Harry Belafonte: Herman Cain 'A Bad Apple' And 'False' Negro (VIDEO)

Harry Belafonte: Herman Cain A Bad Apple And False Negro (VIDEO)

The legendary entertainer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte lambasted Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain as a "bad apple" and just the latest false representation of what the extreme right believes are "real Negroes," during a taping of the "Joy Behar Show" on Monday.

Belafonte's criticism for the surging Republican candidate came after Behar asked for his take on Cain's recent comments that racism in this country doesn't hold "anybody back in a big way."

"It's very hard to comment on somebody who is so denied intelligence, and certainly someone who is as denied a view of history," Belafonte said. "Because he happened to have had good fortune hit him, because he happened to have had a moment, when he broke through the moment someone blinked, does not make him the authority on the plight of people of color."

Belafonte continued:

The Republican party, the Tea party, all of those forces to the extreme right have consistently tried to come up with representation for what they call black, what they call the real Negroes and try to push these images as the kinds of voices that America should be [looking] to. So we've got Condoleezza Rice, we've got Colin Powell, they are heroes for some people but for a lot of us they are not. And Herman Cain is just the latest incarnation of what is totally false to the needs of our community and the needs of our nation. I think he’s a bad apple and people should look at his whole card, he’s not what he says he is.

Cain has made waves with some of his recent comments. First he called black voters "brainwashed" and then denied racism as a factor in black lives. He has drawn the ire of the likes of actor Morgan Freeman and now Belafonte, among others.

Cain's salvo continued this week with an attack on Barack Obama's experience in black America.
The former pizza CEO took to the airwaves during a radio show and said that an election between he and Obama would be "no contest," and that next to him, Obama would be at a deficit when addressing black America.

"[Obama's] never been a part of the black experience in America," Cain said.

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