Rev. Al the wrong messenger to attack racism

August 23, 2024 31 Comments

This is a necessary postscript to my last column, which was a “review” of Kamala Harris’ acceptance speech. I wanted to focus on her, alone.

Spokesman Rev. Al Sharpton and Tawana Brawley (Photo: AP)

There were other points worth mentioning, but a good column is like a rifle, with a single, well-defined target, rather than a shotgun that scatters a lot of  pellets, and isn’t as deadly.

Yeah, Oprah was good, and Kerry Washington was excellent, and the actress with two of Kamala’s nieces explaining how to pronounce “auntie’s” name was beyond endearing.

Then there was Rev. Al Sharpton, there to denounce Donald J. Trump as a racist.

I understand that Rev. Al, like it or not, is a hero to many in the Black community.

I also understand, like it or not, that Trump is a hero to many in the white community.

And each, in my opinion, is activated more by self interest than anything else, and neither cares much for the truth. In their different ways, each is a race hustler.

One thing I give Sharpton. He started out as a fat man in a ‘70s jogging suit, in which you know he never jogged. He lost a ton of weight, and kept it off, while always keeping his James Brown do.

He stood before the convention as the head of the National Action Network, a nonprofit that can’t endorse candidates, because it has to be nonpartisan, and then proceeded to tear a new one for Trump. He did everything but engage in an Oprah-like “Kamaaaaaalaaaaa Harrrrrrris” screech. Nonpartisan my patootie.

What he said that ticked me off was this: “Trump loves to fan racial flames.”

There could not have been a worse messenger. It was like sending Jeffrey Epstein out to condemn the evils of pedophilia. Sharpton has made a career out of fanning racial flames.

How many cheering delegates remembered Tawana Brawley? 

She was a Black 15-year-old who in 1987 concocted a horrific story of being kidnapped and raped by several white men, including a cop, who carved “KKK” on her chest, and smeared feces on her body.

Rev. Al was her spokesman, who claimed: “We have the facts and the evidence that an assistant district attorney and a state trooper did this.” He called Gov. Mario M. Cuomo a racist and warned that powerful state officials were complicit.”

It was all bullshit, every word. This was way beyond being taken in by Brawley. This was an incendiary lie. One of the “complicit”  was a prosecutor who successfully brought a defamation suit against Brawley, her lawyers, and Sharpton.

This was front page fodder for a long time as Sharpton fanned racial flames. 

This was a far worse hoax than the infamous Jussie Smollett hate crime in 2019. Sharpton by then had learned caution, and said the actor should be held accountable, if he lied. He did, and was convicted.

Sharpton, however, never apologized for defending Brawley, and his court-ordered fine was paid by friends and supporters.

Even worse than Brawley was the three-day anti-Semitic riots in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn.

Incited by Sharpton, who referred to Jews as “diamond merchants,” Blacks rioted after a Black youth was accidentally killed by an Orthodox Jewish driver.

In that case, too, being Al Sharpton means never having to say you are sorry.

He didn’t.

But he did castigate Trump for calling for the death penalty for the Central Park Five, who were called to the stage. Only four appeared, with no explanation. The five were wrongly convicted of a horrible crime, but what Sharpton did not say was the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers wanted them put away forever, at least. Trump was wrong, but he was not alone. He was acting as a faux populist and just jumped in front of a lynch crowd that had already formed.

Plus Trump’s company being charged — not convicted — with racial discrimination in 1973. That case was settled out of court and it is 50 years old. No more recent discrimination suits?

Not to defend Trump, but if your goal is to attack racism, the Rev. Al is the wrong messenger. Just about the worst.

31 thoughts on “Rev. Al the wrong messenger to attack racism”

  1. You are 100% on target about Sharpton. However, the fact that today’s Democrat Party can invite him to the podium at their convention speaks volumes about their collective character and agenda.

      1. He is a criminal because a Democrat-supporting DA found a way to elevate an out-of-date misdemeanor into a federal felony, appointed a Democrat-supporting judge whose daughter is a Dem activist, and got a questionable verdict. And it was the first time that a judge was appointed — until the Trump trial judges were assigned by lottery.
        As for Trump being a sociopath, what are your qualifications for making a diagnosis without ever meenie?

          1. He is a criminal sociopath because he tried to interfere with an election — Daniels pay off and insurrection and putting pressure on election officials in GA; he stole national secret papers that belonged to the people of the US and refused to return them when asked by the National archives; he played fast and dirty with national secrets with Putin’s representatives in the W.H. and at Mar-a-Lago; he stiffed his contractors and lawyers in NYC before he ran for president; he was fined by a judge for illegally misusing his “charity” foundation money. And probably a lot more that we don’t know about. As for his being a sociopath, many mental health professionals have said the same and I actually do have the qualifications for making such a diagnosis. I was a practicing APRN and have a Ph.D. in Psychiatric Nursing. I can look at behavior objectively and evaluate it and did so throughout my career. Any other questions?

          2. He is a criminal sociopath because he tried to interfere with an election — Daniels pay off and insurrection and putting pressure on election officials in GA; he stole national secret papers that belonged to the people of the US and refused to return them when asked by the National archives; he played fast and dirty with national secrets with Putin’s representatives in the W.H. and at Mar-a-Lago; he stiffed his contractors and lawyers in NYC before he ran for president; he was fined by a judge for illegally misusing his “charity” foundation money. And probably a lot more that we don’t know about. As for his being a sociopath, many mental health professionals have said the same and I actually do have the qualifications for making such a diagnosis. I was a practicing APRN and have a Ph.D. in Psychiatric Nursing. I can look at behavior objectively and evaluate it and did so throughout my career. Any other questions?

  2. Sigh…someday Dem’s will realize their ‘heroes’ (Sharpton, Jackson, farrakhan, etc..) have been lining their own pockets for years and living the good life while keeping their boots on the necks of the communities they claim to be helping. They are nothing but snake oil salesmen

  3. This is indeed a fair analysis of Sharpton and his history. But the important thing here is not the messenger, but the message. Simply, we all need to speak out against racism, wherever it rears its ugly head. Everyone should be able to agree on that one, no matter their political party.

    1. Totally agree. One stipulation. It must ACTUALLY be racism. Remember how many lined up behind good old Jussie, screaming racism based on his very peculiar account?

  4. Like Trump, Sharpton is a conman, plain and simple. Both are merely in the game for themselves and don’t give a rats patootie about truth. I try to ignore them both, but with one running for President, that’s dangerously hard.

    1. You and freeze are right. I remember the Tawana brouhaha and all the rest of it. The man is just another huckster. I’m totally embarrassed for our party that they trotted him out. He should be shunned. The message was spot on, but the messenger was a despicable hypocrite.

          2. That’s such a typical response. When you can’t refute the facts, attack the source. You do know that The Conversation is not a right-wing source, and I notice you didn’t attack that — even though it says pretty much the same thing.

          4. And the conversation article is one stupid lawyer from Texas who can’t write a coherent argument. He did not present a cogent anything — just made pronouncements. Look at all the distinguished attorneys who do not agree with that — including Judge Luttig. And the Daily News is a rag and always has been

        2. Hmm. A misdemeanor is still a crime. 34 counts of something merely the equivalent of shoplifting isn’t a great recommendation. And, the statute of limitations doesn’t make stuff “not a crime” just crimes that can’t be prosecuted.Would someone else have been prosecuted for the same thing? Probably not.

          Doesn’t mean he didn’t break the law. Prosecutor’s always go for the high profile defendant. It’s how Giuliani and Chris Christie got their reputations as prosecutors. (Jared Kushner hated Christie for sending his father to prison).

          Regardless, the whole thing was pretty squalid and disgusting. Liberal darling John Edwards was prosecuted for virtually the same thing (by none other than Jack Smith, Trump’s special prosecutor.) He got off on a hung jury (he had better lawyers than Trump), but it still ended his political career–as it should have. One effective argument the GOP always had was the “character issue.” That’s down the drain.

          I get that someone can hold their nose and vote for Trump. I don’t get the enthusiastic support from those who are supposedly in favor of morality.

  6. The democrats are running on race and abortion. They have nothing else. No one can defend the failures of the last 4years. That’s why Harris won’t face the press.

      3. I don’t know that others can. Are you sure you are hitting the reply button?
        I only recently found out I could block. That’s why Judah is gone.

    2. If they had nothing more than those issues and the lack of “content of a man’s character” it should be enough. Since when do we follow a demagogue because we believe he will help us economically. Race and a woman’s right to make her own choice might be enough, but some of us believe there is more. You can have your views, but allow me to have my rights.

      1. If one were to pay attention to the little things, they’d discover that the Conservatives and Republicans use the word “we” most of the time, while over on the other side of civility all you hear is “I”, “ME”, and “MINE.” The Democrats will bleed us dry and won’t bat an eye when our America collapses like the Twin Towers. It’s no secret.

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