I did, you honkey!!
Posted on 11/19/2007 9:52:11 AM PST by neverdem
Beg pardon, but who died and made Al Sharpton president of the Negroes?
Not that Sharpton has ever declared himself as such. But the fact that some regard him as black America's chief executive was driven home for the umpteenth time a few days ago after TV reality show bounty hunter Duane "Dog" Chapman got in trouble for using a certain toxic racial epithet — six letters, starts with "n," rhymes with digger — on the phone with his son.
As you may have heard, Chapman was expressing disapproval of the son's black girlfriend. "It's not because she's black," he said. "It's because we use the word 'n——-' sometimes here. I'm not going to take a chance ever in life of losing everything I've worked for for 30 years because some f——— n——- heard us say 'n——-' and turned us in to the Enquirer magazine."
Naturally, the son sold a tape of the conversation to the National Enquirer. Which leaves me in the awkward position of simultaneously loathing what Chapman said and pitying him for having raised a rat fink son who would sell out his own father for a few pieces of silver. Anyway, with his life and career circling the drain, an apologetic Chapman fell back on what is becoming standard operating procedure for celebrities who defame black folk. He contacted Sharpton.
In so doing, he follows the trail blazed by Don Imus, Washington shock jock Doug "Greaseman" Tracht, and Michael Richards, who sought out Sharpton (or, alternately, Jesse Jackson) after saying what they wished they had not. They were all in turn following the news media, which, whenever a quote on some racial matter is required, turn to the right reverends by reflex. You'd think they knew no other Negroes.
I don't begrudge Jackson or Sharpton their fame. Jena, La., might have gone unnoticed had they not used that fame to direct public attention there. Still, I question whether we ought not by now have grown beyond the notion that one or two men can speak for, or offer absolution in the name of, 36 million people.
Certainly, black America has a long and distinguished history of charismatic leadership, from Frederick Douglass to Booker T. Washington to W.E.B. DuBois to Marcus Garvey to Malcolm X to Martin Luther King Jr. It was King to whom the "president of the Negroes" honorific was jokingly applied during the civil rights era in recognition of the moral authority that allowed him to rally masses. Since King's murder in 1968, a number of men have jockeyed to position themselves as his heir. They have not been conspicuous by their success.
Louis Farrakhan couldn't do it, handicapped as he is by the fact that he is Louis Farrakhan. Sharpton couldn't do it; one hardly thinks of moral authority when one thinks of the man at the center of the Tawana Brawley debacle. Jesse Jackson seemed to presage a new era of charismatic leadership when he ran for president, but he is dogged by a perception some of us have that he serves no cause higher than himself.
But beyond the strengths and weaknesses of the men who seek to be charismatic leaders, there is a sense that the job itself has grown obsolete. Who, after all, are the nation's white leaders? To what one man or woman do you apologize when you insult white folks? Doesn't the very idea that there could be one person deny the complexity and diversity of the population?
Similarly, black America is served by dozens of magazines, Web sites, television networks and media figures that did not exist when King was killed. So it's about time news media — and those who will insult us in the future — get past this notion that one or two people are anointed to speak for 36 million. That is a simplistic, antiquated and faintly condescending idea.
I speak for myself. Don't you
Not sure, but the PC news media sure drove it home.
“....and those who will insult us in the future —”
____
Minority Report?
The Drive By Media, that’s who!
Shakedown Jackson, Liar & Fraud Al Sharpton and Racist Louie Farrakhan have all indicated at one time or another that their the voice of the black community.
He Did!
I did, you honkey!!
Actually, he’s the Pres of jerks.
But a lot of blacks like anyone speaking up for blacks whether they make sense, are really an embarrassment, or not.
I don’t often agree with Pitts, but I’m with him here.
The mainstream media, with the assistance of black people who have declined to take him on and challenge him. Good for Pitts.
Exactly. The war is over; the rights blacks sought are won. They were won by appealing to white America's moral sense; they are threatened when glib con men try to turn that moral strength into an extortion racket. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton do black civil rights far more harm than good by practicing their self-serving, myopic, antagonistic shenanigans.
If they lead their stories with Sharptounge's crimes and scandals, he'd soon fade away.
Every time they give him positive coverage or a corporation bows to him, they pump him up even more.
Same business model as Jackson who pressured weak CEOs who put millions into Jackson's business, so he could enrich himself and his family and pay his employee's child support.
And tax audit? Not on your life!
Yeah, good one.
I would say in the case of Dog Chapman, it was Dog himself who made Sharpton President of Black Folk. Imus did it too. Anybody who messes up the way these two did, then seek an audience to kiss the ring of Sharpton, are the ones who are confirming the “election.”
He undermines his article by mentioning Jena, La., which was just another Sharpton shakedown.
Sharpton’s claim to fame was built on the Twana Brawley hoax, where a black female teen accused several white men of a racially motivated sexual assault. The accusations were proven to be a hoax concocted by Ms. Brawley with the help of Al Sharpton. The Rev. Shapton exploited his media coverage in the case and taking cues from Jesse Jackson, became a professional race baiter living off of “donations” coerced from white businesses who feel denying his demands would paint them as racist.
Just as this site bars posts from Common Dreams, it should as well bar posts from the Austin Anti-American-Non-Statesman. And I might ask; who really gives a rats pattutti what the author of this article thinks? He’s jealous of Sharpton? He wants to be elected President of the Blacks? Blacks are a blast from the past; the open borders program has seen to that!
He who has the biggest mouth & the msm behind them does! That doen not make them right either....
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