CHICAGO (AP) – For decades the Rev. Jesse Jackson has rallied against the use of the N-word – an ethnic slur he has repeatedly told the American public is hateful and degrading. But Fox News confirmed to The Associated Press Wednesday that the longtime civil rights activist used the term in what Jackson thought was a private conversation during a break from a TV interview.Jackson has already come under fire this month for crude off-air comments he made against presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama that were recorded during a taping of a “Fox & Friends” news show.In additional comments from that same conversation, first reported by TVNewser, Jackson is reported to have said Obama was “talking down to black people … telling ‘N-words’ how to behave.”Fox declined to release the full transcript of the July 6 show and did not air the comments.
The man can rhyme, the man can speak.Supposedly helping supposedly weakBut though he is a “man of god”His words amount to total fraudI wonder if his god concurredIt’s right to use the famed “n-word”or if at this his god would frown,Because God lives in “Heimey-town”We all know he will serve no timeWhen god’s involved, fraud isn’t crime.His rhymes are better than mine — who cares?At least I’m not the one praying to air.
What-
Unapologetic racism? No…simply a nod to reality.
As I once wrote to Ellis Washington:
“Should someone who kneels at the altar of his ancestors’ masters be throwing the word ’slave’ around so much?”
If more blacks were interested in flying solo – as in being personally accountable for their lives – we’d have more of them as members.
I think Ellen is aware that there are two sides to the “race” card. I used to correspond w/ her about various incidents in my day-to-day life as a non-theist. One such incident was where I was prompted to forcibly eject a black man from my personal space after he invaded it muttering a bunch of trash talk(he called it prayer) about “white devils”.
Atheon-
BTW – I had a similar experience to Alex’s in Rochester, NY. This city is a war zone where everybody leaves a car-length ahead of them at traffic lights and white people are warned that they venture outside at night at their own risk.
The culprits couldn’t have been anything but black.
…they stole my cassette tapes and left a tool box w/ over $400 worth of professional-grade plumber’s tools and a cordless drill. You’d think they’d have seen a future use for the drill.
Interesting side note:
Where I come from, a working man has at least a passing acquaintance w/ a Thermos bottle. While visiting Rochester, I tried to have mine filled w/ coffee at an all-black McD’s(purple arches – no shit). They looked at it like it was the 1st time they’d ever set eyes on such an implement.
My best friend is black. I’m white; she is black, and that’s where our differences end.
BTW, she’d kick the shit out of idiots that break into cars.
Everything a politician does is political — that’s what makes them politician. It’s like putting an artist’s painting down for being artsy. Why yes, it is.
On father’s day, it reasonates better. They don’t pick on mothers so much for that because their aren’t quite as many absentee mothers (not that they don’t exist). Specifically, we’re talking about something Barack Obama was talking about. He’s black, so can be expected to be closer the issue because it’s considered a “black problem” (not that it’s theirs exclusively by a long shot). Plus, his own father was absent.
You’re right — his decision to say something about the subject on father’s day was pure political manuevering. He stays in his house all year long, never giving speaches, and then BAM! here’s out there yakking it up for votes. Or, he’s out there talking every day, and on father’s day, it was topical.
Which is more reasonable, “Reason”?
I believe the thread was on the subject of the relevence of Jesse Jackson. For being irrelevent, he certainly has stirred up a lot of conversation here.
What I find remarkable is that those who are self appointed leaders of the cause of African Americans are also self proclaimed reverands. As though there were some connection between the suffering of black Americans and the Christian religion.
MLK dreamed of a day when black Americans were judged, not by the color of his skin, but, by the content of his character. That day is arriving. Obama is a man, not a god, and he will make mistakes. I am personally disappointed by his pandering to hispanics and his idea of a revised “faith based initiative”, but what really turns my face red is when John McCain calls television evangelists like Jerry Falwell the “voice of intolerence”, but, as soon as he decides to run for president, he appears in Falwell’s church to speak to the congregation dressed in a robe that made him look like the pope on Christmas.
Obama’s father’s day speech may have been preachy, but, the fact of the matter is that when a black American is making a serious run at the white house, it is time for black Americans to stop using white supression as an excuse for failure, and to step up to the plate and face the same scrutiny as the rest of us as to whether or not we are fulfilling our duties as providers and parents.
NeoWolfe
matador,
To be clear, its not that I don’t understand what you and alexatheist are saying, because I do. I admit, blacks commit alot of crimes; however, THEY don’t commit them all. Furthermore, not all blacks are criminals.
The point is that I’m against general remarks that group ALL blacks into a category of theives, drug dealers, and gang bangers. I would prefer to see individuals preface comments like the ones you two made with “SOME” blacks rather than just blacks as in ALL.
For my sake and for others like me, making this simple adjustment will create a place for us to exist and be acknowledged in casual conversation.
Furthermore, I need the rest of the world, atheist included, to know that there are blacks that don’t fit the stereotype. I’m black and I’m atheists, so I’m fighting on two fronts. Blacks don’t except me and I don’t feel accepted by atheists (my own…) when I read comments like those above. If I can’t establish an existance with my freethinking comrads, then I”m fuc%ed!
neowolfe:
That is the connection. White society deprived blacks of virtually everything — except religion. Blacks follow their preachers for the same reason Muslims follow brutal dictators: because it’s all they’ve got.
Cynic
i hear what you are saying but how much bs before we the people wake up.
soft fascism has taken over.an economic policy that benefits the top 4% a phoney war on terror that allows millions illegal entry.street crime that makes some areas a no go zone.sooner or later this house of cards will collapse.
atheon-
I get along better w/ black people on a one-to-one basis…the ones whom I meet as a result of common employment or interest. As a guitarist in my youth, I once did an audition where present logic would have told me that I might not leave w/ my guitar…if I was lucky. My folks thought I was nuts to be sticking my head into a “lions’ den”.
These cats were cool enough and had primo smoke, but I didn’t have the R&B chops they wanted. At least I hadn’t walked into a set-up. That was then and this is now.
Something changed as I grew. I became aware that while I was taught to live and let live, black kids weren’t – apparently.
I now believe that the message of MLK – which I embraced as the truth – set me up to be a sucker for predators.
Look – I’m sure that Hispanic atheists exist.
That does not make me blind to the motives of the RCC to bolster its numbers in the US by its support of illegal aliens from a predominantly-Catholic country.
Experience has hardened my idealism into pragmatism. This is something you can’t teach.
I should probably stop posting on forums.
Cynic
My logic was sound. Your’s was tragically flawed with a huge assumption. So what do you do? You turn to trying to insult me? Take your best shot.
To Not So Fast,
I gather your a black American, and if your not it’s unimportant. What other individuals on this site said is unimportant, because you cannot group me with them. As a child I grew up in a small town in Idaho where there were no black Americans. But, I was taught that that is not a “black man”, that is a man.
I would gladly extend my hand to you judging you exactly as MLK said. Not knowing you, it is impossible to judge the content of your character. So let’s leave introductions to another time.
My older brother recieved the same training and turned into a bigot piece of crap. Go figure.
But, let me make myself clear, I don’t take back anything I said. Blacks were dealt a raw hand, and no one can make right the injustices, but that is irrelevent, you cannot resurrect the unjustly murdered, you cannot execute the guilty who are already in their graves. What you can do though is turn around the lives of your family and the people you love. Senator Obama just showed how possible it is. It’s a new day, and if some things I say sound harsh, it’s kinda like the alarm clock going off in the morning saying don’t be late for work, because the job is just beginning.
Good luck to all of us.
NeoWolfe
Neo-I know what you mean. My little bro is repusively racist. No one in our family can figure out why. Sometimes I’d like to stick my foot up his ass. I mean most times.
matador,
I understand, its hard to know if people are inviting you over for dinner because they want to share a meal with you or because they want share YOU as a meal.
My friend, I strongly recommend that you remain skeptical and aware at all times in your dealings with people; blacks, whites, hispanics, etc. You just never know if you will be mislead for one reason or another, and it does not have to be racial. It could be greed, jealousy, envy, or just stupidity.
atheon,
Count me as one more ‘white’ atheist who supports your position 100%. I’m sure there are racist atheists (no accusations) but it just seems like a contradiction to think really clearly about one subject and utterly simplistically about another.
Bottom line: It’s lazy thinking to say that people with a certain concentration of melanin in their skin are inherently a certain way. What next, stereotypes about blood types? Why not? It’s physiologically more significant!
Lazy thinking like that is also what I see when people decide that there must be a god. Little wonder then, that churches are the most segregated part of American society and the most likely place to find racists.
Where might we be if segregated religion had not been the center of American social life all these decades?
Chris B,
I’m glad to know that we are in agreement, which suggests that on some level we’ve had a meeting of the minds.
I believe that an intellectual meeting of the minds (MOM) between two people is as emotionally rewarding as a devine revelation.
I also believe that an intellectual MOMs based on reason can and will allow men to transcend racial and physical constraints. (Just as you and I did!)
Religious people try to acheive this through prayer, beliefs in false truths, self mutilation, fasting (starving…), mental gymnastics, tithing, and false confessions.
Just imagine, we didn’t have to do any of that stuff…
Thx
And women too! Look out for sexist language
Humans are pattern-seekers. Giving someone a second, third, fourth, etc. chance to screw you over requires faith.
The faithless give very few, if any, second chances…don’t we?
cry4turtles,
My apologizies… women too!