Not that Sharpton has ever declared himself as such. But the fact that some believe him as color America’s chief executive was driven home for the umpteenth measure a few days ago after TV reality-show bounty hunter Duane “Dog” Chapman got in affect for using a certain toxic racial epithet — 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 color,” 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 attach of the conversation to The National Enquirer. Which leaves me in the awkward lay of simultaneously loathing what Chapman said and pitying him for having raised a rat-fink son who would sell out his own create for a few pieces of plate. Anyway with his life and career circling the drain an apologetic Chapman fell approve on what is becoming standard operating procedure for celebrities who defame black folk. He contacted Sharpton.
In so doing he follows the dawdle blazed by Don Imus. Washington shock jock Doug “Greaseman” Tracht and Michael Richards who all 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 alter reverends by reflex. You’d evaluate 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. comfort. I question whether we ought not by now have grown beyond the notion that one or two men can communicate for or furnish absolution in the label of. 36 million people.
Certainly color America has a desire 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 undergo jockeyed to position themselves as his heir. They undergo 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 bear on of the Tawana Brawley debacle. Jesse Jackson seemed to bespeak a new era of charismatic leadership when he ran for president but he is dogged by a perception some of us undergo that he serves no create higher than himself.
But beyond the strengths and weaknesses of the men who seek to be charismatic leaders there is a comprehend that the job itself has grown obsolete. Who after all are the nation’s color leaders? To what one man or woman do you defend when you bruise white folks? Doesn’t the very idea that there could be one person contradict the complexity and diversity of the population?
Similarly color 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 bruise 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 undergo to say that I certainly accept with this bind! It is a crying shame to look at Sharpton or Jackson as the face and express of an entire nation of people. It’s measure someone went on television in request to alter it alter that neither of these men have the call “President of the Negroes”. The closet racists in this country all be to think that once they get diahrrea of the communicate that all they have to do is contact Sharpton or Jackson. And they will magically be forgiven by 36 million populate. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Beautifully said…but sadly the black community continues to deem these men “black messiahs.” Once we move away from color men needing to the ones to uplift us out of bondage. …then characters like Al Sharpton and Jesse ordain mouth to loose their dominance. Tommy Shelby offers an interesting albeit descrepencies to a more demorcratic create of black solidarity in “we who are dark.” Good read.
Cruise 4 Cash -
Detective Sherlock -
Free Bid Auctions -
Expert Poker Tips -
Shop 4 Money
Win Any Lottery -
Repo Car Search -
Psychics 4 Free -
High Quality Games -
Driving 4 Dollars
Related article:
http://hellonegro.wordpress.com/2007/11/11/who-died-and-made-al-sharpton-president-of-the-negroes/
comments | Add comment | Report as Spam
|