The Phony Protest--and Leaders
Lesson from Harvard: Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are frauds.
BY ALBERT R. HUNT
Saturday, January 12, 2002 12:01 a.m. EST
http://www.opinionjournal.com/wsj/?id=95001717
Led by government and enlightened, focused civil-rights leaders, African-Americans have made extraordinary progress. Forty years ago many couldn't vote, eat at public lunch counters, or earn a decent wage.
Problems do persist, however. Blacks make only 70% as much as whites; almost seven in 10 African-American babies are born to a single mother; and minorities are twice as likely to be without health insurance. The black unemployment rate last month was over 10%, double that of whites, and one-third of African-American teenagers looking for work are jobless.
So how are two of the most visible national black politicians, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, spending their time? Protesting against supposed slights to Harvard's Afro-American studies professors.
This shrill and silly conduct reinforces the political bankruptcy of these national black politicos. Jesse Jackson has made important contributions to politics and civil rights; now he looks like a headline-hunting ambulance chaser. Al Sharpton may be shrewd, but this performance, coupled with his past demagoguery, makes it impossible to treat his threatened 2004 presidential run seriously.
Mr. Hunt is executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal. His column appears in the Journal on Thursdays.