I'm a liberal (though I admit I'm less of one than I was a few years ago) and I dislike Jesse Jackson especially post-Trayvon because I think he is a "race hustler" and also frankly I just don't feel he has a lot of intelligence. He has always struck me as a dim witted man. Sharpton is far, far stupider though. This is a problem I have with both of them.
It annoys me to see someone as palpably stupid as Al Sharpton having his own TV show, in much the same way that it annoyed me to see someone as palpably stupid as George W. Bush in the presidency. These sort of lofty positions of either political command, or media exposure should be reserved for the intelligent and educated so that that intelligence and education can inspire those without it who watch them.
Once you say oh you can be a total fucking idiot and still be president or a TV host, it undermines our society, it chips away at something very fundamental and important... respect for education and intelligence.
Now, I understand that white America holds blacks to a much lower standard in this regard, which is another thing I find repulsive. There's something very patronizing about whites looking at someone like Jesse Jackson and saying "oh look! that colored man can string a sentence together... kind of! he's the leader of the blacks! go, fetch him a crown! yes he'll do nicely!" it's insulting to blacks to not expect the same level of intellect and eloquence before someone would reach a position of such national prominence.
Now a lot of that I think is due to how long ago Jesse Jackson came on the scene, things have improved in that regard. Now someone like our president, who is LEAGUES smarter than Jesse Jackson, is a much better figurehead for blacks. To the degree that blacks even need to have figureheads... there's something inherently divisive and regressive about that very idea. It was an idea that made more sense 50 years ago than it does now, and hopefully once Jesse kicks the bucket, and Sharpton as well, there won't ever be any sort of replacement for them. It's not required anymore. It actually is COUNTER productive to black interests now.
Speaking of our president, when Jesse Jackson talked about wanting to cut Obama's nuts off, that made him lose many points with me. I happen to admire our president, even if my enthusiasm and fondness for him is a shadow of what it was in 2008.
Mind you, I'm not saying Jesse Jackson has never done anything positive. He helped free those ladies in North Korea or something didn't he?
There was a time when I sort of respected him by default because we were told to, you respect MLK, you respect Jesse Jackson, this was made very clear to white children when I was growing up. Upon further inspection, and actually looking at these individuals, and looking past the automatic unquestioned, mandated respect for them, it turned out MLK actually appeared to be worthy of it, though perhaps not ALL of it, and Jesse Jackson frankly did not. He is no fitting successor to MLK.
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