The Atlantic - Latest Comments in Jesse on Jesse

Re: Jesse on Jesse

Robert M — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 10:58:40 -0000

I used to hate Jesse. The hatred came because he didn't understand he had to evolve w/ the times. Now he is another brother whom worked very hard to do positive things for us.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

Colin — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 01:02:22 -0000

Seems just a little unfair, especially as JJ also has a long-standing interest in empowerment. I knew several folks who worked with him in the 1980s who found him engaged, curious, funny, and a dedicated coalition-builder. During the dark days of the Reagan administration he was an important truth-teller. Jackson perhaps suffered from occupying for a period the media's structural position as National Black Spokesman rather than just being one interesting politician among many. But I do think some folks have accepted the right's caricature of a politics of organization and protest as mere guilt-tripping.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

Watson — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:10:04 -0000

I‘m not saying that they’re saints, but I have to come to the defense of Revs. Jackson and Sharpton.

Jackson and Sharpton don’t book themselves into television appearances, the networks call them. I think that the corporate media prefer Sharpton and Jackson for the tiny black TV pundit niche precisely because the Revs have baggage, which facilitates a quick switch from analyzing the latest racist grievance to attacking the messenger and dismissing the complaint as hypocritical.

If the SCLM was really seeking racial diversity and ideological balance, the ‘clean and articulate’ Barack Obama would have surfaced years ago. Instead, the Revs have gotten most of the minuscule airplay available to blacks, and if by chance we see a new black face, it usually turns out to be someone auditioning to be the next Armstrong Williams.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

T Harris — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:21:13 -0000

I have despised this man for years, him and Sharpton both. Not necessarily because I always disagreed with them, or their stances on issues that they feel affect black America (he did good work publicizing voter suppression efforts in '04 for one thing- too bad no one in the MSM was listening) but because the media anointed them OUR voice.

He does not speak for me and never has. Nor does Sharpton. I have always resented the fact that he has been unequivocally accepted as the voice of black America (not only his fault- lazy ass press never try to get different views).

There is this view by white folks in American that the black population in the US is homogeneous, and people like Jesse are part of the reason they keep thinking that. He makes it easy.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

G Davis — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 15:13:13 -0000

As an older white woman I have no standing on evaluating how the media presents (or misrepresents) the black community but I can tell you they do what I think you're saying with great regularity and dismissal with women. Imagine how women of color feel.

I'm surprised, though, at your take that the deal between JJ and Obama was not about Obama. Maybe not personally, but I suspect there is a generational power struggle for an older stalwart of any community being confronted with handing the reins of power over to the next generation.

The venom of Bill Clinton, I think, can be attached to that same generational struggle for power.

It is, afterall, all about politics and power not race or gender isn't it?

Re: Jesse on Jesse

DougEFresh — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:41:38 -0000

Reality, I agree, the way to greatly reduce drug crime is to end the war on drugs, especially for something fairly harmless like weed. I have a lot of doubt that it will happen in my lifetime though

Re: Jesse on Jesse

gocart mozart — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:41:03 -0000

I was at the Ned Lamont rally on primary day '06. Jesse was walking by with his entourage, shaking peoples' hands along the way. I stuck out my hand, he looked me over, even made eye contact, kept walking, leaving me with my hand out-stretched like a nimrod. I was handshake snubbed by Jesse. Not sure why. I think it was that I didn't look important enough to him to bother shaking hands. Just a volunteer wearing jeans and a Lamont t-shirt. I am a 30 year old white guy if that matters.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

gocart mozart — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:27:44 -0000

Re: Jesse on Jesse

Pragmatic Idealist — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 13:13:24 -0000

I remember Jesse coming to Charleston, South Carolina in the 60's to organize the trash collectors. I was a kid then, and the story going around was that the mayor stated that Jesse should mind his own business or he might go home in a box.

I had a lot of respect for the man but I came to the view later in life that celebrity had made him into a less effectual charicature of his former self.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

Reality Man — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:48:31 -0000

"It is easy to get people momentarily in a stir against a nameless corporate entity and embarrass them into some concessions than it is to halt drug related crime."

Good point, especially considering having drug crime become a non-factor in people's lives at some point will probably involve decriminalization, which is popular among a broad section of the population is unpopular among a highly energized narrow segment of the population. In addition, if the NAACP focuses primarily on drug de-criminalization, the racial politics and backlash from old conservatives will likely turn even uglier as people come to think of drug decriminalization as a "black issue" because the media would likely frame it like that. That isn't to say that the NAACP shouldn't campaign for de-criminalization, but that it's understandable why the organization focuses on quick wins instead of this.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

M.C. — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:29:45 -0000

And people wonder why so many women get hives when we look at Hillary. Same basic problem, really.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

DougEFresh — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 12:05:15 -0000

I agree that opting to picket Denny's while hundreds are murdered every year in a given city is focusing on the smaller problem. I suppose it is human nature though, since crime is a much more difficult task to deal with. It is easy to get people momentarily in a stir against a nameless corporate entity and embarrass them into some concessions than it is to halt drug related crime.

Those organizing the protest can claim they won something important for their people instead of taking on a more difficult, though more relevent problem, which would not have a quick victory, an easy scapegoat, or exstensive media coverage

Re: Jesse on Jesse

Hill Rat — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:28:13 -0000

TC,

Great link to this JJ interview. As a longtime Jesse hater (who comes from a family of Jesse haters) this piece adds another data point which allows me to form better and more thoughtful opinions.

Re: Jesse on Jesse

anonevang — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 11:20:25 -0000

(As an intro: I'm a white guy.)

I met Jesse Jackson once unexpectedly. He was walking down the hallway in the government building where I work, and it turned out that he had had a strategy session with some of the state Democratic leaders. He was surrounded by (black) people who had left the room with him. When I saw him, I was so taken aback that I kind of stared without meaning to. He saw me, and nodded at me with a warm smile.

All I can say, for what it's worth, is that his presence was very dignified. There was something about the way he carried himself that just invited a kind of honoring. This all sounds trite, but that one moment made me feel like I had been in the presence of a truly great man.