Is Barack Obama Promising to Hide Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton?

Photo of Tim Graham.
By Tim Graham | January 12, 2008 - 10:18 ET

Pacifica Radio’s "Democracy Now" program hit Barack Obama from the left on Wednesday after he lost in New Hampshire, so far from the left that Professor Michael Eric Dyson, a leftist favored by NBC anchor Brian Williams, was almost the conservative in a debate with Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report. Ford thought Obama was "relentlessly sending out signals to white people that a vote for Barack Obama, an Obama presidency, would signal the beginning of the end of black-specific agitation, that it would take race discourse off of the table."

An end to racial agitation like Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s? Has Obama specifically promised that anywhere? But "Democracy Now" host Amy Goodman added her two pennies to that, airing an interview segment where Jesse Jackson confirmed that Obama wants "distance" for "strategic purposes," and will not campaign with Jackson:

AMY GOODMAN: So you would go out on the campaign trail for Barack Obama if he asked you to?

REV. JESSE JACKSON: Well, I would have to discuss that with him. He has not asked me to. That’s not an issue for me, frankly. My issue right now is—

AMY GOODMAN: Has he asked you not to?

REV. JESSE JACKSON: No. And I tell you that I respect the distance he is trying to create for his own strategic purposes, and I accept that.

AMY GOODMAN: What is that? Why is that?

REV. JESSE JACKSON: I don’t know.

Dyson responded by laying down his Hosannas for Jesse:

Well, Jesse Jackson is one of the greatest freedom fighters in the history of this country, certainly in the twentieth century, and he is an ally and an asset to any campaign. I think when he talked about the strategic distance, that’s an acknowledgement and a nod to the kind of burden that Jesse Jackson may carry among the white population of people who potentially could vote for him, the same way that Hillary Clinton has to be very careful in terms of how she uses Bill Clinton, whether use him as a person to leverage her authority or as a wedge between her and that vote. So that’s a calculation that has to be dealt with.

I think that Jesse Jackson is an incredible asset, a brilliant politician. Without him, Barack Obama wouldn’t exist. At the same time, I think his disappointment, perhaps, in his acknowledgement of that painful lag is a realpolitik of race in American culture.

Ford lamented that Obama is winning by pandering to whites, assuaging the white man’s burden of racial guilt:

Barack Obama does not carry our burden, in addition to other burdens. He in fact promises to lift white-people-as-a-whole’s burden, the burden of having to listen to these very specific and historical black complaints, to deal with the legacies of slavery. That is his promise to them. That is what allowed him to amass huge, huge numbers of white votes. And he will amass larger and larger percentages of black votes now that black folks see that white folks will vote for Barack Obama. Finally, there’s somebody who has a chance. But he can only do this—he has only pulled this off by these continual assurances to white people that race will be off the table. At least, that is the way it is received. It’s received by masses of white people. It’s even received in that way by hard-right ideologues like Bill Bennett and George F. Will, who seems to be fascinated by Barack Obama.

Ford also said Obama was a militarist helping out "right wing interests" by advocating for 100,000 new soldiers and Marines. (Actually, Obama supported 65,000 new soldiers and 27,000 new Marines in a speech in April 2007).

—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center

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"Ford lamented that Obama is

"Ford lamented that Obama is winning by pandering to whites, assuaging the white man’s burden of racial guilt:

Barack Obama does not carry our burden, in addition to other burdens. He in fact promises to lift white-people-as-a-whole’s burden, the burden of having to listen to these very specific and historical black complaints, to deal with the legacies of slavery. That is his promise to them. That is what allowed him to amass huge, huge numbers of white votes. And he will amass larger and larger percentages of black votes now that black folks see that white folks will vote for Barack Obama."

Well, now, which is it? Either Obama is pandering to white voters, or is he pandering to black voters? Why must black voters be convinced that white voters will vote for Obama?
Why, in the minds of lefists, must white voters have their guilt assuaged? Slavery has been gone for over 100 years. Have whites held blacks as slaves since 1865? I think not, with the possible exception of the Democrat Party holding the poor, both black and white, as hostages for votes, without actually doing anything to help them out of poverty.

There is an unspoken agenda here

Jesse and Al are alarmed for good reason.  And here it is:

How many Whites already see Obama's rise as proof of opportunity for all in this country?

Where would an Obama success leave two old hustlers like Jesse and Al?  Dadgum right they're miffed that Obama isn't going to tout them as the pair of giants upon whose shoulders he stood to reach the mountain top.

I ♣ My Seal

Barack Obama and Strategy

Let us speculate for a moment . And assume a President Obama decides to accept a Congressional plan to create a bill called "Financial CompensationAct" . Or let us imagine how a Muslim might fit onto a new Supreme Court vacancy. That sounds like change to me. There are probably quite a few changes in store for us that are noy being revealed for strategic purposes.

 

The Real Obama

Let us not forget that Obama was raised by his Caucasian mother and his Caucasian grandparents. If I were Jesse or Al I wouldn't start drafting compensation act just yet.

 

Every post

Every post on here sounds racist to me! Why? Because everything considered in America is through the prism of how it will look to blacks or to whites due to their racial DNA. Get over yourselves folks. Latinos are the next racial majority in America and they don't give a @#$% about the Civil War or the race-based problems since.

Racists

You were just called "Racists". Oh my God. -Hide, Hide- Go sit in the corner-Oh, my God. Accused, Accused--oh,my God!

 BTW- right-- I do care about the Civil War and so should every "American". If, as is stated here, Latinos don't...well...

NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"

Ask Obama the monster on

Ask Obama the monster on the "Born Alive Infant " bill.  That we would even need a bill for this is just unbelievable.  This monster has consistently voted against making sure that babies bore premature with some difficulties do not live to see the light of day.

I am talking Downs Syndrome babies and such.  If the mother had induced labor to have the baby and it survived outside the womb then Doctors would have had no obligation to try and keep this baby alive. The "Born Alive Infant" bill made sure the doctors tried their damnedest to keep these babies alive.  Obama consistently voted no or "present" (which is a no) on passing this bill every time it came up in the Illinois legislature and tried to kill it on the federal level.  He is a monster, there is no other word for him! 

Just the name and face

Just the name and face placement of Amy Goodman is enough reason not to ever listen to that blather.

I did read it though and have commented so much on all of this that to just sum it up... all in all I am having a blast watching the PC dems/leftists eat each other up...it's going to be a slow long ride too...but delicious.

The end.

Jesse and Al can see the end of their careers and power.

Why no follow-up?

An angle lost here is that we're in the PRIMARY season, folks. Why do these DNC candidates democrats feel they have to hide their associations with Al or Jesse?

Doesn't this speak to the inherent and , apparently, acknowledged racism within the democratic party? In the PRIMARY season, it makes no sense to blame the other party for your tactics. 

Pass the popcorn.

This post is fascinating on so many different levels. Clearly the whole notion of a Barack Obama presidency scares the bejeebas out of moonbatty race-obsessed pundits like Glen Ford. Despite Obama's liberal cred,  blacks like him are often anathama to the Fords of the world especially if they veer from the victim plantation and make whites feel good about themselves. It's bad business.

It's bad enough when you have gazillionares like Oprah Winfrey on tv every afternoon to remind people it's not 1860 anymore. (And how about that Will Smith movie where a homeless guy makes it in corporate america through self relience and determination. Did someone in Hollywood not get our memo?) Just how do you gin up white guilt about slavery when you got a black man in the White House. Our whole existence based on the meme of a racist country will be forever altered. The horror!

As for a President Obama, I predict Jackson and Sharpton will be like unwelcome uncles with each demading their fair share or else they'd give Obama public taunts of "Uncle Tom-ism."

Liberal racial politics coming home to roost. This is fun.

Check out Obama's Black Liberation Theology Church

Trinity United Church of Christ is run by Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr., who propounds Black Liberation Theology (yes there is a lot of cross-over with standard Liberation Theology).  In the pastor's talking points, he refers to Dr. James Cone's 1969 book, Black Power and Black Theology as inspiring the "vision statement" of the church.

Some quotes from this inspiring book. 

 "Black Theology is the theological arm of Black Power, and Black Power is the political arm of Black Theology."

"What does the Christian gospel have to say to powerless black men whose existence is threatened daily by the insidious tentacles of white power?"

And Bill Clinton would be glad to know that Blackness isn't just a skin color, it is "an ontological symbol for all people who participate in the liberation of man from oppression."

Where as whiteness symbolizes "madmen sick with their own self-concept."