Prometheus 6

Jackson sharply criticized presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for “acting like he’s white” in what Jackson said has been a tepid response to six black juveniles’ arrest on attempted-murder charges in Jena, La. Jackson, who also lives in Illinois, endorsed Obama in March, according to The Associated Press.

I would have to hear "acting like he's white" coming out of his own mouth. A recording would do it.

Later, Jackson said he did not recall making the “acting like he’s white” comment about Obama, stressing he only wanted to point out the candidates had not seized on an opportunity to highlight the disproportionate criminal punishments black youths too often face.

Most people don't remember what you say.

“If I were a candidate, I’d be all over Jena,” Jackson said after an hour-long speech at Columbia’s historically black Benedict College.

“Jena is a defining moment, just like Selma was a defining moment,” said the iconic civil rights figure, who worked with Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1965 Selma civil rights movement and was with King at his 1968 assassination.

They remember what they understood of your speech. This suggests several sane statements that could be willfully interpreted in this unfortunate manner...maybe that he's not acting like a black politician representing Black interests. Then again, maybe he's suffered a head trauma I'm unaware of. Or a blood vessel in his brain burst as he was speaking. Something. Because he is simply not stupid enough to say someone is acting white.

That said, people are in Jesse's ass in ways I don't understand. To white folks, he's all Black folks that aren't Al Sharpton. To the media he's the starter's flag. To y'all (and you know who is being addressed here) he is an obstacle. I can imagine the conversation if he didn't show...he'd catch hell from me for that.

I hear there were cultures, Spartans maybe, where the elderly were left in the woods when they were deemed too weak. I think we...Black folks...may be building that kind of culture, with the proviso that enough cash will keep the bears away. Hopefully Rev. Jackson can work out some kind of Emeritus status.

The problem I have with all this is the people calling for Jackson's head aren't the sort of folks he ever had to represent. And I doubt they'll represent folk when he's gone.