Somewhat like the DC comic figure “Batman,” Jesse Jackson just appeared, out of the night, landing in early 1960’s Atlanta, headquarters of the southern civil rights movement – specifically for the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Jesse quickly leeched himself to SCLC, which was solely integrationist and preacher driven, while SNCC was inclusive of Pan-African, black urban street and socialist liberation strategies, as well as integration. In and around the various West Hunter Street restaurants where students, professors and civil rights workers gathered, Jesse developed a quiet reputation for being “parrot-like,” in that things he would hear in one conversation became his in another conversation.
And over time, in spite of being neither well-liked nor trusted, Jesse inched his way into leadership crevices and lurched forward in Chicago – where he took control of SCLCs “Operation Breadbasket” program there and made it his own. Jesse would use his new program “Operation PUSH” to catapult himself into national prominence as a spokesman for black and poor people throughout America. Jesse accelerated his thrust by morphing into an entity known as “The Rainbow/Push Coalition.”
Having been mass media’s darling for the past forty years – since King’s assassination – and a growing sensation before that, Jesse Jackson has enjoyed international fame and he has been wealthy for many years. Jesse was exactly what white America needed: An omnivorous black “dealmaker” who could quell any uprising of blacks and poor people simply by being placed in front, leading it, spreading a little largess around through him, and, of course, making sure he is always handsomely rewarded.
Since the rise of Jesse Jackson, so many leaders of black people and the poor have tried, with varying degrees of success, to imitate his boardroom method of a stick-up: give X, Y and Z and I won’t picket you and hold a press conference, which could make your stockholders very nervous. However, as anyone can readily see, many years of that kind of operation have actually augmented the status quo. As a result, comprehensive social change has been slowed because economic and political America finds it more cost effective to pay off rather than pay up!
Enter black presidential candidate, Senator Barack Obama. Jesse’s chagrin is that in Obama’s sincerity looms the distinct probability that Jesse and his imitators’ paydays will be long gone when and if Obama wins the White House. Jesse’s recent disparaging and off-color remarks about Obama that he thought were mouthed secretly, revealed Jesse’s real mindset. While smiling in Obama’s face, apparently Jesse Jackson has been busy sowing the seeds of discontent among other so-called black leaders.
Jesse Jackson is an opportunist, a so-called Christian preacher ever without a church. And while these facts are universally known, the black community hails him as a sort of Moses. Were it not for Jesse’s consuming hubris, blacks would more than hail him and too many would follow him into the abyss.
Following behind Bill Cosby’s courageous public outrage against black irresponsibility, Obama speaks to black audiences, essentially echoing Cosby while infusing his messages of hope, change and yes we can do it. But, you see, if black negative behavior diminishes, what will “poverticians” and other hustlers do for a living?
That’s why Jesse’s mindset reveals a dearth of black leadership. Down with the hustlers, let’s support Obama and Cosby!
Al_Calloway@Verizon.net
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