Jesse Jackson Private Comments Overheard on Hot Mike: He Thinks

Walter Vincent Brooks - The Brooks Report, Guest Commentary

Well, wow, my oh my! Where do I begin? The Democratic presidential candidacy of U.S. Senator Barack Obama has galvanized all kinds of interests in the country. Both Obama and his wife, Michelle, have been suffering through some mighty slings and arrows lately, but most have come from white people. Yes, blacks, especially in the early stages of his campaign to win the nomination, have tried to slam him – most distastefully among those individuals was BET founder and billionaire Robert Johnson who publicly supported Hillary Clinton and tried to say that Obama was unfit because he snorted coke while in college.

But two days ago, none other than venerated civil rights giant, Jesse Jackson, foolishly ran his mouth in a Fox network studio (of all the studios to slip in) and thought he wasn’t talking near a “hot” microphone. He was. And his comments that Obama’s slamming irresponsible black fathers at a Father’s Day speech to a black church was “talking down to black people” and that Obama needed his sexual organ cut off (castration). Gee, Jesse.

Obama’s primacy as a “black” leader is going to draw more and more fire eventually from the African American community. Especially from me in this blog. And that is as it should be.

But, the Jackson-Obama fiasco is actually a case of both individuals being wrong. And as the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right.

First of all, I have been fairly livid at Obama choosing Father’s Day to deliver another one of his black-fathers-need-to-get-their-act-together speeches. So, I think Jackson’s criticism about Obama “talking down to black people” is absolutely correct. Obama, since delivering his now historic speech on “race” in February has basically not said another word about racism in his campaign and it is assumed he will not discuss race in any capacity until after the election. His abiding fear and concern that he will alienate critical pockets of white voters is palpable and a little too slavish for my taste. But, I believe that as long as Obama is not going to address racism and its long term affects on the African American community, particularly on black males, and then he also should have a moratorium on criticizing black people. For anything. It’s not right and it looks like he taking cheap shots at black people in order to score points with white people.

However, Jesse Jackson is extremely well versed on the history of racism and violence against African Americans by the white race in this country, particularly lynching. So, no reference to castration or cutting anything off Barack Obama can ever be acceptable. I wouldn’t castrate my worse enemy. No. Jesse is way out of line. And point in fact, he also risks coming across as a hypocrite on this issue. It wasn’t that many years ago that he was quoted across the nation as basically saying he supports racial profiling, too.

Here is the comment he made:

“There is nothing more painful for me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery—then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Well, damn, Jesse. White people say the same thing about black men all over the country. And he endorsed their fears to the max when he made that comment. So Jackson probably shouldn’t have be throwing stones at Obama. Not because Obama was right, he wasn’t. But because Jackson also has had his moments to confess to some highly critical feelings about black Americans, especially black men.

In the final analysis, Black people are going to have to accept that Barack Obama is not going to be a “Black President.” Okay? Just get that out of your mind. He is going to be another politician who was voted into the White House to do the bidding of his financial backers and policymakers. Bill Clinton was the first American President who never went into the military. Obama will be the first truly high ranking black political official who has no generational experience with the civil rights movement, or the masses of black people.

So, I’m not mad at Jesse for what he said. Obama needs to stop beating up on black men until he’s ready to beat up on racists, too. And, Jesse, my brother, treat every microphone like a loaded gun. They’re all hot. You should know better after “Hymie-town” sent the Jewish community after you with a flame thrower that there is no off- the- record conversation. So a slap upside your nappy Civil Right Old School head for such lax media security. Again.

I’m Walter Vincent Brooks for The Brooks Report. Let me know what you think. Holler back!

Obama or McCain - Who’s the best candidate for business?

Kush Jenkins, Special to BlackPoliticsontheWeb.com

- And then there were two, Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain. And with the economy in recession and inflation running wild, the first question out of the media’s mouth is, “Which one is best for business?”

I love this media darling of a question, because it gives the media at least one week of political pontification to regurgitate when newsworthy times are slow. “Which one is best for business,” is a genius stroke for the Republican party. How can the American public actually believe a group of people hell-bent on taxing the public and building larger governmental entities be better for free market capitalism than a group of people that want to cut taxes and cut government spending. It is the perfect framework in which the Republican party can exalt their candidate’s superiority.

And the Democrats, like little children wanting to be accepted by their peers, run to debate the issue in order to show that they are smart too. All the while, the American public sits on the edge of their seats, waiting for the answer like a magnificent Agatha Christie mystery. I have been there. I was once just like you. During the 2004 election between Bush and Kerry, I was that American, eyes glued to CNBC, FOX, and PBS, trying to find the answer to that question. And then one day - during a question and answer session with a former GM executive, a classmate of mine popped the question, “Mr. Thomas, who is better for the US economy, Bush or Kerry?” His response is mine today, “I don’t care if they hire Mickey Mouse, I am still going to make money.”

It is does not matter which person is best for the economy. What truly matters is your plan to make money when that person gets into office. It is true that if McCain is elected you can expect the war on terrorism to continue, the Bush tax cuts to be made permanent, and the AMT to be adjusted. So a corresponding gameplan would be invest in defense stocks, develop your own business, and, for those paying AMT who would see future relief in their tax liability, begin to shift your retirement savings from your Roth IRA to your traditional IRA.

On the other side of the equation, if Senator Obama is elected, he plans on getting rid of the Bush tax cuts, pushing America off foreign oil, and universal healthcare. Gameplan - shift your retirement savings from your traditional IRA to a Roth IRA, short oil commodities, and look to invest in companies that currently have large healthcare expenses.

To quote an old proverb, “It is not the man (or woman), but the plan.” This election, listen closely to what the candidates say in order to develop your own plan. Then execute the plan that fits the candidate elected. And if one day the American people just so happen to elected Mickey Mouse to the presidency, Disney and cheddar cheese are good buys.

Dead-beat Fathers - Some Root Causes and Divide Of The Black Family

Richard P. Burton, Sr., Guest Commentary

- The recent fathers day speech made by Senator Barack Obama, as it relates to dead-beat black fathers, I agree that there is a serious problem and a urgent need for change of all deadbeat fathers. However, we must recognize social ills on all levels and offer up solutions from top to bottom.

The prison industrial complex is one of the root causes of the black family divide and yet one of the least spoken political converstation. Across the United States, many ex-offenders suffer from deteriorating health conditions and must confront a hostile environment where their rehabilitation will be difficult to achieve.

What’s more, the families and communities they are rejoining upon release may have changed significantly during their absence, creating a totally new dynamic for these ex-prisoners to overcome at a time when their circumstances already make them vulnerable.

When America embarked on its aggressive campaign to “get tough on crime” by swelling the nation’s prison ranks, it’s now clear that not enough emphasis was put on creating healthy prison environments or considering the impact that incarcerating so many people would have on the families and communities that they left behind.

Profits, War, Unemployment And The Prison-Industrial Complex
It is the profit motive that creates the built-in incentives for increasing the prison population, for lengthening terms, for extending the terms of those already sentenced and for using all this as the newest feature of capitalist production. Profits are the foundation of capitalism. All the evils of this prison-industrial complex stem from the combination of its profit motive, of its need to enforce racism to divide, and extract super-profits from, the working class. But alongside the profit motive for such a vast operation is the ruling class’s need for social control of the working class to maintain that very profit system.

To strengthen their profit position in their long-rang worldwide fight for markets, resources, exploitation of cheap labor and control over oil supplies, U.S. rulers — especially the dominant Rockefeller wing — must be prepared to go to war, both “small” and big wars. Increasingly this means exercising more rigid control at home, over its own working class. It means militarization of society and a grinding down of workers’ living standards. What better way to accomplish this than to imprison millions (even while, as they themselves admit, “crime” is going down), using them as the absolute cheapest labor force and lowering wages and standards for the entire working class to boot? Given the fact that armed forces enlistments are falling short of minimum quotas, look for them to begin offering prisoners the chance to shorten their sentences by joining the military and “wiping their slate clean.”

Furthermore, the tremendous increase in the jailing of non-violent offenders is a way to “reduce” unemployment, and keep the least skilled, and possibly the most rebellious, behind bars. The Wall Street Journal reported (Feb. 1, 2000): “Prisoners are excluded from employment calculations. And since most inmates are economically disadvantaged and unskilled, jailing so many people has effectively taken a big block of The Nation’s least-employable citizens out of the equation.” What a way to deal with potential rebellions of masses of unemployed, who were a large part of those uprisings in the 1960s!

The Racist Roots Of The Prison-Industrial Complex: How did all this come about, from less than 300,000 prisoners in 1972 to over 2,000,000 in the year 2008 and counting? On Jan. 17, 1971 Nixon declared the war on drugs. Now looking at the 7.2 million people that are either in prison, jail, parol, probation or halfway houses we must realize that the system is broken.

Now, just consider this; twenty million children orphaned (over the almost four decades of this war), with one or both parents are/were serving time for drug related charges. With this in mind, one can easy understand why there are so many so called dead-beat and absent dads and now moms, under a dead-beat criminal justice system.

Prison labor has its roots in slavery. After the Civil War, a system of “convict leasing” was introduced to carry on the slavery “tradition.” Freed slaves were convicted of not fulfilling sharecropper arrangements or of petty theft — guilty or not — and then “rented out” to pick cotton, work in the mines, and build the railroads. In Georgia, from 1870 to 1910, 88% of the “leased convicts” were black. In Alabama, 93% of the “leased” miners were black. In Mississippi, a huge prison farm similar to the old slave plantations replaced convict leasing. The infamous Parchman Farm existed until 1972.

During the post-Civil War period, racist “Jim Crow” laws became the law of the land, mandating segregation in schools, housing, marriage and many other aspects of life. Now a new set of laws, with a marked racist character, enforces slave labor sweatshops in the criminal “justice” system through what has become known as the prison-industrial complex.

Education Not Incarceration and equitable economic and social parity for all people, is a key component needed for family unity and empowerment. By eliminating fear, mistrust and segregation and creating healthy integrated communities, is a key resolve for positive change for families and children. Children must come to the world with a clean slate. They should be free of any domination and repression that restricts their ability to achieve their full potential. Children should be respected, caring, and participating members of society. It is in this type of atmosphere that the spirit of youth can flourish and become quality family leaders, parents, taxpayer, voters and president of the United States of America

I thank Senator Barack Obama for speaking on race, dead-beat fathers and other social ills and encourage he and Senator John McCain as presidential candidates to further address the side effects of race, poverty, the criminal/juvenile system and disparities that further divide families.

“At no time do we condone wrongness on either side of the wall”.

Richard P. Burton, Sr., Director
PROJECT R.E.A.C.H., INC.
P.O. BOX 440248
Jacksonville, FL 32244
Bus: 904-786-7883PROJECT R.E.A.C.H, INC., A Non-Profit 501 (c) (3) Organization: To Reach Out To The “At Risk Community” In Areas Of: Re-enfranchisement, Education, Advancement, Counseling and Housing. Your Gifts And Donations Are Tax Deductible

The hidden message of 2008 presidential race: Yonder they do not love your flesh

Donald Hoffman, Guest Commentary

- The day after the final two primaries in the Democratic presidential nomination contest, the headline placed symbolically above the masthead of my morning paper read, “OBAMA CLINCHES—He’s first black on major ticket”. That same morning I was channel surfing between candidates’ speeches and happened upon Oprah Winfrey’s movie, “Beloved”, and Beah Richards’s portrayal of preacher Baby Suggs’s sobering oratory to her flock:

“Yonder they do not love your flesh. They despise it…Love your hands! Love them. Raise them up and kiss them, touch others with them, pat them together, stroke them on your face, ‘cause they don’t love that either…And no, they ain’t in love with your mouth. Yonder, out there, they will not heed. What you scream from it they do not hear…You got to love it. This is flesh that I’m talking about here.”

Contrary to America’s political punditry heralding Barack Obama’s candidacy as congratulatory to our former slave nation’s crossing a historically significant threshold—finally having a so-called “viable black candidate” for President—a feeling of frustrated grief tortures my own spirit. While I’m thrilled that America is potentially on a path toward electing a candidate of Barack Obama’s ethnic heritage to the office of President, I’m still deeply saddened to live in a country that can’t look at someone like Barack Obama and see him racially as anything other than “black”.

Touting Barack Obama’s candidacy as a sign of progress in America’s racial divide, while labeling the “racially blended” son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother “black”, is truly indicative of a level of ignorance beyond obtuse. As far as we think we’ve come, the lamentations of Baby Suggs still fits America to a tee. As white America pats itself on the back for embracing Barack Obama, Baby Suggs’s prophesy still rings true, “Yonder they do not love your flesh”.

Never in a million years in America would it happen that we’d observe the union of a black parent and a white parent and call a child of that union white. But, without pause we unthinkingly label such children black. Can such logic do anything other than affirm the white supremacist notion that the union of white flesh and blood with black represents contamination of the white race? For most of America’s history such unions were illegal. Just forty one years ago, the US Supreme Court declared such unions constitutionally legal when the decision in Loving v. Virginia overturned Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act of 1924. Interracial unions are no longer illegal in America, and supposedly they are tolerated. But the message remains that the racially blended offspring of such unions are subject to tacitly prejudiced rejection by America’s white race. Confined to the boundaries of Beloved’s “Sweet Home Plantation”, Americans of Negro ethnic heritage are still socially segregated and legally separated in the nation that first brought them to its shores to be bought, sold, and owned as slaves.

The message to African Americans, to whites, and to members of any other race who would truly embrace the equality of all humanity and procreate with the members of the black race, is laid out plainly and clearly: America will tolerate your presence and might even elect you to be President. But still it remains, “Yonder they do not love your flesh”, and if you mix your black flesh with white, the flesh produced by that union will be unquestionably yours but only conditionally accepted as theirs. Calling Barack Obama, Tiger Woods, Tracee Ellis Ross, Halle Berry, and anyone of bi or multi-racial heritage black is a clear declaration by white America that African Americans still live in a country that sticks to honoring its slave nation roots, subjecting its black race to unequal standards of humanity, subordinated in a partnership with America’s dominating white race.

“OBAMA CLINCHES”—Was this a banner day in American history, worthy of placing the lead story above the masthead? Yes, in a lot of ways it was. Yet at the same time, it’s as much the shame of America that 232 years into America’s history, Barack Obama’s candidacy should represent a historic American milestone. Underlying that shame is being a nation where a union of parents like Barack Obama’s can yield a child who would never be called white, but where few would think to question the message sent in declaring that same child black.

Donald Hoffman is a freelance columnist living in Fountain Hill, Pennsylvania. His email is hoffman50287@msn.com.

An argument for a black consensus

Guest Commentary by Tony Spires, The Comedy Doctor

-I don’t know about you but I spend countless hours pondering the plight of Black people. A proud and enthusiastic Black man myself, I deeply love my people to our beautiful, multi-faceted, colorful core. To be honest, I get mad at us from time to time. I find myself feeling frustrated by certain negative stereotypes to which we seemingly too often give credence. But more than any other emotion, I feel unadulterated adoration. In the midst of one of my many existential Black love fests, it dawned on me. Like any conscientious suitor, before I get to serious I need to find out if we’re on the same page.

We are an extremely diverse and complex people. It’s a universal fact that, whatever the endeavor or expression, nobody does it quite like we do-often times not even us. We are definitely not all the same. In fact, I find it difficult to pinpoint more than a small group of African Americans to agree on any three things. (Maybe I’m exaggerating a little here but bear with me.) Our views and methods differ from person to person. Is this phenomenon exclusive to African Americans? Of course it isn’t.

This is America. Freedom of opinion is akin to freedom of speech. Self-expression comes natural to Black folks. It’s something we as a people freely practice and cherish. Ironically, something that comes so organically to us was not always guaranteed Black Americans. For centuries our expression was restricted and repressed. Yet African Americans have contributed a veritable plethora of scientific inventions, social reforms, artistic developments and innovations as well as other major vehicles attributable, at least in part, to our unique ways and means of self-expression. Our ability to express ourselves is a national treasure in and of itself.

Some times we get together and compare notes on our opinions and various points of view. It’s always been that way. We have an ancient oral tradition that spans thousands of years. We as a people “can talk for ours.” It’s a beautiful thing. Witnessing it can be quite entertaining, when it comes to debates on an array of non-essential subjects. Which recording artist is the people’s favorite? Where’s the best place to get authentic Louisiana gumbo? What’s the soundest long-term financial investment in this economy? The answers you receive will likely vary as much as the people to whom you ask the questions. And for those types of topics that’s fine.

But if the queries were more along the lines of: these What are the most important issues facing Black America today? Have we taken our eyes off the socio-political ball? What is the substantive role of “Black leaders” in the 21st century? Is a Black President electable? If one were elected would Blacks actually benefit? Do we expect that? Shouldn’t there be at least the basis for a consensus among African Americans on matters of crucial importance to our people? And the big question, in 2008/2009 can we develop and adhere to a practical, realistic Black agenda that’s good for us and the entire country?

From Emancipation, through Reconstruction, through Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement and all the rest, we as a people formed a general consensus. Black folks were a hard-working and determined people. We were a modest and humble people in those days. We counted our blessings. We prayed, struggled and strived for more of them. We were out and wanted in. Even without many visible role models, we imagined, we dreamed, we achieved. Yet we were a complicated and diverse community wrought with myriad ideas, convictions and varying contradictions.

Even then we didn’t all get along. But our broad agenda as a community was crystal clear. We lobbied for, demanded, fought and even died for: freedom, human rights, integration, equal employment opportunity, equal protection under the law, civil rights, fair housing, equal educational opportunities, voting rights and all the other basic, fundamental rights supposedly enjoyed by all full-fledged U.S. citizens. We wanted life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. We demanded respect as human beings; as living, breathing, thinking people who mattered, who were relevant to society and contributed to the tightly woven fabric of the American tapestry.

In those early years after slavery, we were regulated to the bottom rung of society, sentenced to a virtually hopeless existence inside an impenetrable and unyielding caste system. In later years, among our strivers and highly motivated achievers we saw smatterings of evidence of some minor erosion in some remote regions of the caste. Today some would say that the caste has been replaced by an equally formidable glass ceiling.

Leading Black leaders and thinkers of the early 20th century like: Booker T. Washington, W.E.B. Dubois, Marcus Garvey, Farad Muhammad, Nobel Drew Ali, James Weldon Johnson and others found themselves at polar opposites politically-sometimes vehemently and irreconcilably so. Their differences notwithstanding, they dedicated their lives to the task of establishing the irrefutable foundation for the freedom, dignity and self-respect of the Negro.

Yes, back in the day our agenda was clear. Our preachers dedicated sermons to it. Our singers sang about it. Our leaders and activists were all over it and absolutely all about it. Our entire struggle was about improving the quality of life for our families, our people and ourselves. While doing my literary research on the subject and when personally polling elders who recall the era long past, I found that all my sources agree. In the broad scope of things, it was hard to separate one Black person’s agenda from the next. I think it’s time for a 21st century Black consensus-a new age Black agenda.

As I write this commentary, Senator Barack Obama has just clinched the Democratic nomination. How big is that? I’m trying my best to be objective and take it all in as an observer but of course it goes deeper with me. I see myself as a fair and reasonably responsible person. I’ve examined the candidates’ views. I’ve analyzed their positions on what they perceive to be “the issues.” If a person, in my view, is right, they’re right. Conversely, if a person is wrong, they are just that, wrong. That being said, I firmly believe that Obama is right for the job-not only to go up against John McCain but also to be the next President of the United States.

Keeping it real, yes, I’m enthusiastic about the possibility of a Black man being President. I already explained what kind of Black person I am. In my estimation, the manner in which the prospect stimulates the imagination is unparalleled in African American history. Even devout Black Republicans Larry Elder, famed conservative talk radio host and Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice are excited. Plainly put, I want the “Brutha” to win. I’ll freely admit that. He’s clearly earned the nomination and I think we as a people have earned this milestone in history. But for everyone who thinks as I do, publicly or privately, there are some out there who don’t see it that way at all.

Like I said, this is America. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and their vote. I also understand the malignant cancer of racism and the seemingly innate resistance to change that still lingers in some segments of society. What puzzles me is that it actually exists among some Black people. What’s up with that? At the end of the day, don’t we as a people have an obligation to future posterity to give a qualified Black candidate a chance? Aren’t we all standing on the shoulders of our forbearers? Shouldn’t the progress of our people be on every self-respecting Black person’s agenda? Barack Obama’s historic achievement is progress-for African Americans and all Americans.

Will “President Obama” make everyday Christmas in America for us? No. Will he undo all of the past centuries of injustice in just one or two, four-year terms? It’s not possible. Will he erase racism in America? He absolutely will not. I don’t think that even the most ardent Obama supporters believe that or even imagine it in their wildest dreams. But I do think the nation will be able to exhale in unison-perhaps for the first time.

People who believed things were never going to improve for them in this country, to a degree that the change would trickle-down to them, must think again. I believe that Black (and other minority) children are going to grow up in a brand new America. Not a fairytale land where all will be finally as it should, but an America where dreaming of being anything, including the President of the most powerful nation in the world “ain’t nothin’ but a thang!”

Thanks to all of you for reading the column. It’s my pleasure to share these insights with my people. It’s food for thought. If you can’t chew it, don’t swallow it. May God bless you all abundantly. Until next time, be safe, be smart, be successful, be thankful. One Love, for real. Holla at your Doctor!

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Tony Spires is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker, event producer, personal manager, award-winning playwright, critically acclaimed director and co-writer of the 2007 NAACP Award nominated, “Ali: The Man, The Myth, The Peoples’ Champion and columnist for The Humor Mill Magazine. Known as The Comedy Doctor is comedy circles, he is perhaps best known as the founder of the nationally reputed Bay Area Black Comedy Competition & Festival and as writer/director of the acclaimed feature film, Tears Of A Clown now available on DVD.

Email Tony at: ComedyDoctor@BlackComedyCompetition.com

Visit his blog at http://TonySpires.com

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