Jesse Jackson: "The good news is that it's behind us now. We’ve gone on to the next stage."

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Jesse Jackson Speaks On Obama, Race, and the N-word

Civil rights activist addresses his controversial off-air remarks about the senator and explains why he’s still relevant

By Cynthia Gordy and Tatsha Robertson

More than a month has passed since the Reverend Jesse Jackson uttered remarks about Senator Barack Obama “talking down to Black people” and “telling n—s how to behave.” The comments, picked up by a microphone during a break for a Fox News interview, prompted critics to dismiss the civil rights activist and two-time U.S. presidential candidate as a relic from the past. In a candid conversation with ESSENCE editors Tatsha Robertson and Cynthia Gordy, Jackson responds to the backlash and explains why he thinks he’s just as relevant as ever.



ESSENCE.COM: We’ve seen you champion African-American issues and fight against injustice. Many people simply want to know, when you mentioned the N-word in your off-air remarks about Obama last month—why? They want you to tell them, as an African-American, why did that happen?

JACKSON: It should not have happened. What was private talk became public controversy, and I am embarrassed by that. There is no virtue in that kind of talk, and it should always be discouraged. My appeal even then was that responsibility is a significant message, but our needs require real government intervention and private sector incentives to address the issues of unemployment, building affordable housing and making education more affordable, which really was my point. It was a very painful period for me to have gone through that. The good news is that it’s behind us now.

ESSENCE.COM: Have you talked to Obama about it?

JACKSON: Yes. As a matter of fact, he sent me a welcome to the convention and made credentials available to me. We’ve gone on to the next stage.

http://www.essence.com/essence/lifestyle/voices/0,16109,1832452,00.html

[grannie4peace]

1. i don't like jesse jackson at all

[Alexander]

3. Me either, ever since I learned about his anti-Semitic comments.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. He's a fucking bigot and he is not my hero

I understand the need for role models and leaders.

Jackson is neither.

:patriot:

[BklynChick]

2. so interesting that Obama reached out to him when Jackson should have been kissing his ass.

[cloudbase]

5. If a person has to explain why they're still relevant,

well, you know the rest.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

8. Shakespeare 101:

"The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

:toast:

[jeff30997]

6. Jesse is a hero!!!

Jesse Owens that is.


The "Superior Race" specimen behind him looks really pissed off.:toast:

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. Jesse Owens? Hero. Jesse Jackson? He can bite me.

:patriot:

[jeff30997]

9. Lol!

Yep,I totally agree.:)

[qwlauren35]

10. Obama knows his constituencies!

Black democrats who are Jesse Jackson's age and older are not going to want to hear a "has been" message about Jackson - to many, he IS a hero.

Every once in a while, it seems as though the folks in here don't value the black vote AT ALL.

Personally, I'm no fan of Jesse Jackson, but a lot of us still are.

Obama believes in olive branches for party icons. Jackson is one of them... Clinton is another.

Remember - he's a UNITER. In order to fight the Republican party, he needs all the different "special interests" (oops! Constituencies) on board.

[McCamy Taylor]

11. Jesse Jackson is a civil rights hero from a time when it was a dangerous thing to be.

You people who are saying you do not "like him" the same way you would say you do not "like" Brittney Spears should go live in a barrio in Texas with no running water or electricity even though the town nearby has both or one of our reservations for Native Americans which as worse than Soviet Gulags. Jackson, like MLK Jr., is treated as an enemy of the state, because he understands that the real issue is poverty, not race, and it unites people of all colors. He made a strong finish in 1988, after the excesses of the Reagan years, because he appealed to the economic victims of the Reaganomics.

When I see trash talking like this at DU about someone like Jackson, it really makes me worry about the people posting here, and about the people who claim to be Obama supporters. So called Obama supporters are responsible for the rift between Obama and Jackson. When Bill Clinton made his infamous Jesse Jackson comment, here is what should have happened. The press should have made a big, inappropriate fuss over it, because they love to attack the Clintons. Obama himself should have come out in public and said that he considered the remark a compliment, since Jesse Jackson is a great Democrat and champion of the oppressed. Obama's supporters should have stood behind all the Democrats especially Jesse Jackson in the face of the MSM attacks. But instead, Obama supporters allowed themselves to be divided by the press. They acted offended. Oh no! they exclaimed. Our Obama is not like Jesse Jackson. How dare the evil Bill Clinton suggest such a thing?

Which made a lot of folks who were old enough to remember all the great things that Jackson had done think to themselves These damn presumptuous Obama people! Are they claiming that their candidate's shit doesn't stink? Is this an issue of light skinned Black versus dark skinned Black? Safe African-American versus scary African-American?

The way that Obama supporters treated the Jesse Jackson remark caused them to fall in the estimation of many on the left. The way that they treated Rev. Wright made them fall even farther. And then when I read comments like the ones above, I shake my head and wonder if DU has really become the kind of place where Jesse Jackson and his supporters are no longer welcome.

[jbane]

12. Welcome to Jesse Jacksonland, where it's

allways 1965 and every situation is caused by whitey and can be solved with a
boycot of somekind.

[vaberella]

13. JJ is a fool and will always be one with way too many entitlement issues.

Moving on to the "next stage"...please!! Then Bill-O will probbably release more damaging info or someone will.