Many people living in contemporary American society don’t understand the concept of representation. At least not how it applies to minorities in society. Some might be familiar with the term being a spokesperson. For example, even though in my disclaimer (that you all most likely won’t read) I specifically state not to use me as a measuring stick for the rest of my race, there will be a few (loosely put) people who undoubtedly will. The main problem with being a spokesperson for your race, gender, orientation, etc. is that people will take what you say, how you act, and/or what you do as solid evidence to perpetuate stereotypes and unjustified social norms. This makes it very difficult for someone to be themselves when constantly under the threat of representing an entire type of people because of outside ignorance. However, I find a secondary problem with this concept to be even more disturbing. The secondary problem being that in the grand scheme of things, those being observed and measured do not have a say in who is their spokesperson. Only the media *coughviacomcough* has a say. And the media tends to pick the most bass ackward representation of a type of people they can find…as if they were purposely finding the biggest douchebag in the crayon box (which I’m fairly convinced that they are).
For example lesbians have people like Rosie O’Donnell (who I’m pretty sure ate Rosanne Barr) and the worst of them all Kathy Griffin (who I really truly despise, but apparently gay people love her…and she isn’t even gay!) Liberals have Michael Moore and his mustard stained flannel. Conservatives have Ann Coulter and her crazy man-throat that radiates evil. While those are all horrible spokespeople we (Blacks) still get the brunt of Santa’s douche sack (thanks White Jesus). We have random crazy Black witness on the news, random Black man mean mugging (disgruntled facial expression) in orange jumpsuit in the newspaper, Mr. Tellem aka Soulja Boy, and worst of all…the man I have dubbed as the Black Pope, Al Sharpton (I know that there are others that fit the bill like Jesse Jackson, but Sharpton is more my era).
These are just a few problems I have with Mr. Sharpton:
- Running for office in several occasions and getting blasted (loosing badly) is crap. Running a few times and losing is fine. If you have lost as many times as you have, then stop running. Running to ‘change the debate’ or ‘raise the issue of social justice’ aren’t justifiable excuses for making the actual mayoral, presidential, and senate bids of serious Blacks look like a joke. If you aren’t running to win, then why run. It’s like those independents that republicans fund to run just to steal votes from the democrats. They have no purpose being there. And neither do you.
- While it is true that scores of young Black men are unjustly profiled, assaulted, and arrested by police in various places across the world it was not the case when some teenagers in Florida were held in prison. Stemming from the Dunbar Village case Sharpton’s response was similar to (dramatization) “Yeah…kinda bad she got raped and beaten…but who cares, because the assailants were black and as we all know Black on Black crime is great!” as he sat in jail with them because they were treated unfairly because of the color of their skin. Eff that. I am super, mega, ultra against death penalties in any way shape or form. But for the crime that those young douchebags committed they should at very least be water-boarded, I wouldn’t care if they were purple and had the cure for the common cold.
- Being a fairly famous and well liked pontiff of our community then you should have supported Obama from day one. It is one thing to be a borderline conservative/republican (BTW Colin Powell supported him, and he’s conservative…and a former member of Bush’s cabinet) and wait and see what the verdict is on Obama. It is another to be scared of the power that Billary holds over the CBC and your future. You got politically punked into not supporting the first serious Black candidate…since…EVER. Maybe it was the fact that you failed during your run, or ye ole ‘Pope’ JJ failed miserably during his run. By not supporting Obama (for no good reason, when you claim to have nothing but the interests of the Black community at hand) you have proven that you suck…almost as much as Bob Johnson.
NOTE: Even though I supported Mike Huckabee back in January, if I had one iota of the power and swagger that ‘Pope’ Sharpton wields I would have bent over backwards to try my best to make sure BHO’s campaign was a success. The only good reason not to throw his political allegiance to him would be if Sharpton felt that he would have somehow hurt his campaign, which he wouldn’t because Black folk love Al.
As a person, I don’t mind him at all. I think he’d be a cool person to hang out with (if I was 53 years old). All of the frustration I have with him is MOSTLY because people see one of us behaving a certain way and they assume us to all behave that way. They believe us to be a homogenous group. WELL WE AREN’T YOU DOUCHEBAGS. DO WE LOOK LIKE MILK TO YOU?!
