The Harry Belafonte - Liberty City - Tacolcy Center - Communism Connection

The photo on the right is the Belafonte Tacolcy Center and it is located on MLK Blvd. in Liberty City. My investigation is still ongoing, but from what I can tell it is one of the oldest community organizations in Liberty City that is specifically targeting at-risk youth. This year it celebrated 43 years of existence.

TACOLCY is an acronym for "The Advisory Committee of Liberty City Youth," and when Harry Belafonte supported the center in its early years with a very generous gift they added his name to it.

The Tacolcy model has been held up as one of Florida's most successful prevention models for catching inner-city youth before they take a wrong turn in making some of those difficult decisions that are made infinitely more difficult when faced from under the barriers and marginalization of the inner-city.

What I found most interesting as I did my research is how some of America's most generous celebrities are labeled as socialists, or in Harry Belafonte's case, communists. What these celebrities are guilty of is putting people first.

When you oppose materialism and corporate greed, it might mean that you are not a good candidate to support a Republican, but does that make you a socialist?

There are two really bad words that most of Harry Belafonte's critics use as a pejorative when they attack him, and those words are "social justice." One right-wing radical site that railed on Harry Belafonte and other Hollywood celebrities was also sounding off against the the History Channel for airing a production called "The People Speak." It was a montage of celebrities reading excerpts from Howard Zinn's book, "A People's History." (That link allows you to read the entire book free, on-line.)

The right-wing blogger called it "revisionist history" that was meant to be biased against the white majority and the "heroic" tycoons and business owners who made this country the envy of the world.

The celebrities featured in "The People Speak" claim the stories of bold protesters and oppressed minorities and workers are "inspiring," while Zinn himself has stated that casting history as a people's movement toward change offers hope.

Critics of the Zinn Project, however, warn that the curriculum is more about pushing Zinn's admitted pacifist and socialist agenda on the next generation.

Michelle Malkin blasts "The People Speak" as an effort to promote "Marxist academic Howard Zinn's capitalism-bashing, America-dissing, grievance-mongering history textbook, 'A People's History of the United States.' … Zinn's work is a self-proclaimed 'biased account' of American history that rails against white oppressors, the free market and the military."

I encourage you to watch the 24 video clips and judge for yourself whether it is revisionist history or not. To me, it did not seem that they were making this stuff up. Taken as a whole, those 24 video clips pretty much explain the real history behind the inner-city problems that are faced by Liberty City today, and which justify the 43-year existence of a place called the Belafonte Tacolcy Center.

The rhetoric that has turned the words "social justice" into a pejorative has definitely taken a turn for to the extreme since an African American democrat moved into the White House. How this all plays out remains to be seen, but from the perspective of the "white guy on MLK Blvd.," it would be nice to have a few more men like Harry Belafonte around.

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