Media whore??

When I was a young man growing up, my mother always taught me to be proud of who I am and where I came from. I was also taught not only to embrace my culture and heritage, but to learn and embrace the cultures of others, making me a more diverse and affluent individual. One person my mother would always bring up as an excellent example of this kind of individual was Jesse Jackson. Now granted, she also was a great admirer of Martin Luther King, Jr and was actually at the march on Washington in 1963. As well all know, King was gunned down in his prime, before he could finish the work he was put on this earth to do. So, with King gone, she took a notice of Jesse Jackson and constantly told me what a great man he was and what great work lies ahead for him. This was an exciting time, to see someone like me on television, debating , representing himself as a proud black man. But, as I became older, I started to notice that it seemed to me that he began to change...yes, he was still one of our most valued leaders in taking up the black cause, but to me it seemed like it was more for him than us.

Jump forward to today and the reason I am writing this post. I happened to be on YouTube as always, looking for something and came across some Jackson press conferences and speeches. It seems that Jesse has become a media whore. What makes this so unsetteling to me is that he has become a media whore ONLY when it is something that is major and will get him some serious tv time. Let's look at a couple of recent examples:


1) The shock jock Don Imus had made a comment about a women's basketball team. Calling them "nappy headed hos" while on the air. Now, when I first heard this, yea it wasn't in good taste, but he is a shock jock, duh. Jesse took it upon himself to not only call for the firing of Don Imus, but began picketing outside the studio were he did his show and going on every televison and news program that would have him on. Did Imus deserved to be fired? Not my call, that was up to his bosses, but I think Jesse made the situation much bigger than it needed to be. There is a columnist for the Kansas City Star named Jason Whitlock, who also happens to be black and totally agrees with what I am saying here. He said it best by saying the Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are a couple of opportunists. Look at this clip:



2)The second situation that he put himself in was the Michael Richards issue. Mr. Richards used the "N" word while at a comedy club in Los Angeles. I am in agreement with everyone who says that the "N" word should not be used by anyone, not even black people. But yet, here comes Jesse with his super cape..jumping on the bandwagon, protesting Richards, the release of a Seinfeld season dvd set. Here is a clip of Richards on Jesse's radio show:



All I am saying is that if you are going to call yourself a leader and represent the common black man, white man, yellow man, make sure you are doing it for the RIGHT reasons and not for personal gain. What has his Rainbow Push Coalition actually done? What the hell does Jesse do for a living? Can anyone tell me???