GOODY TWO SHOES: “Nuts” Wasn’t The Only “N-word” Jackson Was Caught Saying
It’s always shocking and sad when a black person uses the “N-word” to describe – or put down - members of his race, given just how pejorative and radioactive the term is. But it is also rank hypocrisy when the person using the mother of all racist slurs is Rev. Jesse Jackson – who has campaigned against use of the word by rappers and other entertainers and asked consumers to boycott sales of “Seinfeld” DVDs after co-star Michael Richards’s sorry performance at a comedy club in 2006. The Associated Press reports:
The used the N-word during a break in a TV interview where he criticized presidential candidate Barack Obama, Fox News confirmed Wednesday.
The longtime civil rights leader already came under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against Obama in what he thought was a private conversation during a taping of a "Fox & Friends" news show.
The tape of the comments aired on “The O’Reilly Factor” ended abruptly – and now we know why. This is what Jackson actually said, according to TVNewser: “Barack...he's talking down to black people ... telling n—s how to behave.”
Even “civil rights activist” Al Sharpton said he was “very disappointed,” adding “I certainly don't condone the use of the word used by Rev. Jackson or myself or anyone else.” Considering what Sharpton does condone, this is pretty strong stuff.
Meanwhile, in a somewhat related racial dust-up, CNN’s Political Ticker blog reports that during a segment on “The McLaughlin Group” about Jackson’s mishap with the hot mic über Washington talk-show host John McLaughlin asked panelists (video):
“Does it frost Jackson, Jesse Jackson, that someone like Obama who fits the stereotype blacks once labeled as an Oreo - a black on the outside, a white on the inside - that an Oreo should be the beneficiary of the long civil rights struggle which Jesse Jackson spent his lifetime fighting for?”
Note that McLaughlin did not say “Obama is an Oreo” he asked whether black Americans and civil rights veterans think Obama is an Oreo. Big difference. At least to those who care to focus on what he actually said instead of what they think he said.
Back in September, SC newspaper The State reported that Jackson was critical of Obama’s muted reaction to six black teens in Jena, LA, having been arrested on murder charges in a speech at Benedict College, and accused Obama of “acting like he's white” during in an interview with reporter Roddie Burris after his remarks.
McLaughlin’s question is legitimate. Maybe it would have been immediately recognized as such had Gwen Ifill asked it.
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