Note the circles in the dirt?
Now imagine them on the asphalt streets.
[sorry about the picture quality]
Posted on 08/22/2003 1:04:20 AM PDT by JohnHuang2
Has Jesse Jackson hit the wall?
When word leaked out in late July that Nascar (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) has stopped donating to Mr. Jackson's Rainbow/Push Coalition, certain optimistic observers saw yet another sign that the Jackson juggernaut is running low on gas.
His shot at the membership policies of the Augusta National Golf Club had flown straight into a water hazard. His complaints about the jokes in the movie "Barbershop" were dismissed as raving. And it wasn't so long ago that he was outed for his close and fruitful relations with a female staff member of his Citizenship Educational Fund, a scandal that occasioned a trip into the political wilderness that lasted most of a weekend. Finally, Kenneth Timmerman's "Shakedown," published last year, detailed his lucrative intimidation habits, with Mr. Jackson threatening charges of racism unless corporations adjusted their policies and gave "willingly" to various causes.
A more pessimistic analysis, though, suggests that Mr. Jackson will continue shaking the corporate manna tree with at least some degree of success. He is not retiring any time soon. Yet Nascar's pan of Push implies that Mr. Jackson does not command the respect, or fear, that he once did. It is also now clear that some of his fiercest critics these days are African-Americans.
Mr. Jackson's relationship with Nascar took off in 1999, when he told Nascar brass that its sport is too white. "The fact of the matter is there is frustration because of exclusion," he said. "We must now turn that pain to power. We were qualified to play baseball before 1947. We are qualified to race cars now." He promised to improve the sport's complexion, and in appreciation Nascar began a fund transfer to Rainbow/Push "nonprofits" to the reported tune of $250,000.
Not surprisingly, the Nascar faithful began wondering why any of their ticket money should find its way into Mr. Jackson's saddle bags. After all, Rainbow/Push board member Bill Shack had called auto racing "the last bastion of white supremacy" in professional sports, while Rainbow sports director Charles Farrell said Nascar could be considered "a good ole' boy's Southern cracker sport." (For Northerners it is worth noting that "cracker" is a foul word in Nascar country and not lightly dismissed.)
Then there was Mr. Jackson's opposition to the Iraq war, illuminated in a for-your-information letter from conservative activist Peter Flaherty to Nascar CEO William C. France. "According to the Richmond Times Dispatch," Mr. Flaherty wrote, "you have stated that NASCAR fans are 'the kind of people who go to war and win wars for America.'" Yet, Mr. Flaherty remarked, Mr. Jackson had told a London protest rally that "today is not about Saddam Hussein. Today is about Bush and Blair and the massacre they plan for Iraq." If the U.S. intervened, Mr. Jackson said, it would be guilty of "war crimes."
Nor were the "cracker" rank and file silent. "Imagine if the Sons of the Confederacy described the NBA as a punk-a** colored man's sport," Nascar fan and online commentator Grandstand Bob wrote. "It's roughly the equivalent of \[Charles\] Farrell's comments. Neither statement is fair, and both deserve equal disdain, but don't look for apologies from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition."
In Nascar-friendly Nashville, Tenn., fans threw a collective rod. "We're all wondering what would happen if David Duke tried to extort money from the NBA and NFL because of the relatively low level of white participation," says local radio talk-show host Phil Valentine, who recalled an earlier interview with Mr. Jackson. "I told him that the appearance of graffiti is an early sign of neighborhood decay. Jesse responded by saying that graffiti is the 'hieroglyphics of poverty.' For him, everything is about oppression."
Mike Helton, the president of Nascar, tried to convince fans that they had it all wrong. "NASCAR does not endorse political views," he said in a statement posted at nascar.com. "NASCAR endorses DIVERSITY." Despite his heroic prose, USA Today and the Associated Press would soon report that the relationship with Mr. Jackson was on the skids.
That news was greeted most enthusiastically by Mr. Jackson's detractors in the black community. "It's about time somebody told Jesse Jackson to get lost," says Mychal Massie, a member of the African American Leadership Network's Project 21 and a columnist for WorldNetDaily.com. "Someone finally threw the fox out of the henhouse. And while I champion and applaud their decision, I decry their ever forming an association with Jackson. Why would anyone form an association with a poisonous snake? A rattlesnake may not bite you right away; doesn't mean it's not a rattlesnake. Jesse Jackson is a poisonous snake."
NFL legend Reggie White, who is working with former Washington Redskins coach and Nascar racer Joe Gibbs to increase African-American interest, was only slightly more charitable. "It's really disappointing to me that Jesse and his organization would take a quarter of a million dollars from Nascar and not do anything with it to try to get black drivers into the sport."
Did somebody say extortion?
Many of Mr. Jackson's critics believe that this was simply his latest grope at corporate gold, a practice documented by Mr. Timmerman in "Shakedown." To take one gruesome example from the book: In 1981, Mr. Jackson struck up a "covenant" with Coca-Cola in which the company not only agreed to change overseas policies but, more to the point, provided profitable distributorships to black businessmen--including Mr. Jackson's half-brother, Noah Robinson, later convicted of racketeering, drug trafficking and murder-by-hire.
Nascar, in the meantime, is working hard to increase minority presence. An ESPN poll found that black spectator-participation rose 17.8% between 1995 and 2001. Officials also note that they have nothing to do with fielding race teams. That's up to sponsors, who must ante up as much as $15 million a year to run a car in the elite Winston Cup division. While Mr. Jackson takes credit for getting a black driver into a 2001 race and putting together an African-American motorcycle-racing team, Project 21 put out a press release firmly disputing the claim.
"If Jesse Jackson really cares about the black community," concludes Mr. Massie, "he should be concentrating on Chicago, where 99% of the crime in Districts 7 and 11 is black-on-black. But until more people start saying 'no' to this type of extortion, it's going to continue. And if he's going after organizations simply because they appeal largely to whites, you have to wonder what's next. The Grand Old Opry?"
Let's not give him any ideas.
Well said. And I will add something else to this -- someday there will be a study that says that "donut" skid marks lower property values in any neighborhood they are seen in.
I used to work in Emeryville, a tiny office-building laden Oakland suburb, and would occasionally drive through the streets of Oakland. Every time I would think, "This wouldn't be a bad place to live," I saw those telltale donuts, and knew that there were no-goodniks in the area.
Too cryptic for me.
What are they ?
Thank God I didn't have to be the one to ask. I'm an uncool, rednecked Texan . . . so I thought it was just me.
Carolyn
You mean it's not? </sarcasm>
Looks like the Reverend is loosing an engine and is being black flagged.
Note the circles in the dirt?
Now imagine them on the asphalt streets.
[sorry about the picture quality]
You're right.
This is definitely a sign of a neighborhood where the lunatics are running the asylum.
Not a sane place to move through.
I suppose they better get things back to normal...sheesh...
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