{{short description|American writer}} {{Orphan|date=September 2018}} '''Clarence "Mason" Weaver''' is an American social critic, motivational speaker, commentator, and author. He wrote ''It's OK to Leave the Plantation'' (1998). An African American and a conservative,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RicTCgAAQBAJ&q=%22mason+weaver%22+black&pg=PA65|title=Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Now?: Multicultural Conservatism in America|first=Angela D.|last=Dillard|date= February 11, 2002|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=9780814719404|via=Google Books}}</ref> he has been a guest on various conservative television programs. He was also an advisor to President Donald Trump.
==Background== Weaver changed his legal name to "Mason Weaver" in 1999.<ref name=PetersonMoney>{{cite news|last1=Peterson|first1=Kim|title=Opinionated political outsider emerges as likely front-runner; Mason Weaver has backing and money|publisher=The San Diego Union - Tribune|date= December 22, 1999}}</ref> A former AM radio talk show host, he had been using this name on air for several years.<ref name=PetersonMoney/> Fox News describes him as a former member of the Black Panther movement.<ref>{{cite news|title=Ex-Black Panther: John Lewis 'Presided Over Destruction Of Black America'|url=https://insider.foxnews.com/2017/01/16/former-black-panther-mason-weaver-john-lewis-turncoat-donald-trump-destruction-black|access-date= March 8, 2018|publisher=Fox News|date= January 16, 2017|ref=PantherFox}}</ref>
M. Christopher Brown II wrote about meeting Weaver, exchanging ideas, and lessons he learned from him in his 2007 book ''Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity in Society''.<ref>M. Christopher Brown, [https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0820495220 ''Not Equal: Expanding Educational Opportunity in Society''], 2007, pp. 387 and 388.</ref>
==''It's OK to Leave the Plantation''== In his 1998 book ''It's OK to Leave the Plantation,'' Weaver recounts his personal trajectory "from Berkeley militant to conservative businessman," and likens the contemporary dependence of significant numbers of African Americans on government aid programs to slavery, complete with "overseers" and "drivers" of black citizens in the "mental plantation" of welfare programs, according opinion writer Vin Suprynowicz.<ref name=Suprynowicz>[https://web.archive.org/web/20070227032708/http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jul-06-Sun-2003/opinion/21580706.html Archive][http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2003/Jul-06-Sun-2003/opinion/21580706.html Original] "Back to the plantation"; Suprynowicz, Vin; ''Las Vegas Review-Journal'', July 6, 2003.</ref>
Kimberley Wilson of Project 21 described it as "a remarkably hopeful book written by a man who has not only faced naked racism and discrimination, but also suffered greatly because of it."<ref name=Suprynowicz/>
==Cal Poly controversy== On November 12, 2002, '''California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo''' student Steve Hinkle posted a flier on a public bulletin board announcing a College Republicans-sponsored talk by Mason Weaver. The flyer listed the name of Weaver's book "''It’s OK to Leave the Plantation''" the name of the author, the date and time of the event and a picture of Mr. Weaver. Several students had complained the flier was offensive.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2004-may-06-me-calpoly06-story.html|title=Cal Poly Settles Suit by Student|author=Jean-Paul Renaud|date=May 6, 2004|website=Los Angeles Times}}</ref><ref name=Suprynowicz/> Mr. "Hinkle offered to discuss the flier, but to no avail. After he left, a student called the university police, whose official report stated that officers had responded to complaints about “a suspicious white male passing out literature of an offensive racial nature.”<ref name="Press release">[https://www.thefire.org/index.php/article/152.html "Major Victory for Free Speech at Cal Poly"], ''Foundation for Individual Rights in Education'', Press Release, May 6, 2004. Retrieved October 6, 2008.</ref> The Cal Poly Judicial Affairs Office, after a seven-hour hearing in February 2003, found Hinkle guilty of "disruption of a campus event". The university was then sued by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) and the ACLU. The case was settled, with the student's record expunged of the incident and the university agreeing to narrow their definition of "disruption" to cover only willful disruption.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZM-SH8LrHX4C&q=%22mason+weaver%22+polytech&pg=PA136|title=Freefall of the American University: How Our Colleges Are Corrupting the Minds and Morals of the Next Generation|first=Jim Nelson|last=Black|date=3 December 2012|publisher=Thomas Nelson|isbn=9781418551636|via=Google Books}}</ref><ref name="Press release" />
==Alleged statements about women== In 2019, Media Matters alleged that Weaver stated in his YouTube channel that women should be handmaidens,<ref>Eric Hananoki, [https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/trump-advisory-board-member-women-should-strive-be-handmaidens-stay-out-workplace "Trump advisory board member: Women should strive to be 'handmaidens,' stay out of the workplace"], ''Media Matters'', November 18, 2019.</ref> and that homosexuality is "evil" and an "abomination".<ref>Eric Hananoki, [https://www.mediamatters.org/donald-trump/new-trump-surrogate-says-he-has-problem-gay-coworkers-and-homosexual-training-schools "New Trump surrogate says he has a problem with gay coworkers and 'homosexual training' in schools"], ''Media Matters'', November 20, 2019.</ref> Weaver denied making any such comments.<ref>Jessica Kwong, [https://www.newsweek.com/trump-reelection-member-comments-campaign-1473627 "President's Board Member Says Trump Campaign 'Asked Me Not to Respond' to Attacks on His Anti-Women, LGBT Remarks"], ''Newsweek'', November 22, 2019.</ref>
==Bibliography== *''Tribalism: The truth between the lies'' March 20, 2014, by Clarence Mason Weaver *''Polishing the Diamond in the Rough'' December 12, 2007, by Mason Weaver and I. C. Jackson * ''Diamond in the Rough!'' September 2004 by Mason Weaver * ''The Rope: A New Perspective on Freedom and Success'' August 2001, by C. Mason Weaver * ''It's OK to Leave the Plantation : The New Underground Railroad'' July 1, 1998, by C. Mason Weaver
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *www.MasonWeaver.com *www.LeaveThePlantation.org *www.ClarenceAMason.com
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Weaver, Mason}} Category:Living people Category:American motivational speakers Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:21st-century African-American writers