Why Jesse Wants Obama's...

Jesse Jackson’s utterance while anchored to a mic, on Fox News of all places, belies a deeper jealousy that might be held by civil rights icons and Jackson, the self-appointed leader of black Americans.

The stone in Jackson’s shoe (so he says, but more on that later) is that he doesn’t like the way Barack Obama has been “talking down” to black people. Obama gave a speech on Father’s Day calling for black men to assume responsibility for their children and to actively participate in the upbringing of their offspring. I haven’t figured out what’s so condescending about such a request since it’s a known fact that women head many black households and a father being absent is the norm, not the exception. Obama, similar to Bill Cosby has said what most people think and are too afraid to say for fear of being called racist or accused of dumping on their own kind as Cosby and Obama have.

My take on Jackson’s latest “slip” of the tongue has nothing to do with Obama and more to do with the old guard of the civil rights movement. The world has changed, not as much as some would like, but it has changed. This shift in attitudes by those who now benefit from the struggles and noble efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Julian Bond, Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and others has made it easier for many in the black community to move ahead. The actions of these pioneers paved the way for the younger generation of African Americans to walk a path with fewer potholes. The problem: Those who have helped clear the path still want homage paid to them for good works accomplished through their struggles. Instead of basking in the glow of watching an offspring achieve extraordinary success resulting from “parental” sacrifice, many civil rights leaders appear to simmer in resentment. That simmering resentment yields the most unsavory of stews and once served it leaves a really bad taste in the mouth with no chaser.

Jackson’s unintended “public” outburst is probably the deep recognition that his sphere of influence has or is about to be eclipsed; in a word ego. The real stone in the shoe for Jackson is that Obama appears to argue that we all need to give a little to get a little and there’s no more free lunch. Obama won’t blindly promote “entitlements” or espouse the “failures” of government to provide for the black community that has helped perpetuate an “us vs. them” mentality. That’s why Jesse Jackson wants to cut Obama’s...
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