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Monday April 16, 2007
This is rich: Carl Hiaasen serves up a stale summary of the Don Imus story, taking time out to call Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson “hypocrites and phonies.”
Tags: hiaasen, racism · Comment feed: RSS, atom
We’ve been talking about how Jackson and Sharpton have now been getting death threats over Imus on the Highbrid Nation website and it got me thinking. Sharpton and Jackson may need to stop tryin to speak on behalf on all black people. I’m starting to feel like that are very out of touch with the average black person. Especially Sharpton who I feel is a joke.
I saw Jackson and Sharpton (along with several other commentators) on the Today show last monday talking about this. They had a lot of interesting and important things to say, but one thing they didn’t do was claim to speak for “all black people.”
Jackson (paraphrase): “This is about who and what NBC chooses to put on the air. CNBC has zero black anchors. MSNBC has zero black anchors. I think it’s time to de-segregate the media.”
(BTW, they also had on Cornell West. I absolutely adore him, but he came across as a little too academic for TV.)
You mean they aren’t hypocrites and phonies? Those are actually mild characterizations. Race-baiting demagogues, extortionists, defamers, anti-Semites and (in Sharpton’s case) inciter of violence would be closer to the mark.
I strongly urge anyone seeking to better understand race relations in America purchase, read, & study Cornell West’s book RACE MATTERS.
I second that, BB. Great book.
Race Matters is a great book, came out in 1993, Mr West has another book “the future of race” a must read for anyone who wishes to undestand race relations in America. Also Sista Soulja’s “No Disrespect” offers a clear overview of the reasons why we need people like Rev Sharpton…
I also think that callin Reverend Sharpton a “race baiter” is baiter is wrong, he is only exposing what a lot (not all) of white people don’t want to see
For some good comedy, I also suggest Paul Mooney “Jesus Was Black..and so was Cleopatra” it’s a new dvd, from one of the best comedians in the country but also serves as a good introduction for matters of race.
alesh: thank you for bringin Hiasen’s comments to my attention, I will keep that in mind the next time a book of his comes out…
Yes, the Reverend Al is a splendid fellow. Maybe he’s a bit rough around the edges but let’s not get hung up on details.
I’ve been digesting that for 48 hours now, Jonathan. I can relate to Sharpton — he’s passionate, and said passion sometimes leads him to talk out of his ass. Yes, people died after he opened his big mouth during that incident. But if I call you an asshole and one of my many minions takes it upon himself to punch you in the mouth afterwards, is it really my fault?
No. So “rough around the edges” should, I think, be taken literally, unlike it’s meant.
Note that death threats have been made against Sharpton by folks pissed that they don’t get to listen to Imus anymore — are you sure you’re on the right side of this issue?
Sharpton has a record of inciting mob violence. I think he bears significant responsibility for that violence — it was foreseeable and might not have happened if he had kept his mouth shut or counseled nonviolence and reconciliation. Instead he engaged in anti-Jewish and anti-white demagoguery. I think you are naive to see him as passionate rather than calculating (not that being passionate would absolve him of responsibility for his actions). Also, you are ignoring Sharpton’s central role in the Tawana Brawley hoax and the smearing of Steve Pagones. He owes his status as a public figure to his success at stirring up hatred between groups and using the threat of violence to extort settlements. He is a rogue.
Dude the issue is not Sharpton , the issue is what Imus said…don’t forget that.
Furthermore , if the Imuses of the world would learn to treat people with dignity there would be no Sharptons.
The days of treating minorities with contempt are over, and the sooner the Imuses type learn that, the better for our society.
Imus is just a jerk with a radio show who insulted some people, as he has done before. Big deal, the world is full of jerks. The way to deal with them, no matter what your color is, no matter what their color is, is to laugh in their faces and tell them to fuck off. To say that “if the Imuses of the world would learn to treat people with dignity there would be no Sharptons” is silly and gives Imus credit he doesn’t deserve for power he doesn’t have. So if you want to treat Imus as public enemy #1, be my guest, but I refuse to play along. He used a racially tinged insult against the members of a mostly black sports team, he got canned, he’ll lose a lot of income, the members of the team got a lot of sympathetic national attention. I don’t see much evidence here of widespread anti-black racism. It seems more like evidence of how far the society has come.
Sharpton, who Alesh seems to think is self-evidently not a hypocrite or a phony, is a much bigger deal because he has gotten people killed, has helped to ruin other people’s lives (Pagones, the Duke lacrosse players) and has frequently tried to stir up racial hatred. Indeed it seems to me that he benefits from racial hatred and divisiveness. What happens to his career and income if there is less racial tension in our society? He is not doing any of us any favors, and in an ideal world would have faded away a long time ago.