ebogjonson.com

When I was in school at UMich, I participated in an anti-war march against the war in Iraq, which was certain but not yet underway. It was a football game, against Ohio State, which meant that the entire population of the town and its surrounding areas, as well as hundreds of thousands of people from out of town, were at the stadium and lined up on the street leading up to the stadium. Either that or watching the stadium on teevee.

We marched to the library.

It's really frightening that it's standard now to require a demonstration to take place out of the way of its audience.

I've gotten into some heated arguments with folks of all colors about Reverend Al. They can't stand his hair, his fashion sense, his greed, his publicity-seeking, whatever. It always makes me think, Okay let's just say he does have all those character flaws and has made all those mistakes; now, what about the actual message that he's trying to convey right now about organizing the fight for social justice? Can we talk about that?

Of course, I suppose that negative image was the whole point of Lieberman calling Lamont "an Al Sharpton Democrat", an expression which itself -- ironically enough -- contains a very faint but I believe detectable whiff of blackface. I say it's ironic because the Lieberman camp was at least smart enough to allow their racism to remain shrouded in code words, rather than literalizing it by posting actual blackface on the internet.

As for the Sean Bell situation, I'm glued to the story. As you point out, a hundred-thousand scattershot mouse-clicks just isn't the same as a hundred-thousand marching feet.

Peace.

I don't personally like Sharpton much, but that is beside the point. On issues that matter, he invariably says/does the right thing. And the guy has to admired for his intelligence and imagination (the down side of which is his bad hair!).

If this thing goes forward on the Sat before x-mas, I will haul my ass to mid-town from ft greene and be there.

And as for the transit strike, all the working white people that I know were totally on board with the TWA. And we still love to tell our walking-hitchhiking to Manhattan to work on time stories. Things did change here after 9-11, but not in the way the Bushites would have us believe. Most people in the city know how to lend a helping hand when the going gets rough.

I was living in LA during the Rodney King fiasco, and NYC should learn from that. While I don't see looting and burning here, I do see this as NYC's Rodney King moment. If there is no justice, there will be no peace (that is a prediction, not a wish) Charges need to be levied against these police officers. The trial better not be moved to Albany (code for Simi Valley), and something needs to be done about the Police union. Period.

Speaking purely for myself, I tend to get a bit irritated when anyone who's talking up Sharpton tries to hand-wave away the Tawana Brawley mess. At some point, he could have just said, "You know, I really wanted to believe this girl, but now her friends are talking, and..." But, no. Someone, Steve Gilliard or someone on his blog, maybe, said that Sharpton had credibility because he didn't "throw [Brawley] under a bus". Instead, he and his cohorts cooked up a conspiracy theory that became more ludicrous with every person that they tried to draft into it as a participant.

So, sorry, but I really don't think that my problem with Sharpton is that "he goes about his business without clearing his plans with anyone white". My problem, along with many people who first heard of Sharpton during l'affaire Brawley, is that I don't believe him and I don't trust him, full stop.

>So, sorry, but I really don't think that my problem with Sharpton is that "he goes about his business without clearing his plans with anyone white". My problem, along with many people who first heard of Sharpton during l'affaire Brawley, is that I don't believe him and I don't trust him, full stop.<

You're certainly entitled to the original sin/primal scene of your choice, but I had heard of Al Sharpton before l'affaire Brawley, thought his conduct during that saga was shameful and have followed his ups and downs closely enuf since. All of which is to say that I don't share in the site specific form of "Sharpton Derangement Syndrome" that possesses those who were introduced to him by Brawley.

As I wrote in my post, Sharpton lied about Tawana Brawley, can be bought, and ran for the Presidency of the United States while wearing a conk, but nothing short of (to quote Steve Gilliard) throwing him under the bus will satisfy the moral irritation of folks who by their own admission know him from the Brawley incident. To paraphrase Bartelby the Scrivener, I pretty much just prefer not to throw him under the bus. So to rephrase an earlier point: There seems to be a litmus test among white and black folks who hate identity politics and political correctness that requires you virulently, passionately disavow Al Sharpton in order to prove how reasonable, honest and civil you are. In contrast, I think that the way to show how reasonable, honest and civil I am is to be that way about the whole episode, including the proverbial Rev. If that means I never get invited to dinner at Marty Peretz's, oh well. I have other fish to fry.