LARRY ELDER THE SCOURGE FROM SOUTH-CENTRAL
	In one week of monitoring Elder’s show, while Steve Harvey and Radio Station 100.3 THE BEAT was involved in a promotion campaign to help provide books for inner-city schools in the morning, Larry Elder was on KABC in the afternoon arguing that the students didn’t have books because they were stealing them.  During that same week Elder implied that Richard Williams, father of tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, was not only behind Venus pulling out of a match with her sister, but was dictating who would win each game between the two.  He had no evidence of this whatsoever, other than the fact that the father stated in passing that he didn’t like his daughter playing against one another.  But that’s no evidence at all, since any loving father would feel that way.  And further, it is highly unlikely that Richards would put all the effort into bringing his daughters this far, then sabotage it all by making some of the stupid moves that Elder is implying. One would think that Mr. Williams would be applauded for loving his daughters more than tennis, and being frank about his feelings, rather than being demonized and looked upon with suspicion for making a simple statement. Some things are more important than sports.  But, nevertheless, there Elder was, up front, cheerleading for those who would denigrate this man. Elder also implied that Richard Williams was lying when he complained that he was call a nigger by one of the spectators–even though Elder wasn’t there, and had absolutely no evidence to the contrary.  The show should have been called, Blacks Lie and Cheat. And finally, after the recent high school shootings that took place, Elder stated that the only reason that they were news worthy was because they were “aberrations” in the white community. He then went out of his way to gather statistics to show that black students were more violent than whites. The show should have been called, Blacks are More Violent Than White People.  Elder also uses a device where he points out how blacks are given “special treatment” in the way they are dealt with in the media. An example of that is in the show that he did on the movie Hurricane, about the imprisonment of boxer, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter. He calls the show “Hurricane Lies.” In that show Elder does an exhaustive study of all the inconsistencies in the movie that portrays Carter as an innocent guy who had been wronged. Again, Elder goes out of his way in an attempt to prove that Carter got exactly what he deserved. The show should have been called, Blacks Don’t Deserve Justice. It seems to me that whether Carter was innocent or not isn’t the issue here.  The issue is, why would Elder go to such lengths  to drag this black man, and others, through the mud on a daily basis?  If it is to enlighten, why doesn’t he do a similar study on all of the thousands of movies that lie about what America has been about over the years?  The answer is clear--trashing America wouldn’t be as eagerly embraced by his audience as trashing black people.  So, again, it is his self-serving agenda that turned the black community against Elder, not his political positions. As a moderate in the black community I, like Elder, have always been totally against affirmative action, for example. But when I explain to my friends and associates that I’m against affirmative action because I find it morally distasteful, and see it as political hypocrisy, they may disagree with me, but I don’t get anything close to the anger and animosity directed toward me as do Elder for taking the very same position.  The reason for that is, they know my position against affirmative action–as misguided as it may be--represents an honest philosophical principle, not just an opportunity to feather my nest by catering to those hostile to the black community. Further, while Mr. Elder and I are both against affirmative action, I argue from a constructive point of view, and to the black community, that affirmative action is an insult to our community since it presupposes that blacks are incapable of moving forward without outside assistance.  I also argue, to the black community, that the use of discrimination as a remedy for any problem sets a bad precedent that could come back to haunt us. On the other hand, Elder argues, primarily on behalf of the white community, “So, the fight is on. The fight is between those who wish to work to make the country better versus those who cry, whine, and scapegoat. The fight is between those who believe in the power of the individual versus those who think of themselves as members of hyphenated subgroups. The fight is between those who argue with reason, facts, and data versus those who simply, well, argue.” Thus, the anger that we see directed toward Larry Elder from the black community is the kind of anger reserved for treacherous, self-serving demagogues--those not as interested in public enlightenment as they are dragging the public perception of their own people through the mud for the sole purpose of personal enrichment. Beyond that, Elder is an embarrassment to our community. He might as well go on the air and say, “Unfortunately, I am black, but that doesn’t mean that I like them as much as I do you white folks. I swear to that on a stack of Bibles, and I’m gonna prove it to you every day.  In fact, I’ll even go farther than that–I won’t even tolerate white folks who defend blacks.” Of course, Elder doesn’t literally say those words, but his passionate embrace of libertarianism sends just that message.  The logical conclusion of his adoption of the libertarian philosophy sends the message that if he had been politically mature in the fifties and sixties he would have supported Jim Crow laws, and not only come out against the desegregation of lunch counters, but also of schools and housing.  After all, Jim Crow was supposedly  “separate but equal,” and the law of the land. Therefore, from a libertarian perspective, desegregation was a blatant example of big government interfering with local policy and an individual’s personal right of choice in association. Therefore, you can say what you will about the hypersensitivity of the black community, but no other group in America would tolerate such a self-serving turncoat among its number.  The only reason nothing has been done to this point is that this slandering of the black community has been so blatant that we’ve been in a state of shock.  But we have slowly come to our senses on this matter, so both KABC, and all of it’s sponsors, can just stand by, because if you want to hate black America, we’ve got to assume that you also hate our dollars. YOU’VE JUST HEARD THE WORD. Eric L. Wattree wattree.com
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