Durham-in-Wonderland: Jesse Jackson, Then and Now

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Jesse Jackson, Then and Now

Mid-April 2006:

“Something happened on the night of March 13^th—something so compelling that Durham District Attorney Michael Nifong was prompted to say, 'This case is not going away’ . . . We know that the two women were abused . . . The Duke scandal should lead colleges across the country to hold searching discussions about racial and sexual stereotypes, exposing the myths that entrap so many. But it shouldn’t take the brutalizing of a mother of two to raise these issues.”

Mid-July 2007:

Jackson was critical of Commissioner Bud Selig for distancing himself from [Barry] Bonds, saying, “The judge and jury will determine the outcome of the controversy. The commissioner of baseball, by inference, is suggesting he’s guilty, which I will not be a part of. That leaves Barry out in the cold without the infrastructure of baseball. That’s a very low blow.”

Hat tip: T.M.

52 comments:

Anonymous said...: Jesse Jackson is the worst or the racist extortionists.; 8/4/07, 1:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Oh Jesse.

You're so sensitive.

Ever-changing with the times, that's our trés chic Jesse!

Sensitivity

Debrah; 8/4/07, 1:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Charles M. Payne is suddenly a "distinguished" service professor at U Chicago. Guess being in the G88 turned out to be a great career move.

Go, Charlie. You're a winner, and you'll always be a winner.; 8/4/07, 2:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Jesse was a great civil rights leader when Martin was alive. He got seduced by fame and fortune. He got out of Durham quickly and never returned. Looks like he recognized Precious for what she was.; 8/4/07, 2:47 PM
Anonymous said...: Is he still intending to pay for Ms. Mangum's college education as promised?; 8/4/07, 3:23 PM
Gary Packwood said...: Sometimes I get more than a little annoyed with many of these people.

From the get-go, Coach Kerstin Kimel and the members of the Duke Women's lacrosse team told the world that all of this was a hoax.

And no one listened.

The S.S. Jesse Jackson continues to take on water.

Has he ever been elected to anything?
::
GP; 8/4/07, 3:40 PM
Anonymous said...: Ahh, it's so cute! All KC has to do in order to prove Jesse is a lying hypocritical bigot is to merely repeat Jesse's own words in public! Voila! Jesse shoots his OWN foot off!

Ahh, Saturday morning and I love the smell of gunpowder in the air!; 8/4/07, 3:54 PM
Anonymous said...: It's interesting to note that while some of these career activists in the cottage industry of race are repulsive and nonsensical....

.....people like Jesse Jackson have endured because on a personal level, IMO, they can be quite charming.

Note that Tucker Carlson has Al Sharpton on his show frequently and always says how much he likes him personally, but disagrees with him on almost every issue.

In October of 1998, N.C Mutual Insurance Company in Durham--the largest-black owned in the country--was having its grand gala celebrating 100 years.

I have known a few key players there in the past and decided to go...not only to their cocktail party on the top floor of Mutual.....but went later to the dinner celebration at a nearby hotel.

They had invited many well-known black figures--Earl Graves, some politicians, a few celebrities, etc.....but Jesse Jackson was to be the main speaker for the grand finale presentation.

I decided I wanted to perhaps write a column about the whole evening and asked a friend who was organizing the gala to get me a press pass.

Well......off in a seperate room we all went.....sitting around a long conference table waiting for each noteworthy figure to come inside and be interviewed by the local TV stations and the local newspapers.

This one evening when I decided to play the role of the press was eye-opening.

Most of the usual members of the press asked the silliest questions. It's easy to see why they have to make up stories to go to print.

Now...to the main point: When Jesse Jackson walked into the room, I wasn't expecting much....like most of his cable TV interviews. Same old. Same old.

However, I have met few people as charming as he on a personal level. I was sitting close to the entrance and as soon as he walked inside the door, he bent over and took my hand and said hello and proceeded to introduce himself.

It was a bit surprising. You know, I was just sitting there minding my own business and didn't expect anything so gracious coming from him.

Such a shame that so many of these people warp not only their own personalities, but the way we view them as well by their illogical antics.

No good will ever come from using race as the cornerstone of your life.

BTW.....I ended up asking Jackson most of the questions because the little female anchors and the requisite newspaper reporters seemed too mesmerized by his presence. Not one of them asked a tough question.....however....

....what I saw in the paper the next day were Jackson's responses to MY questions.

Another example of the press hard at work.

LOL!!!

Debrah; 8/4/07, 4:42 PM
Anonymous said...: Costa on Vick and Duke rape; 8/4/07, 4:54 PM
Anonymous said...: Anon at 2:47 -- Jackson not only recognized precious for what she was.....he could avoid explaining how badly he screwed up by latching on to the just-breaking Don Iums story. He must have gotten him self out of town on the next available transportation.; 8/4/07, 5:15 PM
Anonymous said...: He was in Durham - March, 06.
Imus was February, 07; 8/4/07, 5:30 PM
Anonymous said...: TO 4:54PM--

Good interview with Wolf and Costas.

Although, Costas should have underscored the vast difference in the two cases much more than he did.

Debrah; 8/4/07, 5:37 PM
Anonymous said...: Well, I think that Jackson was right on one thing: "The Duke scandal should lead colleges across the country to hold searching discussions about racial and sexual stereotypes, exposing the myths that entrap so many." Duke University and many of its humanities faculty are indeed entrapped in the myths of racial and sexual stereotypes, even though they were not of the kind that Rev. Jackson was talking about.; 8/4/07, 6:13 PM
Anonymous said...: A much earlier Jesse had some useful words for the kids of Sesame Street.

Those kids could have been Reade, Collin, and David all those years ago.

Simplistic were those words; however, I wonder how those now-grown kids view Jackson these days....given that he has never lived by those words, himself.

Then and now, indeed.

Sesame_Street_Jackson

Debrah; 8/4/07, 6:37 PM
Anonymous said...: It seems that we are not helping to resolve the real issues that that night at 610 Buchanan brought to light:

From: David Garfield <dag23@duke.edu>
Reply-To: DurhamResponds-discuss@yahoogroups.com
To: DurhamResponds-discuss@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [DurhamResponds-discuss] Potbangers March
Parts/Attachments:
1 OK ~57 lines Text
2 Shown ~471 lines Text
----------------------------------------

Sigh.

I was never in support of the "potbanger's march."� I thought that it
was presumptive, misdirected, and angry without purpose (there is a
role and plenty of reason for anger in this world, but it can be a
weapon or a tool depending on how you use it).

But I recognize now as I did then that it represented genuine
feelings and genuine, valid concerns.��
The mistake that it made was in making accusations where there should
have been dialogue.�

Wade, you are making that exact same mistake now.� I understand your
frustration.� I�sympathize with your frustration.� But your
accusations are causing exactly the same problems as the first
demonstration.� There are real and valid issues that were raised by
this case and the vast majority of them have yet to be addressed much
less solved.

You're not helping.

Someone posting with a Duke address ...; 8/4/07, 6:41 PM
Michael said...: These guys just want to pretend that it never happened and that they never participated.

It appears that these folks don't care about the damage that they did to the Lacrosse players.; 8/4/07, 8:06 PM
mac said...: Deborah,

People have commented about how charming Slick Willie is -
shoot, he c'n get 'em hot'n bothered with his combo-Elvis/JFK
vocalizations! Willie-Jeff is an NPD.
Jackson, a smoothie? He's an NPD, too, in-the-flesh!
He and Willy-Jeff are a pair - (see "pair" later)

It's almost always up to a man to tell a woman what
a scum the guy she's eyeballing
(bad word choice, a la Tom Snyder?)
and it's almost always up to a woman to warn a man away from a
two-bit type. It's because of our susceptibilities.
(I don't know how that works for the ambisextrous crowd.)

As a man (and therefore a neutral observer,) I can say this:
Jesse reminds me of a walking pair. That's it: a walking pair.

NPDs can be very charming.
NPDs can also be Ted Bundy.
Or Billy Jeff.
Or J.J.

They'll tell you whatever is convenient at the time,
in order to get whatever they want.; 8/4/07, 9:08 PM
mac said...: Jesse's batting 1000 here: he's been dead wrong every time he's been up at bat.
Looks like he walks, never making contact at the plate -
not with his bat. That's because the pitcher
keeps aiming at his head.
(It's a reflex, y'know?)

How can anyone be so wrong so often?; 8/4/07, 9:16 PM
Anonymous said...: TO "mac"--

LOL!

It's interesting that shortly after Jesse's visit to the Mutual gala, it was revealed that his squeeze-on-the-side, who he also took to the Clinton White House while he was counseling Chelsea about how best to handle the fact that Daddy Billy Jeff had Monica under his desk.....

.....that Jesse's squeeze had a bun in the oven.

LIS!

You can't make this stuff up.....which is why religion and counseling almost always turn me off....(think the oily Pat Robertson as well)...yuck!

Debrah; 8/4/07, 9:32 PM
Anonymous said...: A couple of million each repairs a lot of damage. Bill Cinton would be elected again, if he could run.; 8/4/07, 9:54 PM
Anonymous said...: TO 9:54PM--

I seriously doubt that.

Bill Clinton is a funny and charming guy socially, no doubt.

Even George Bush 41 is very fond of him.

But no one is thinking about Bill Clinton as president again.

I have fantasies, too.

Debrah; 8/4/07, 10:08 PM
Anonymous said...: I quess not Deborah - he is prevented from running again.; 8/4/07, 10:41 PM
Anonymous said...: There's a really simple explanation to this one. Jesse Jackson is a bigot.; 8/4/07, 10:43 PM
mac said...: 10:41
I don't think Deborah's fantasies involve Willy Jeff being made Pres
again. Besides, If Hill is elected, he'll be the new head of the U.N.!
Pres was just a warmup act.

And then the keys to the Constitution are REALLY turned over to some major-league playas!
(Not referring to Bonds, either.)

Meanwhile, Jesse is still frying small-time fish at the
Selig's barbecue, after having left Precious alone at the party
with no one to talk to except Linwood Wilson.; 8/4/07, 11:00 PM
Anonymous said...: TO "mac"--

You're a riot.

No, seriously. Not a Durham riot......just very comical. :>)

Guess what? I have been posting off-and-on tonight as well as going across the street to a semi-party and telling everyone that I have to get back to Wonderland to see what is going on. They think I'm obsessed. LOL!

The neighbors across the street have been doing some decorating/construction on their veranda and are having a little celebration.

I've had some vino and have a little buzz...which I like.

My neighbors are from Florida and I've already clued them in on the UNC-CH art history graduate student who lives nearby......and who has been dissing the lacrosse players.

We've decided that she will be freezed out from future social functions. It's petty, I know...but so is a little mousey woman not yet 30 who thinks Reade, Collin, and David are declasse for having a party with strippers.

I still can't believe that a woman her age is that prudish and silly.

Debrah; 8/4/07, 11:53 PM
Anonymous said...: The inconsistancy in those two statements by Jesse Jackson seems to be SOP for many politicians seeking to score points with their core constituency. He's just following in the unhallowed footsteps of many other American politicians both sides of the aisle....and beyond.

It is one reason why calling someone a "politician" is considered a grave insult by some of my friends.; 8/5/07, 1:16 AM
Gary Packwood said...: Debrah 11:53 said

...but she is a little mousey woman not yet 30 who thinks Reade, Collin, and David are declasse for having a party with strippers.

...I still can't believe that a woman her age is that prudish and silly.
::
I agree with you and I am beginning to become real interested in these folks who 'drop anchor' in meetings I attend in order to talk being victims because of the privileged class.

I paid ZERO attention to these people until DIW.

And you are correct. They are not yet 30; have helmet hair; wear moon shoes; rimless glasses and are artists or public health 'behavioral scientists'.
::
GP; 8/5/07, 1:29 AM
Anonymous said...: "How can anyone be so wrong so often? "

That's pretty easy, really. How can they get the press to still treat then seriously? Now that's the achievement.; 8/5/07, 1:34 AM
Anonymous said...: Debrah 11:53 pm,

I've known many prudish people who are of her generation and younger. It depends on how the individual person was raised at home along with other influences from the surrounding environment during childhood and adolescence.

Most of the "young prudes" I've known came from strict religious/socially conservative households. However, I did know other "young prudes" who were such because they viewed anything related to sexuality to be "frivolous" and a distraction to their academic/career objectives. Both groups tended to be equally judgmental and dismissive of anyone who even brings up the topic of sex/sexuality in an innocuous conversation, much less act on their interest through acts like hiring strippers.

In short, they do exist and can be an irritating presence at times.; 8/5/07, 1:42 AM
Anonymous said...: My first thought when I read this post was, "Anyone who doesn't know what a self-serving hypocrite JJ is, hasn't been paying attention." Then I reminded myself the truth needs to be repeated over and over again. Some people miss it, some people forget.; 8/5/07, 2:03 AM
Anonymous said...: Is Jackson a Communist?; 8/5/07, 2:25 AM
Anonymous said...: Self-serving hypocrite? Jesse? Come on now. How many companies has he bilked by demanding hush money? How can you call him self-serving? Self-engrandizing might be a better descriptor. He and Slick Willie are both truly charming people. So much so that they can convince people that there is something moral about cheating on their wives. Why would we not want to place blind trust in people like them?
Jesse has proved to be a bigot in his career. He rushed to judge the LAX players because they were white and Precious was poor and black. He wants us to believe that things should be different in the cases of Michael Vick and Barry Bonds. Rich and black makes them immune? Oh yeah, OJ right?
The amazing thing is that he uses those same poor, black people that he claims to defend to fatten his bank account. What has he done for the downtrodden? Lip service. That really helps them, doesn't it?; 8/5/07, 7:18 AM
Anonymous said...: Debrah said
"a little mousey woman not yet 30 who thinks Reade, Collin, and David are declasse for having a party with strippers."

Yes, but suggesting to this type that women today have loose morals which are destroying western society will bring forth a speech about how it's a womans right to enjoy sexual freedom as well as abortion on demand, morning after pill on demand etc, etc.

Political correctness:
Women = good
Men = bad; 8/5/07, 8:24 AM
Anonymous said...: Naturally, Jackson complained about the white Bud Selig and not the black Hank Aaron, who also snubbed Bonds.

Just another example of how two-faced and racist Jackson is.; 8/5/07, 9:05 AM
Anonymous said...: ubg is absolutely spot-on re. the mousy feminist chick: It's not prudishness, it's politically-correct feminism. She would demand that it's a person's right to view strippers, pornography, etc., in their own homes if the person doing the viewing were women. I see this type all the time at my university.; 8/5/07, 10:35 AM
Anonymous said...: It is an easy calculation - black is good, white is bad. Does Jesse show up when there is black on black violence? Nope. A black reporter killed in broad daylight - where's the outrage - won't be any - he was killed by black muslims, alledgedly.

Here in Durham there are drive by shootings, murders, rapes, and other lesser crimes, but Jesse and Al are not here because the perps are black.

So, if you apply the equation it is easy to see why he is wrong so often - it is not the content of one's character, only the color of one's skin that matters.

And Jesse was never a decent honorable man - dipping your shirt in MLK's blood and then making preposterous claims to further one's own career was just the beginning of a race hustler's slime trail.; 8/5/07, 10:37 AM
Anonymous said...: Jesse who?; 8/5/07, 10:55 AM
Anonymous said...: Why do big corporations enable Jackson? When the ubiquitous Race baiter makes his usual specious demands on this or that organization they're always ready to fatten his organization with ill begotten booty. It gets him off their back for the time being but never gets rids of him for good. They should be excoriated for their fecklessness, in the same way as we do those agents that enabled the injustices in the horrific DUKE LAX case.; 8/5/07, 11:24 AM
Anonymous said...: Jessie sees everything through a race prism and a prism of how to further the cause of Jessie Jackson. He will never be as accurate as someone who has truth and facts as their only agenda.; 8/5/07, 1:39 PM
Anonymous said...: 10:37 That is just plain wrong about Jesse. Mark Twain wrote "different opinions - that is why we have horse races."; 8/5/07, 4:34 PM
mac said...: Jackson, now the SCLC, the so-called Southern Christian Leadership Conference and a group called "New Order" (which is scary-sounding, like the white supremacist group called "The Order," which might be better named "The Ordure")- are rallying behind Michael Vick. The New Ordure has a right to its opinion
on Vick's innocence or guilt, but it doesn't have a right to libel the rest of us, as if we're just waiting outside Vick's jail with pitchforks and a noose. Most of us here who have posted at DIW have withheld judgement, but it becomes increasingly evident that these groups are on the offensive, and will protest loudly if he is found guilty. Some of the protesters have even minimized dogfighting - some have even claimed that Vick was being "castrated." Now, let's wait for the verdict, shall we?

Now the SLCC plans to honor him.
Honor him?

I wonder if the woman who sued Vick for knowingly giving her a sexually transmitted disease thinks he's worthy of the honor by a so-called "Christian" group? As a Christian, I find the honor paid to Vick offensive. I don't care if he throws toys and money at kids in bad neighborhoods: Michael Vick is honoring himself, not the Lord, when he gives out goodies. When's the last time he passed out Bibles? I don't know if he's guilty, but I don't appreciate him doing an OJ, swearing in the name of Jesus that he's peachy-perfect, or having people testify in Jesus' name for him, just like certain letter writers did for Nifong, claiming that Nifong was being nailed to a cross like Jesus. Cut the crap. Stop misusing my Lord and Savior. I remember when Klansmen claimed to be Christians, too. If you don't believe in Him, that's your business, but don't make Him into your riding pony.

I'm really not sure who's wearing the linen these days: guess you need a program to tell the difference. All racists look alike to me.; 8/5/07, 4:48 PM
Anonymous said...: Anonymous said...
Is Jackson a Communist?

Aug 5, 2007 2:25:00 AM

======================================================================

Hey knucklehead who wrote the above---cut out the communist "joke". This is a serious discussion. These issues affect all of us. Its okay to disagree but not to be a schmuck.; 8/5/07, 5:29 PM
Anonymous said...: Dear mac @ 4:48,

I appreciate your honor of the Lord. And I too find it offensive when anyone invokes a religious belief to support a political position.

But, in deference to all mankind, we all need to understand that others view their God in different ways and that other religious views should receive due toleration. By all. That became a matter of American justice memorialized in the Bill of Rights.

"Amendment I
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

Frankly, that is the true beauty of the American experiment -- first established some 400 years ago.

I pray it exists for all time.; 8/5/07, 6:30 PM
mac said...: Inman,

Thanks for your comment.
I agree with you on many things, including, I suspect, our mutual opposition to a statist religion. (We are at war with people whow wish to impose sharia law upon everyone.)

Statist religions have always been disasters: even Israel made an error when it chose to have a king, making a state instead of a people. Saul was everything God promised them a king would be, and so forth.

To choose a state-organized religion would be to water them down so that both would drown. Such is Europe, now a breeding ground for jihadists who would turn the state into their footstool.

Like a wise man once said: "when state and religion sleep together, someone ends up getting raped."; 8/5/07, 7:45 PM
Anonymous said...: It's best not to give him any press whatsoever. Even negative press provides facetime. Knock it off morons...you empower him. The only way to shut him up is take away the microphone.; 8/5/07, 9:30 PM
mac said...: 9:30
You mean we empower him...like satirists empowered Dick Nixon?

Most of these guys have operated for years without a lot of public criticism, mostly because people were afraid of the "R-word."
Now that the word has been disabled by overuse and misuse, criticism is only beginning to be fairly and frequently applied.

And we are not "morons."

I agree with the idea of taking away the microphone, but how does that happen?
Extinction, in the behavioral sense of ignoring bad behavior until it ceases,
requires a concerted effort by dedicated professionals,
and that'll never work in open society.

Solution: make it impossible for people like him to "preenmail" companies
without those companies having to face public hostility and ridicule:
enough ridicule, and the funds will stop flowing, sure enough.
(Ask Jimmy Swaggert!)

That's how you take away Mr. Microphone!; 8/5/07, 10:30 PM
Anonymous said...: 4:34 - what part of what was written about Jesse "The Shirt Dipper" Jackson wrong? He is a low-life inarticulate race hustler. Please set me straight...; 8/5/07, 10:33 PM
Anonymous said...: The "Is ______ a communist" is as close as this comment section gets to a running joke. Some call the commenter "Five o'clock Charlie", others, just riff off it. But to claim that any group of comments is too serious to be leavened by "Old Reliable" is taking the whole thing a bit too seriously. These are comments on a serious blog - KC has done great things, but the comments - not so much.; 8/5/07, 10:36 PM
Anonymous said...: Anonymous said...
The "Is ______ a communist" is as close as this comment section gets to a running joke. Some call the commenter "Five o'clock Charlie", others, just riff off it. But to claim that any group of comments is too serious to be leavened by "Old Reliable" is taking the whole thing a bit too seriously. These are comments on a serious blog - KC has done great things, but the comments - not so much.

Aug 5, 2007 10:36:00 PM

===================================
"Five O'Clock Charlie"? Sounds like a good guy! Maybe he's not a schmuck.; 8/6/07, 1:21 AM
Anonymous said...: Inre: JJ and communism...one only need to study the link between he and Hunter Pitts O'Dell.; 8/6/07, 7:00 AM
Anonymous said...: "I agree with the idea of taking away the microphone, but how does that happen?"

When you can't do ignoring, mockery is the next best thing. Mockery not of Jackson, but of anyone who takes him seriously. Document a few of his simplest-to-understand lies, and then whenever he's quoted in the press call out the reporter for credulously quoting a known liar.; 8/6/07, 12:02 PM
mac said...: 12:02
Good strategy!; 8/6/07, 12:06 PM

Durham-in-Wonderland

Saturday, August 04, 2007

Jesse Jackson, Then and Now

52 comments:

Blog Awards

About Me

DIW in the News

Blog Archive

Book

Comments Policy

Links

Motions and Documents

Source Notes