Case in point...
A different kind of black and white issue
This week I received an e-mail with the subject line: “Please Colbert, write about Jesse Jackson Jr and father.” The message from Dennis Flynn was brief: “Please write about the part genetics play in the problems in the Jackson family lineage. Out of marriage children by a Minister. Fraud and stealing by a congressman. What an example for young African Americans.”
It was a racial taunt, perhaps best ignored.
But the attempt to twist the knife also displayed ignorance.
The writer chose to view the fall of Jesse Jackson Jr. through the lens of race, ignoring how widespread the conduct he deplored has become.
Public figures fathering a child out of marriage? The e-mailer failed to mention former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R); former senator and Democratic vice presidential nominee John Edwards; Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.); former New York representative Vito Fossella (R); the late Republican senator Strom Thurmond, a former presidential candidate; or former New Mexico senator Pete Domenici (R) — all of whom did what Jesse Jackson Sr. had done.
Misconduct while in public office? The list of violators is endless and spans the racial and religious spectra. But surely this e-mailer knows that.
Less speculative and more serious, however, is the writer’s suggestion that the two Jacksons are poor examples for “young African Americans.”
People who think this should take off their racial blinders. They have obscured perception of a chronic plague in public life: the temptation to misuse and abuse power.
Bigots like the one being responded to in that column typically don't have an intellectual pot to piss in, let alone a mind to do it with. As King points out, Jacksons Sr and Jr have plenty company among men amd women of all races for that behavior.
And this is how they express their superiority...My God.
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