For years some of my loyal and thoughtful readers have encouraged me to call out PD columnist Phillip Morris and label him an Uncle Tom for the positions he regularly takes in print that are diametrically opposed to those of the vast majority of the African-Americans hereabouts … or indeed in America. I’ve always demurred from doing so, my logic being, “Hey, the brother gotta eat, and I’m sure those white folks are feeding him well.”
Additionally, Morris (if he’s as bright as he would have the public believe) will use the fact that he is under attack from a member of the black community to ask for a raise … some weird kind of combat pay; and I ain’t trying to help increase his income. Also, the whites he plays to will coalesce around him in a circle the wagons move once they see that he is finally being called out.
For sure Morris is not the first person of color to make his living telling racist whites what they want to hear about black folks. His relatively constant calling (using very clever language) members of his own race lazy, shiftless, stupid and worse provides reactionary whites and others ample reasons for their twisted opinions of us. They can point to Morris’ self-hating babblings and say, “See, we were right all along about those people, one of their own even says so.”
Our race has had pathetic patronizers among us since Reconstruction … those accommodationists who not only sell their own souls for a pat on the head (and a paycheck), but willingly attempt to sell out other members of their race in their pursuit of what they perceive as acceptance (and a way to make a living) from the majority culture. And they often marry some white chick.
But we are now locked in a pitch battle with a racist governor who is not taking any prisoners, so I can no longer overlook Morris’ treacherous rantings. He is now aiding and abetting the enemy. His recent positing that essentially says that it’s OK for Kasich to fail to appoint any minorities to his Cabinet, as long as he creates jobs, harkens back to the period following the Civil War, when Booker T. Washington begged white folks to allow us to educate ourselves in skilled trades (basically saying we did not have the mental acumen and wherewithal to master college-level education) and in return we would not press for the vote.
And if Kasich does manage to create jobs, who is to say that he won’t employ the same logic that he’s using to keep minorities out of his Cabinet to keep us locked out of the jobs: “They’re just not qualified.”
Washington’s deal was a pact made with the Devil — it stifled black progress, and, in part, lead to the Niagara Movement, the forerunner of the NAACP. So the bleating of Morris is nothing new, we’re used to “House Negroes” (we even have one on the U.S. Supreme Court) who put personal gain above the advancement of the race as a whole.
But now Morris goes too far, and every time he makes outlandish statements that denigrates the black race I’m going to try to knock snot out of his nose … I’m going to, in print, beat him like he’s a runaway slave. Just watch.
Gentle readers, you’re going to notice a marked increase in the combative tone and tenor of my writings … this buffoon in Columbus has declared war on minorities, and Morris is one of his lackey foot soldiers … and I’m going to try to make him pay a price for his inexcusable behavior. Ditto for Kasich.
Is Phillip Morris an Uncle Tom? I can no longer bite my tongue. You are right he is. This governor is playing hardball with minorities … our aspirations, our dreams of parity and our hopes for our progeny … but, hardball is the game I like best.
To paraphrase the words of old Willie Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “I will not yield … I will try to the last … before my body I throw my warlike shield: lay on … and damned be him that first cries, ‘Hold, enough!'”
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://www.neighborhoodsolutionsinc.com.
10 Responses to “Mansfield: Is Phillip Morris an Uncle Tom?”
Richard
I find your outrageous attack on Morris appalling and disgusting. You should be ashamed but, judging from your comments in this and many of your other race baiting self-serving articles, you lack the intellectual depth for self introspection. When lacking in logic or intellect, you resort to personal attack and name calling. If you really want to help the community, take a vow of silence and get a vasectomy
Roldo Bartimole
Mansfield, thanks for this blast.
Please watch his columns and call out his subtle racism
and the other nonsense he passes off for the bosses.
Richard
Nothing subtle about this racism. If Mansfield has a case, let him address issues. This rhetoric of personal destruction has no place in a civil society. Let’s debase any real issues until all sight of the real problems in the community are lost? I expect better from a man of Mansfield’s gifts and ability.
Richard
Hey Roldo!
Nice to see you writing! Warmest wishes. You can’t keep a good man down.
Andrew
Why do you seem so convinced he is “Working” for some racist white person? Is it so outlandish that he really is expressing his opinion? That is his right as an American. He may really feel what he writes to be true of Black America. What offends me is that you paint him as worse than a white racist. The fact is that anyone who would paint an entire group of people based on stereotypes should be lambasted. Please, though, do not paint the who of “white” people as them and the whole of Black people as “US” because not all whites are against you and not all blacks are with you.
Mansfield Frazier
My, my. it’s certainly admirable that Phillip’s fans rush to his defense; I would expect no less. And I certainly expected to be castigated for calling him out. But the fact is, I have proof of his “Tomism.”
Just go back and re-read the column he did prior to the one where he’s carrying water for a racist governor. He was promoting a friend of his, a black Marine fighter pilot who did not care to share his wealth with “lazy” black poeple. I sent Phillip a photo of a line of unemployed folks, mostly black, but some white, who had been standing in line for hours to get into a job fair. I asked him if these were the “lazy” people he was referring to. His response was a terse “debate is good.”
It damn sure is Phillip, and in the coming months I’ll set out the case that proves you are an Uncle Tom. Of course your supporters will not agree, but, hey, that’s what America is all about. right? Opinions.
I’ll hang him with his own words.
As for people that can’t (or won’t) face America’s racist past … nothing will convince you that racism ever existed in America .. and still does in some cases.
Blacks that are born on third base, and, while rounding home, think they hit a home run are only deluding themselves.
I dare Phillip to debate me in a public forum. In fact, I double-dog dare him. What is he afraid of, that I will expose him for the handkerchief-headed Tom that he really is?
Within five minutes I’ll force him to paint himself into a corner he won’t be able to get out of. I rarely brag (my writings already do that for me) but this guy really is not in my league.
He believes in debate, well so do I. But don’t expect him to accept the challenge … but if he doesn’t I’m going to put a skirt on him.
Stay tuned.
Anastasia
Thanks for writing this, Mansfield. Morris’ commentary has made me uncomfortable for a while because it seemed so obsequious and accommodating to that “those people would be doing better if they behaved themselves and took personal responsibility” narrative the Plain Dealer has been pushing for a while. I don’t know if I would call the paper racist, but there is an almost total lack of connection there with life as it is really lived out in the community. Morris feels very disconnected to me. And you are right: we are ALL under assault from this governor, unless we are wealthy Wall Street Republicans who are white, male and straight. In telling Nina Turner “I don’t need your people,” Kasich was saying that our state government is now about him and his own personal “needs,” and not about the citizens of the state, black, white, male, female, rich, poor, whatever.
Ed
I find it odd that Black people, unlike others, are not allowed to have diverse opinions. I’m not from Ohio so I don’t know what his other columns are like but I think it is absurd on its face to think merely having a black face in power automatically benefits Blacks.
Blacks have been running Detroit for nearly 50 years. Look at it now. Or look at Haiti. I agree with this man that the only thing that counts is creating jobs not stuffing your inner circle with the requisite number of blacks.
L Martin Johnson Pratt
As a child of an activist i always cringe when i hear UNCLE TOM please call Phillip what he truly is and stop this cycle of misinformation. In the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin the sellout was SAMBO not Uncle Tom. So Phillip is not an UNCLE anything; he is however a SAMBO! With that said thank you for standing up for the obviously disregarded and disrespected people of OHIO. While not a citizen of OH, but a frequent visitor and pupil of James Clingman i feel your pain. Rest a little in the knowledge in NYC we have many like Mr Phillip “Sambo” Morris for instance: Stanley “Sambo” Crouch or Roy “Sambo” Innis. Keep reporting the truth and freeing those who want to be free. Harriet Tubman so aptly said “I freed thousands of slaves. I could have freed thousands more, if they had known they were slaves.”
Rust Belt Hero Mansfield Frazier Talks Cleveland, Race Relations and the New Welcome Center | Rust Wire
[…] Beyond all that, Mansfield Frazier is a thinking man — a thinking man who doesn’t hold his tongue. That’s a rarity in Cleveland. (Plus, we both despise the Plain Dealer’s Phillip Morris.) […]