MANSFIELD: In Enemy Territory

By Mansfield Frazier

Last week I informed some folks via email that I had accepted an offer to host WTAM’s Sunday 7 to 10 pm talk show “The Forum” — or as we call it in the black community, “Negro Night on the Radio.” (How long I’m going to last as the host if I start off throwing stiff uppercuts squarely at the chin of Clear Channel’s management is yet to be seen.)

Cool Cleveland publisher Thomas Mulready firmly believes the station to be owned by Beelzebub … that any station which hosts that loudmouth bigot Rush Limbaugh has got to at least be in league with the Devil … if not owned outright by the Prince of Darkness. And when you add in the borderline racist rants of Mike Trivisonno — who thinks himself clever when he uses the dog whistle, couched and coded language of the right to erect walls to keep Clevelanders apart rather than making attempts to bridge the chasms that separate us — Mulready just maybe right.

There’s a distinct, strong feeling extant among political thinkers in this country that the conservative far right would just as soon burn the country down — this is America I’m talking about here folks — rather than lose the hegemonic control of it they’ve enjoyed for most of the decades since World War II.

Voices like Limbaugh’s and Trivisonno’s are listened to by reactionaries who pine away for the 1950s: a time when women were securely in the kitchen, gays were still hiding in the closet, and blacks knew their place was in the back of the bus. But those days are long gone and those on the far right are scared shitless.

Guess what the last presidential election proved? As a nation we’re not going to go backwards; the number of forward thinking Americans has grown to the tipping point and will continue to grow until we completely overwhelm all of the knuckle-draggers out there still fighting the Civil War — until all the warmongers and haters die off and allow our country to move forward unimpeded, uninterrupted to that brighter tomorrow. I’m literally giddy with glee over our country’s future prospects.

The ink was barely dry on my contract with Clear Channel when I came home and happened to turn on Channel 19 (their news starts at 4 pm rather than 5, which I like) and what was on? “Triv TV.” He was spouting off about how we should respect and like the police, who we should view as friends. Totally agreeing with his point of view, I called into the show for some advice.

I told Triv that, unlike most homeowners, I spend hours and hours outside at my vineyard across the street from my home. And when the police drive past I always wave and smile at them, but they … mostly the white ones … always turn their heads as if I were cussing at them. My question to Triv was, how could I make them into friends? After all, like any citizen I want them to help me protect my property, and since I have many senior police officers (black and white) as friends, why can’t I seem to win these young officers over? I’m trying to be as friendly as Casper the Ghost … but it’s not working. And it’s not working because police in this country — not just in Cleveland, but in the entire country — have adopted this “us versus them” mentality towards the citizenry and until they are willing to change and meet us halfway, any bullshit advice of the variety loudmouths like Triv spouts on a daily basis simply isn’t going to solve one damn thing.

Of course Triv came up with a lame comment about me offering the officers some of the wine I’ll eventually make, but when I pressed him for a real answer he did what talk show hosts who have been outfoxed always do: He hit the drop button and terminated the call. Gee Triv, was it something I said?

Since I now am hosting a radio show on the same station, I’m making a standing offer: I’d like to debate Triv one-on-one … no hiding behind the drop button. How about it Triv, just you and me, one-on-one? Come on, it’s only show business, right?

No one should wait on that to ever happen since Triv is not about to debate someone who can out think him, and can talk just as loudly, while being equally verbose. He’s more accustomed to picking on and calling out people like Art McCoy and Zack Reed … in no way does he want to take on someone who can hold his own and then some.

You see gentle reader, you know me as this thoughtful writer, someone who’s somewhat clever with his pen … but I can also be a loud-mouthed street fighter, a barroom brawler who simply loves playing hardball when the occasion calls for it.

On the air I’m going to beat those right-wingers with a large two-by-four, one with a ten-penny nail in it; I’m going to have fun dogging out these clowns. And when (and if) they’re ready to cry “UNCLE” they can always call in and try to have me put me off the air. Fair enough?

Back to my good friend Mulready (who thinks those on the right are utterly unredeemable and not worth the bother, a main point on which we disagree), yes, I’m going over to the dark side, but I’m going over carrying a bright torch of truth in one hand and a fiery sword of combat in the other … and I’m not taking any prisoners.

On Cool Cleveland I’ve been preaching to the choir; I’ve been writing for like-minded folks … some of the brightest people in Northeast Ohio. I deeply appreciate Thomas Mulready for providing the platform for me to do this, and I hope to continue doing it for a long, long time to come.

There’s an old saying … “Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.” But I don’t really see right-wingers as my enemies since they are, in the end, fellow Americans. They’re just confused, ignorant and frightened … childlike in their thinking. Bigots always are.

Truth, when heard (even when a person at first denies it) has this uncanny way of creeping into the subconscious mind when you’re asleep, and on rare occasions even the dullest bigot awakens a changed person … or at least as changed as much as their smallish minds will allow.

The tagline for my show will be “Seeking signs of intelligent life out there in radio land” … I’m hopeful I’ll be able to find evidence of such. This just might be fun.

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://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.

 

 

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2 Responses to “MANSFIELD: In Enemy Territory”

  1. I agree with you and I’m with you BUT…calling right-wingers “confused, ignorant and frightened…childlike…” does not improve the situation.

    Good advice my dad gave me: You don’t have to say everything you think.

  2. While not saying everything you think can be good advice–for the most part. It’s a damn good thing that there are people who think and do say it all. Sometimes the only way you can start dialog is with a two by four between the eyes. Hopefully without the ten-penny nail. We all need a good shock sometimes to be able to really see ourselves as others see us.

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