Forever Selma

Let me stipulate right up front: what happened to the Jena 6 was unjust. No question about it. I am grateful for the national attention to this story, and am grateful too that justice is finally being served.

But the sight of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton leading the march there today makes me sick. These guys are both dirtbags who thrive off of exploiting racial discord.

Jackson had the gall to say that Barack Obama was "acting white" by not rushing to Jena, and likened Jena to Selma. Jena as Selma? Shoot, if Jesse got sugar instead of Sweet 'n Low in his coffee at his neighborhood Starbucks, he'd call it a new Selma. It's forever Selma with shakedown artist Jesse Jackson, who has milked poor Selma to the point of self-parody. Here is a short rundown of Jesse's shakedown m.o. -- and let me tell you, as someone who spent a lot of time going through the federal tax filings of Jesse's various groups (see here for one of the pieces I wrote) -- stories that didn't find their way into the mainstream media, but which I had solid documentation -- I concluded that Jackson is a thorough fraud. His presence brings discredit to the Jena 6's cause.

And as for Sharpton, the only thing that differentiates him from Jackson is that he's not nearly as slick. He is every bit the exploiter of racial discord, and an effective exponent of racist thuggery, that Jackson is. I say that as someone who literally had to hide out in my apartment for a week after receiving multiple death threats from black hoods, and veiled threats from Sharpton in a public speech, over a column I wrote tangentially criticizing a lavish funeral of a black celebrity. Before all that, though, Rev. Al had invited me to accompany him on a trip to southern Sudan to free some slaves. I'd been writing for the New York Post about the Sudanese Arab Muslim militias taking black Christians as slaves. Ever cynical about Sharpton, I thought at least his presence there would draw attention to the plight of these black Christians. I agreed to go, but in the end couldn't make it, so a Post colleague went in my stead.

True to form, Sharpton got there, visited the slave areas, and emerged to announce his epiphany: he realized while sitting under a tree in that haunted land that he needed to run for president of the United States. He got home, and forgot all about the slave's cause of freedom. He dropped their case. He used those suffering black African Christians as a prop for his own political ambitions.

And he's doing it again today in Jena. So is Jesse Jackson.

None of this adds or takes away from the justice of those six young men's cause. But it will now be difficult to see that, because to stand with them means standing with the race hustlers Jackson and Sharpton. It is a tragedy, in the end, that a bona fide case of racial injustice that might have led to real healing and an increase in understanding will now be nothing more in the minds of many than one more example of Jackson-Sharpton race baiting.

I wish Obama could find some way to turn this into a Sister Souljah moment. I don't agree with Obama's politics, but I've liked him ever since I saw him give his speech at the 2004 Democratic convention. What a hopeful contrast it was to Sharpton's self-righteous boilerplate. Barack Obama represents the future of racial healing and understanding in America. Jesse and Al are yesterday's news, and they personally profit not from achieving authentic racial justice and reconciliation, but by pretending that every racial conflict is Selma. Who benefits from this? No one but these cretins. If Barack Obama could find a way of standing with the Jena guys while repudiating the vulturous Sharpton and Jackson, he'd do himself a world of good.

UPDATE: You must read John McWhorter today on the Jena case. He is one of the most reliable commentators on race in America, and he shows why the involvement of Jackson and Sharpton shouldn't blind the rest of us to the fact that a serious injustice was attempted in Jena, and that it's important to speak out against it. I agree. Now that you've read me rant about the Jesse 'n Al sideshow, read McWhorter to refocus.