Jesse Jackson? Seriously?

Jesse Jackson complains about the plight of black people all the time. Why? Has he ever done anything to alleviate the situation? I don't mean "he started the Rainbow Coalition." That's a rotten answer because the Rainbow Coalition has never done anything more important than to teach preschoolers to recite the mantra, "I'm black and I'm beautiful." Well, that's nice, black IS beautiful but being black doesn't make you beautiful, and teaching kids that they're beautiful no matter what they do is the kind of moral teaching that resulted in so many of them going to jail in the first place. Then once "too many" of them were in jail, more race-baiting from Jackson convinced the majority of an entire population that dark-skinned people were only in jail because of the color of their skin, not because what they did to other people--the majority of them black--was heinous and evil.

Obviously I have no love for Jackson. I think what he has done at various times in his life is unforgivable. Giving himself a degree in theology, with less than a semester in credits, founding his own church and then ordaining himself "Reverend" and asking to be called by that title are unforgivable. Arrogating to himself the right to attack the society who has given him so much is unforgivable. Worst, though, and most unforgivable is the way he has sought to make 80% of 12% of the population angry at outside influences and blaming them (whites) for everything that is lacking among his group (blacks).

Americans were shocked and stunned at the assassinations in 1968 but we were ready to come together and work together. Jackson was determined that we must not. I was more profitable to sew more and more division among us than we had ever seen before. He's a parasite that feeds off misery and distrust. I believe the author of Shakedown (which book I haven't read, though it's on my reading list) explains what Jackson did after the death of Dr. King and how it affected interracial harmony for decades afterward. It still is affecting our relations, and we will only begin to heal after Jackson shuts up and allows us to begin to trust one another without his fomenting more hatred from which he can continue to profit.

I hope that day is soon.