Rev. Al the wrong messenger to attack racism

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.

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.