Thursday, July 9, 2009

Is Reverend Al Sharpton a Racist?



Who is Reverend Al Sharpton?

Reverend Al Sharpton was born on October 3rd, 1954, a prominent African American Baptist minister, civil rights activist, and radio talk show host.



What did other people say about Reverend Al Sharpton?

His critics describe him as "a political radical who is to blame, in part, for the deterioration of race relations."

Sociologist Orlando Patterson has referred to him as a racial arsonist.

Liberal columnist Derrick Z. Jackson has called him the black equivalent of Richard Nixon and Pat Robertson.

What did Reverend Al Sharpton say about other people?

In 1994, Reverend Al Sharpton said this to one of the audiences at Kean College, “White folks was in caves while we was building empires.... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.”

In 2007, Reverend Al Sharpton was accused of bigotry for comments he made concerning presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his religion, Mormonism. He said "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation."

His latest comment was on July, 07th, 2009, during the Michael Jackson’s memorial service, which included telling Jackson's children from the stage, "There wasn't nothing strange about your Daddy. What was strange was what your Daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway."

However, the controversy begins when he was quoted as saying the following about Michael Jackson’s death:

"I am here because of the disgraceful and the despicable way some elements of the media have tried to destroy the legacy and image of Michael Jackson," he told the congregation, charging the media with using different standards for black and white performers. You have had other entertainers that have had issues in their life," he said. "But you [the media] did not degrade and them... Show the same respect for Michael and Michael's family that you showed Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley."

Wow, that’s a little bit too much for me thougth I’m not sure whether Reverend Al Sharpton is really a racist or whether he is aware of this when he gave the comments. For me, if having both white and black performers embrace Michael Jackson is an act of racism accodring to Reverend Al Sharpton, then that’s racism. Michael Jackson is always loved by the world and this memorial exactly shows the fact that how far the America has come in bridging the racial gap.


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