bill.

Even Obama drew the line at getting stuck with Herenton and his baggage. Little does he need an extreme political white basher on his congressional Democratic team. Let's avoid another Rev. Wright (whom Sydney Chism, Herenton's campaign manager, could be compared).

A part of Obama's thinking as got to be: do I need a Herenton headache in Congress when daily hot button racial stories pop up like blistery pimples? Pimples like the NAACP calling the Tea Partiers "racist" for no particular reason and my own justice department refusing to prosecute Black Panther thugs who intimidate voters. All he'd need is for Herenton to borrow from Matthews' zeitgeist and start propounding like the little professor he pretends to be why blacks should only do business with blacks and are bereft of normal human prejudices. Yeah, right. Hello, again, Fox News.

The Political Game of No Shame

Obama's endorsement put Herenton's and Matthews underwear in a tight knot that insists on riding up due to their own racial rhetoric. For example, by Matthew's own divisive words they are forced to play the President of the United States as a "bourgeois Negro" simply because he supports Cohen, a white candidate. Herenton's, oh, excuse me, Matthew's, arguments land squarely into the yesteryear of the early civil rights struggles.

Puzzling then, that Matthews would turn, in transparent self-service, on historic local civil rights figure, Maxine Smith, who he says is accused in a book of providing the FBI with information leading to the death of Martin Luther King: "How is it that you can applaud this Negro woman, this sellout of a Negro with her light complexion? How can you engage her, how can you embrace her in the African American community when she's a sellout of Dr. King back in the early sixties? So it is not surprising that she has attached herself to a Jew in this community or a white man in the community that does not love black people who did not speak to black people prior to his going to Congress...?

To label blacks who support a white candidate as "house Negroes," "sellout Negroes," and even men who, shall we say, have no testicular presence, in the face of the presidential endorsement, is nothing short of pitifully forlorn.

Matthews can attack Yacoubian's predictive successes, but his own record of trying to influence local politics is not impressive. (see previous articles) I hope he returns to "gadflying" existing politicians, including Herenton if he can given their relationship, and not trying to be a political power broker.
Respond
related previous
Thaddeus Matthews first story, links to followups
Willie Herenton's Campaign Kickoff with pictures (scroll down when there)
Charlotte Bergmann, 9th Cong. Rep. primary candidate
*with apologies to the late Hunter S. Thompson, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Posted July 25, 2010 by Benqq
Ninety seven days ago oil started rupturing from the ocean floor in the Gulf of Mexico. After months of standing by impotently with a President that acted like he didn't get it and a company that acted like it didn't care, Mary Matalin said the people there faced a "fresh hell" every day on top of the local lives lost as they watched in slow motion the unbelievable environmental homicide of the their ocean and coast. Frustration erupted into sci-fi talk of having to nuke the hole once and for all and turning the ocean floor into thick melted layer of solid rock. Wanna go for swim in that?

Perhaps the active hemorhage is under control. But what's left is/are huge subsurface lakes of oil floating around like Dracula's mists and they can't even find them. Sentient animals flee to safer environs far away. New life chokes and dies in the ocean grass that's always "since time immemorial" provided a first stage home. Certainly I and maybe there's not an expert anywhere really know what the ocean floor looks like once the oil cloud settles in. Is it gooey and thick, gluing shut claws and eyes or does an unseen residue simply poison everything? Or does it cause consequences we can't even imagine years from now? Whatever it is, we know its not good.

Once the sinking realization set in that it was going to be very hard to plug the hole, I heard talk of the event being a "planet killer." I thought of Cormac McCarthy's book and recent film The Road where the sun had disappeared and the earth was turned into a gray dirty dead zone where people ate what they could find and each other. There were other cataclysmic environmental movies like Jane Fonda's The China Syndrome and Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times and scores of others thereafter. (But The Road wins the Why-Put-Another-Foot Before-the-Other? award.)

It was the movie The China Syndrome and its simultaneous art-imitating-life doppleganger at Three Mile Island, that got me interested in making a "light" environmental satire I called The Cinema Syndrome, a film school master's project. Fellow Memphian William Donati who now records his music, writes and teaches literature at the University of Las Vegas starred with actor and technical friends. Panavision even donated camera equipment. Anyway, it became our very little short contribution to cataclysmic films. We shot Bill's song, "The Nuclear Surfer," around Southern Cal, including the San Onofre nuclear power plant, apparently much to their annoyance. With the internet, Nuclear Surfer continues to make some fans on YouTube and through his distributer, CD Baby.

Cast sings about a "nuclear innovation" in a cataclysmic movie--lower left inset Harrison and Donati

We've come to trust the technology. We believe we can and will always, without fail, never allow even one accident to occur. When they do, artists and writers do their thing in response while the real solution providers-- those engineers and techns work nonstop to do the critical fix. It appears the fix is in in the Gulf. Maybe not. We'll soon go back to believing we've beat that threat of the unforeseen, that cataclysmic vulnerability, brought on by one bad computer code line among millions or that coffee spilt over a console and leaded down to a wire.

One thing for sure: always a little surprise ahead.
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