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Who got to Jesse?
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot
It is said that when you want to speak to God you speak to
the wind. This is why the excuse of the open mike wouldn’t
hold for Jesse. The Reverend Jesse Jackson was critical of
Obama and he wanted somebody to hear it.
Jackson was caught speaking on an open mike while waiting to
go on a Fox News interview last Sunday. What he said was not
amusing. He was reacting to Obama’s speeches to Black
Churches.
Jackson was quoted by Fox News to have said “See, Barack
been, um, talking down to black people on this faith based
... I want cut his n**s off ... Barack ... he's talking down
to black people."
Did somebody get to Jesse?
Jesse is a self-acclaimed Obama supporter, but he is also on
record for having proposed an Obama/Clinton ticket. Clinton,
he said, “meets the bill” for the vice-presidency.”
Speaking to the Los Angels Times on June 7, 2008, Jackson
said "She may not be the only one who does, but she
certainly does.”
"She starts with 18 million vote," referring to the democrat
primaries and the Clinton supporters purported to be hanging
out there.
Before Obama, Jackson had always been a big Clinton
supporter. He was also known to have been more critical of
Obama than he ever was of Hillary or Bill.
Once, he had accused Obama of "acting like he's white.” He
said this during the arrest of six Black juveniles, held on
murder charges in Jena, Louisiana. The accusation was made
in the thick of the democrat primaries, when Hillary was in
a hard contention for the Black vote with Obama.
Jackson was later to claim that he did not recall accusing
Obama as “acting white.” Interestingly his explanation of
what he asserted was a misquote had the same gist as his
speech to the open mike at the Fox studios. In both cases,
the accusation was that Obama was not doing enough for the
Black cause.
Lately, Obama has been speaking to Black Churches about
responsible parenting. Awhile back, Bill Cosby was on the
same circuit with the same message. Despite Cosby’s record
and obvious charity to black causes, his message got a
rather cold reception from a section of the black
leadership; a reception very similar to what Obama got from
Jesse on the open mike.
But what is more damming for Jesse this time, and has left
him very little room to maneuver, by way of explanation, is
that Fox News has the video of his whisper on the open mike.
Jesse’s demeanor, the conspiratorial manner in which the
damming words were spoken, was on this video. And, it belied
his later explanation that he was seeking to remind Obama
about a broader responsibility - that Obama owed it to the
black community to address rather policies that made the
issues of ill-parenting in the community intractable. In
other words, Jesse was asking Obama to stop blaming the
victims.
Granted that Obama counsel to the community was not made as
policy, there will always be a question about the condition,
the black condition that is, that invited Obama’s remark;
the same condition that Federal policies over the years have
failed to eradicate successfully.
And there will also be serious concern about the vile
language in which Jesse expressed his distaste for Obama’s
effort at counseling the Black community.
A decade ago, under Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson was at the
apex of influence. He was President Clinton’s spiritual
advisor, had the president’s ear and full access to the
White House. He had the opportunity to shape Clinton’s
“policies” for Blacks; policies that could have helped
improve the black condition. Had he been successful, there
would have been no need to berate Obama this time.
And considering Jesse’s concern about Obama’s neglect of
“broad policy issues” affecting the Black condition, one is
forced to remember his hallmark call and response poem, “I
Am Somebody" that he made famous in the 70s.
"I am - Somebody.
I may be poor, but I am - Somebody!
I may be on welfare, but I am - Somebody!
I may be uneducated, but I am - Somebody!
I must be, I’m God’s child.
I must be respected and protected.
I am black and I am beautiful!
I am - Somebody! "
This poem wasn’t exactly a policy statement when it was
composed. However, some of us understood the message. It was
a call for self-respect. In a specific philosophical sense,
and like Obama or Cosby’s interest in black parenting, it
was a call for responsibility – a respect for the Black
self.
Therefore, in the face of this inherent contradiction in
Jesse Jackson’s philosophical posture, then and now, one can
truly ask “Did somebody get to Jesse?” Unless the open mike
episode was not meant to soften Obama up, or make him
emendable, for a Hillary’ vice presidency.
E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher
www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, July 10, 2008
Permission to publish: Please feel free to publish or
reproduce, with credits, unedited. If posted at a website,
email a copy of the web page to
publisher@ghanadot.com . Or don't publish at all.
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