Al Sharpton
 

This should make for an interesting thread....

So whenever I hear this joker mentioned on my TV set or in a news article I always tend to cringe because his appearance almost always seems to be a harbinger of an "OH LAWD BLACK PEOPLES BEIN PLIGHTED AND WE'S BEIN' WRONGED" type-situation.

Even in problems where I know that the incidents in question are most certainly not right and not cool, when he gets all involved and uber vocal, the moments where he comes up almost seem to dissolve and de-evolve into circus-like proportions. I once had a friend of mine describe him as "the black and mild Nancy Grace, only he's been around longer and didn't get the memo that the jheri curl is dead."

But maybe it's just me who thinks that way and maybe I'm thinking of it in the wrong perspective....so enlighten me on what you think:

GFF is a pretty diverse place so we're bound to get a plethora of answers on a guy that causes his fair share of political and racial controversy. What are your opinions of this guy and his endless crusades in topics that are almost ALWAYS race based who also ALWAYS seems to show up to have an opinion or speak out against whatever happens be the situation wrong or right? Do you think Sharpton's a good egg, a good egg who is just confused and does stupid things, or do you just want to usually tell him to shut up and go the hell away? Is he a "race exploiitator" as many have called him or does he do good work towards issues concerning the relations of people of color VS white people?

personally myself, I don't see why skin color, race, ethnicity, sex, creed, what have you matters so much, I look at everyone around me, I see people, that's it. we're all people through it all

Because unfortunately - no matter what country you are in or what ethnicity you are - a lot of people tend to hate people who are different for a lot of different reasons. Be it people hating on gays, people hating on blacks, people hating on whites, pr other countries hating on other countries: hate begets hate. Unfortunately there's no such thing as a utopia and never will be at the rate we're all going. =\

/end thoughtful banter and depressing pessimism :(

I think this question can best be answered in the trip Sharpton took to Sudan one summer, either in 2002 or 2003, ostensibly to learn and try to do something about the slavery that persists there. He had a chance to take up a noble issue and, through his high visibility, make people in the United States more aware of it and prove that he was more than the racial demagogue that he'd been painted as.

However, the issue of slavery seems to have become of secondary importance to him, since upon his return from Sudan, since any major anti-slavery campaign he could have led failed to materialize.

He decided his energies would be better utilized in running for President, instead.

I see him as a race exploiter. He claims he wants racial equality, yet all he does is go out and find the most outrageous case of racism against blacks that he can, and makes a big deal out of it. Claims he's standing up for their rights, but really he's just getting up on high horse after high horse, pointing out the wrong instead of proactively pushing for the right. Racism isn't going to be solved through a media-whoring legal campaign against some local police force accused of racism-based police brutality.

I think he serves a purpose. I don't know if he's doing it intentionally, but he is forcing people to remember that racism is real and that it exists in the world, etc. However, I would seriously doubt this is entirely intentional. He sems like a bit of a schmuck to me. There could certainly be better people to speak out against racism (against all groups, not just blacks), but he's doing it, and that's at least somewhat admirable, despite his failings.

His root goal is laudable, but I think he's missing the mark, and has been for years. I don't think his virulent crusades end up helping end racism at all - they mostly just point out that it's there, and give it press coverage. Then someone wins money, or the media stops caring and we never find out the end result, or it's decided that something wasn't racially promoted, and then all of a sudden out pops Al Sharpton on the other side of the country, screaming bloody murder because another act of racism has occurred and no one's 'stood up' for those poor people's rights yet. Just seems a bit farcical to me. I don't do racism, but I don't see a need to fling racist situations in people's faces.

Unless it's me complaining that no one takes me seriously because I'm pale yellow. That's just funny.

Racism is ugly. It's pretty easy to ignore when it's not all around you but a guy I was pretty good friends with was seriously, and honestly afraid of black people. Not even like, jokingly, or just of those who might be crackheads (PG county lol) and potential muggers (downtown DC double lol), but of pretty much anyone who was black. He was a perfectly intelligent person otherwise, but he'd just been raised such that he was afraid of black folk. It was really ugly to see. The guy is a good friend, but really... uh, that's not a side of him I like to see.

Of course racism is ugly. Just doesn't mean that Al Sharpton has a viable position in the way he deals with it. *shrug*