The image of US civil rights leader Rev
Jesse Jackson slicing his hand as he whispered of wanting to castrate
Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has repeatedly played out on
millions of TV and computer screens, dpa
reported.
When the furore eventually subsides, the crude gaffe might feature as
little more than an inconvenient aside among larger and more substantive issues
in the US presidential election. But it also laid bare some very fine fault
lines and a deeper, generational shift among the country's black leadership.
I want to cut his nuts off," Jackson said of Obama, during a break in a TV
interview when he presumed his microphone was off. He told his fellow
interviewee that Obama talked down to black people.
Jackson was critical of Obama's support for faith-based charities operating
with government funding - a pet project of President George W Bush, who created
a new office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives on entering the White
House. Obama said earlier this month that non-profit, faith-based and secular
groups alike were needed to tackle poverty in the US.
With two public apologies, Jackson has tried hard to minimise any damage:
"For any harm or hurt that this hot mic conversation may have caused, I
apologise. My support for Senator Obama's campaign is wide, deep and
unequivocal. I cherish this redemptive and historical moment."
The damage, of course, would really be to Jackson himself, and his credibility.
As for Obama, Jackson might just have helped him emerge different and distinct
from more old-style black politicians bred on decades of hard-fought struggles
for civil rights.
The blogosphere continues to buzz with conspiracy theories was it a set up,
or an accidental-on-purpose slip of the tongue?" These comments seem
undermined by Jackson's both humble and mortified apologies, and the fact that
his harshest, most outspoken critic has been his son. Surely no father would
endure that, even for publicity.
I'm deeply outraged and disappointed in Reverend Jackson's reckless statements
about Senator Barack Obama. His divisive and demeaning comments about the
presumptive Democratic nominee and, I believe, the next president of the
United States contradict his inspiring and courageous career," his son,
Rep Jesse Jackson Jr, national co-chairman for Obama's campaign, said in a
statement.
Using a favourite slogan of his father, who bid twice for the Democratic
presidential nomination in the 1980s, the son said Jackson should "keep
hope alive" and keep personal attacks and insults to himself, again
highlighting the differences between the generations.
Obama's response was neutral, quite stoic. Interestingly, the Democratic
campaign let Jackson's son do the sharp talking. Obama seemed to have
extricated himself from the controversy, showing he didn't want to get into a
long drawn-out war of words, and that he would rather focus on the real issues
of the campaign.
But is Obama neglecting to read between the lines? Many black voters and
political activists, who may not be as garrulous as Jackson, while supporting
Obama are also concerned about his gradual shift to the centre a position he
must be in to garner votes from white voters.
Jackson is believed to be unpopular with white and moderate voters, and the
current controversy gives Obama an opportunity to define a safe distance.
Obama needs the black vote, but that's not the only constituency he's playing
to. In a Father's Day speech last month he criticised absentee black fathers
for shirking their responsibilities toward their children.
Jackson told CNN that Obama's message to black voters must serve as more than a
moral challenge," adding the community faced serious issues such as
spiraling unemployment, lack of education, and crime.
One of Obama's key supporters, civil rights activist Al Sharpton, disagreed
with Jackson's complaint that Obama talks "down to black people."
"The civil rights movement of the 21st century must be government accountability
and personal responsibility," the Washington Post quoted Sharpton as
saying.
We must be very clear that Senator Obama ... is running for president for all
Americans, not just African Americans which is why most Americans have
embraced his campaign," Sharpton told CNN.
Jackson's leadership role in the civil rights movement, when he marched with
Martin Luther King Jr, ironically paved the path for someone like Obama, who
would be the country's first non-white president if he wins November elections.
Jackson's castration comment appeared to vent his own frustration with seeing
some of the liberal ideology of the movement lost in Obama, who has not
hesitated to criticize blacks for disenfranchising themselves by not voting,
chastise rappers for their language and prick the conscience of black fathers.
Rightly or wrongly, some black progressives are deeply suspicious of the change
in white America that has led to Obamas position. Specifically that white
people dont just want political change, they want a change in the racial
dynamic," wrote blogger Eric Easter on EbonyJet.com, a black-oriented
magazine.
And hearing about black problems does not fit into their idea of this new
America that will be created when Obama becomes president. There are equal
parts of truth, paranoia and resistance to change in that suspicion. Thats one
of the reasons Jackson said what he did."
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