Essay Addressing Ignorance

This is an essay in response to the comments seen on an AOL posting of the same story in the link above. It just seems convenient (to me) that an investigation of Mr. Sharpton comes at a time of a focus on Jena, Louisiana and the lack of prosecution of cases by the Justice Department of this administration. It is also convenient that it happens, just as Mr. Sharpton observes, at the beginning of the '08 election cycle. Such an investigation could inevitably find something or nothing well after January of 2009, post the election cycle and past any efficacy or civil activism Mr. Sharpton could affect.

© 13 December 2007, The Griot Poet

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With gem and witty comments like these:

“If stupid black people could reelectede that dem idiot...”

“What does this man do for a living....besides making money keeping racial prejudice alive and in the news????”

“IT'S ABOUT TIME HE GET HIS DUE!!!!!”

It speaks volumes to the superiority of the American educational system. Commenting on the comments:

(I assume he meant “reelect” and either “them” or “democrat.”)

(The answer to keeping racial prejudice out of the news is real American education on real American history.)

(No comment. Just absolutely none I can think of.)

I’m neither a supporter nor an enemy of Mr. Sharpton. But it is patronizing and condescending for some to think of them selves as intelligent enough outside of a group to pick its leaders. Did your parents have the right to pick Gandhi for the Indians?

Exactly what makes you the “experts” on the leaders Black Americans pick for themselves? Conservatives will pick Justice Clarence Thomas or Mr. Shelby Steele to represent their views, the other ninety percent will probably pick Mr. Sharpton or Mr. Jackson.

What defines the experiences of African Americans in this country is a matter of perspective, and I’m afraid yours is blinded by a culture that looks at others through rose-colored glasses, nurtured and pandered by myopic talk show hosts that don’t utilize the rules of investigative journalism because at their own admission, they are not journalists. They are mouthpieces that parrot talking points given to shock and boost ratings pandering to the worst motivations in an audience. You are deserving of the title “ditto heads,” because repetition of the nonsensical is the talent of tropical avian and ventriloquist mannequins, not critically thinking, and rational adults.

Instead of pandering to the xenophobic racist right, try to MAKE AMERICA BETTER and as good as its promise in the Constitution for ALL people(courtesy of Mr. Tavis Smiley, phi nu pi).

Then you will see Mr. Sharpton and Mr. Jackson retire because there will be no more incidents like Jasper, Texas (James Byrd dragging death); Amadou Diallo (41 shots); Sean Bell (23, killed after a bachelor’s party the night before his wedding); Khiel Coppin (NY police fired a hail of 20 bullets, hitting Mr. Coppin 8 times); Jena, Louisiana and nooses in trees to fight!