Jackson's tired views
Our editorial board had a two-hour audience with Jesse Jackson yesterday. It was the first time I had met him, and having the chance to ask him questions was exciting. He was generous with his time, engaging, friendly and likable. His personal story and achievements are inspiring.
Still, I came away disappointed by Jackson's gloomy message.
Maybe he was just tired. He keeps a busy schedule, and he was in the middle of a long day in Greensboro for the 45th anniversary of the Woolworth sit-ins. He rubbed his eyes several times as if trying to fight off fatigue. Or was he exhausted by his own pessimistic rhetoric?
Listening to Jackson, you might get the impression that civil rights and social justice haven't made any progress in this country in the last 40 years. If anything, we're moving in the wrong direction - thanks to George W. Bush.
Jackson questioned the validity of the 2004 presidential election result, citing problems in Ohio and exit polls in many other states that indicated tighter races than the vote totals showed. He seems to think that exit interviews were more accurate than actual vote counts - an implication of election chicanery by Republicans. (Actually, as some pollsters conceded later, older, conservative voters may have been more reluctant to talk with interviewers and thus were underrepresented in exit poll findings.)
Jackson's take on the Iraqi election? It goes to show that Bush is more committed to voting rights for Iraqis than he is for Americans. According to Jackson, Bush and his congressional allies are planning to shred the Voting Rights Act before they leave office.
Jackson talked about North Carolina issues, too. Here's what he says is our state's biggest business: the "jail-industrial complex." The prime target of this enterprise is black males. He is especially critical of locking people up for drug offenses. When I asked him about the destructiveness of the crack cocaine epidemic - its association with violent crime, property crime, AIDS, poverty and other problems - he talked about the need for more treatment. I agree treatment is important, but so is locking up the criminals who sell this poison in our cities.
Jackson makes some good points, which we'll note in an editorial later, but I am discouraged by his contention that America still shuts the door of opportunity to minorities (although he does allow that his son, Illinois Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr., could be president someday).
Of course, Jackson's business is railing against injustices, both real and exaggerated. If he runs out of injustices, he goes out of business. At a time when he draws less attention than do Al Sharpton, Bill Cosby and Sen. Barack Obama, and when the arch-enemy of equal opportunity, George W. Bush, now has had two African Americans as secretary of state, Jackson is in danger of being marginalized. I think he's trying hard to show that black Americans still need him. He makes the case by telling listeners how dire things are. It strikes me as sad. What do you think?
Comments (12)
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Doug --
What a great opportunity! I can only imagine how fascinating it is to be able to ask questions of Jesse Jackson.
Regarding his comments, I did hear a guy on C-Span last week talk about the effort by Republicans to challenge and eventually invalidate tens of thousands of predominantly black voters in Ohio as well as other key battleground states. Sounds plausible to me as part of an overall strategy to get more Bush supporters to the polls and make it tougher for Bush detractors to vote. No doubt the Democrats did likewise, but perhaps not on as large or focused of a scale. Imagine if it were true that a few thousand disallowed votes in Ohio swung the election for Bush. A friend of mine contends that, if there really is a heaven, it will include an answer booth, so you can find out, for example, who really killed Kennedy, what really happened to Jimmy Hoffa, or did she really have to wash her hair instead of going to the prom with me. I'd like to know if Bush actually won either election.
As far as the current state of race relations, that's a tough one. I think the short answer is that we've made a lot of progress but have a hell of a long way to go. Poor households in general and black households in particular are in crisis and need some help from the government; not a check necessarily, but access to some kind of health care, head start programs, better public schools, etc.
I did catch a PBS special last night about the four A&T students who led the Woolworth's sit-in. The show did a good job of capturing the frustration and rage that led to their decision, and the tragedy that followed one of the participants as a result.
Keep up the good work.
Posted on February 2, 2005 12:21 PM
Jackson definately doesn't have the same impact he did in years past, but he's still a great speaker. He does have a point about drug offenses. Penalties for possession of crack, used more predominantly by blacks, are extremely harsh compared to penalties for possession of cocaine and heroine, used predominantly by whites. And as talking about how dire things are, isn't that what political figures do? Social security will be flat broke in 13 years? "We don't want he smoking gun [about Iraq] to be a mushroom cloud"?
Posted on February 2, 2005 1:59 PM
This is probably the most reasonable discussion I've ever read that included the words "Jesse Jackson."
More reason to be proud of my old home. Nice work.
Posted on February 2, 2005 2:08 PM
Wow, I sort of agree with Mr. Jackson on something. I never thought I'd see the day.
While I'm not as concerned with the racial inequalities of drug crimes, I do see that the war on drugs is completely worthless and harmful, and it's time for a new approach.
Posted on February 2, 2005 3:37 PM
Well said, Rusty. Doug made a mighty quick leap to conflate "drugs" -- a broad category, involving both sellers and users of various substances -- with "crack dealers." Maybe we could lock up the really bad guys, and find other ways to deal with everyone else?
Posted on February 2, 2005 4:57 PM
No single person has inspired more pessimism in America during my lifetime (I'm 48) than George W. Bush. Listen to Jesse and think carefully about what he is saying and realize that he speaks the truth, whereas you will *never* hear the truth about anything whatsoever from the Bush mis-administration.
Posted on February 2, 2005 10:44 PM
Not surprised JJ is the same old JJ. It has made him a multimillionaire.
Did you ask him about funding from non-profits?
Did you ask how someone fron Chicago knew so much about the election process?
Posted on February 3, 2005 7:30 AM
I had the chance to hear Mr. Jackson speak back in the late '80s at my school. Sounds like the rhetoric is still mainly the same.
He HAS made a healthy living off of these issues and he HAS already been marginalized.
Unfortunately I think he's hurting his own cause, because he hasn't changed to meet the new American landscape. The real issue in this country is equal economic opportunity. I personally believe that a poor white man and a poor black man have more in common that a rich black man and a poor black man. Same goes for any other race.
A scary prospect for the leaders of our country, from both sides of the aisle, would be the creation of the NAAPP -- the National Association for the Advancement of Poor People. You see, the one thing that almost all of our national leaders have in common is that they are wealthier than average. Even those who represent poor districts have more wealth than their average constituent. They have a vested interest in the status quo.
Am I arguing for everyone to be economically equal? Absolutely not. A true democracy provides equal opportunity, not equal results. What I'm saying is that the wealthy and powerful are provided greater opportunity than are the rest of our society. One example: the flat tax. Many politicians argue against it because they say it is regressive. The reality is that it would eliminate the tax breaks that make the current tax code so attractive to the wealthy, not to mention their accountants and lawyers.
If Mr. Jackson were to re-focus his message on equal economic opportunity for all, not just minorities, I think he would find himself relevant again.
Posted on February 3, 2005 10:28 AM
Jesse Jackson exists for one purpose...to promote Jesse Jackson. He's a one-trick-pony, his sole enterprise is extorting money from corporate America under threat of economic boycott.
What's really sad is that some people actually listen to his racist 40 year old tune.
Jesse Jackson has become the Michael Dukakis of the civil rights movement.
Posted on February 3, 2005 11:41 AM
I imagine it would be fascinating to talk to Jesse Jackson (as opposed to just hearing a speech) but the jailing drug dealers thing needs a little more context. Could it be that crack, primarily used/sold to black people has mandatory minimum jail sentences than does cocaine-related offenses (more traditionally a white disease)? There might be some background racism in mandatory minimums that are played out in jail population of drug-related crimes. As for Jesse's other views, that's for another post.
Posted on February 3, 2005 12:02 PM
Obviously, I spoke too soon -- before all the tired ad hominem arguments popped in. Still, a nice effort.
Posted on February 3, 2005 3:58 PM
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