There is something immoral and sick about using all of that power to not end brutality and poverty, but to break into people's bedrooms and claim that God sent you. It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being [relegated] into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners.QFT. Wish I had video.
« From the Verrazzano Bridge to the Golden Gate... | Main | The Last Chapter » When the boy is on, he's on15 Jan 2009 08:11 pm
Via Adam, here's Rev. Al rolling:
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No video! Rats! Sounds like his Christian Right vs. Right Christians stomp speech, which is always a good one. THEY said Al would become irrelevant in the Age of Obama. I guess THEY were wrong. I don't always agree with Al, and I've almost never liked his tactics, but he puts it to 'um on this one.
Fuck, yeah, Reverend!
The advantage of being Unelectable Sharpton is that he doesn't need to watch he says.
Can I get an Amen?
Sharpton on fiya! This is an issue where someone like Sharpton can have an increasingly positive issue, because it's one where he isn't expected to be out there.
He said this in 2006: "It's not a question of bringing the issue of the gay and lesbian community to the church. It's about having an open discussion because they're already there"
A-Fuckin-Men
I'm guessing this is one of those times the media won't be treating Sharpton as the Voice of Black America. Hell, Fox/CNN et al may even call him irrelevant -- if they bother to report it at all.
You left out the best part:
"I am tired," he went on, "of seeing ministers who will preach homophobia by day, and then after they're preaching, when the lights are off they go cruising for trade..."
Rev. Al using the phrase "cruising for trade" is pretty much made of win.
Darkrose: I know, right? I was waiting for him to tell his audience to stop "throwing shade" at their gay brothers and sisters. Rev. Big Worm held it down.
There must be a video somewhere.
I'm not a Rev. Al fan but this kind of thing can change my opinion real quick. Actually my opinion of him is not important, but what he just said IS important, and it's got resonance where it needs to. This is good stuff, let's hope there's more voices to be heard.
Damn. I feel a strange new respect for Rev. Al.
I have no use for Al Sharpton.
Two words: Tawana fucking Brawley
That being said even a broken clock is right twice a day and today Al was right.
The only way he can get me on his side would have been if that plane that went into the Hudson today was sinking with all aboard. Al seeing the plane in distress whipped out his super running suit, inflated it with his overabundance of hot air, and used it to keep the plane afloat till rescuers arrived.
Even then he would have to apologize for Tawana fucking Brawley and the lies he told about the cops and prosecutor. Then pay the civil judgment that was held against him.
I'm not holding my breath.
OOPs,
apparently the Sharpton judgment was paid by Sharpton supporters including the late Johnny Cochran.
He still needs to save a plane load of people.
For those of you who might be surprised that Rev. Sharpton said this, you shouldn't be. All these years the MSM have been portraying him as only a buffoon. Sometimes he can be over the top, but if you need someone to be consistent in his pronouncements on defending civil rights, he is the man. He says what needs to be said, whether on racial discrimination, police brutality, or homophobia, among other issues.
He may be good on civil rights issues, but I'm uncomfortable praising Sharpton as an anti-homophobia leader of any sort. Sullivan's blog this summer quoted him talking to Anderson Cooper on the air:
"I may think that what you do, Anderson, is gonna put you in Hell, but I'm gonna defend your right to get there,"
Defender of civil rights? Check. Spokesman against homophobia? We can find better.
(Here's Sullivan's link: http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/06/quote-for-th-39.html
Rev. Sharpton is obviously not a saint, but nonetheless he compares favorably to the corrupt snakes who run our country.
Sharpton gets huge points for focusing on justice when virtually no one else will. Not to mention his sheer brain power. The SCLM talking heads never stop asking him hostile and loaded questions, but they never trip him up or lay a glove on him.
It’s become pretty clear that Tawana Brawley lied, but it’s not apparent that the Rev knew she was lying, particularly at the outset.
Ms. Brawley’s supporters could not have known that she lied because she was mortally afraid of her stepfather. They came to her defense because her story evoked an unredressed American crime wave: centuries of rape of black women by white men, including the Founding Fathers.
Let's see Sullivan giving him credit... who am I kidding? He only wants black people to apologize to him for defeating prop 8 and thanking God he helped them elect Obama.
Sharpton's a demagogue and a rabble rouser. Ironically he's a better student of Saul Alinsky than Obama. That said, he's also smart, and what's fascinating is that he seems to have realized he can build a base beyond Harlem.
As a politician, it's clear that he paid a price for Tawana Brawley -- and justifiably so. But he's also interesting because he seems to have realized that he can pivot onto a bigger stage.
It has been said that Carol Moseley-Braun and Al Sharpton ran in 2004 to rebuild their reputations. Both were at least partially successful.
Wait, Anderson Cooper came out of the closet? I ask this in all seriousness.
I agree with Watson and TCinBklyn. Having met him and heard him speak in person, he is incredibly smart and charismatic. And he stands up for people who often have no voice.
Sure he's a media whore but no more so than any other public figure who craves exposure. If I was in a jam, I'd want Rev. Al riding for me, 7 days a week and twice on Sundays.
"I may think that what you do, Anderson, is gonna put you in Hell, but I'm gonna defend your right to get there,"
Defender of civil rights? Check. Spokesman against homophobia? We can find better.
I disagree. I think he's making a deft argument. As long as the question of gay rights can get sidetracked by the Question of Sin, large swaths of the country are gonna get stuck. What Sharpton is arguing here is that it does not matter whether you "approve" of homosexuality and it doesn't matter if you reallyreallybelieve that God's gonna get them in the end: in the here and now, gays are entitled to the same rights that all citizens enjoy -- employment, adoption, marriage and the right to live generally unharrassed lives.
In church settings, Sharpton has spoken against bigotry in the church and has called for gays and lesbians in the church to make their presence and views known (see http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/2006/01/21/sharpton_kicks). So I would argue that where it counts, Sharpton doesn't sound like a man who believes homosexuals are going to hell. But that is a separate conversation, for the church, and shouldn't have any bearing on the civil rights matter.
Persia, Anderson Cooper was never really in the closet, just the kind of gentleman who keeps his private life private, which is going to look like the closet in a country where politicians and public figures parade their wives and children around like credentials.
Al Sharpton has a pretty good track record of making insightful and cutting observations on issues of the day. This one isn't really so surprising. He has his faults of course.
See, that's why I voted for him in the primaries years back. Not that I expected anything would come of it, not that he's even close to what President Obama will bring to the table.But, simply put, he gets it; he's not afraid to tell you ANYTHING. Eradicating poverty has to be a frontline battle. Since Bobby Kennedy passed, as far as politicians have been concerned,the issue became relegated to old-time liberal nostalgia, which, of course, is absurd. Children come to school HUNGRY. Some are forced to not graduate because they are needed to work and help the family. Some children won the devil's lottery of parents and have nothing--no present, no future, no place to live nor family to fall back on. They don't remain children for very long, either. I applaud any and every politician or activist who addresses the issue.
Rev. Al, whatever his faults, isn't a fan of the Prosperity Gospel Hustle. I respect him for that.
Maybe there's something I'm missing, but why is Al Sharpton always at the scene of something that's going to get a lot of media attention? Could it be that's he's just a bit self-serving instead of being sincerely interested in helping? I remember being infuriated when he cut out on Tawana Brawley after she admitted she lied - but that girl needed help, just a different kind from what it first seemed. Why wasn't he interested any more when there wasn't a hate crime and Tawana wasn't getting any press? I had no respect for him then, and I haven't seen anything to change my mind since.
Amen, to Al Sharpton.
I live in Brooklyn and have met Al Sharpton. Many of the people here are speaking from a place of ignorance, they believe the caricature of Al Sharpton that is shown in the media. They do not know him and they do not know his dedication to civil rights.
Its funny how people claim that "oh...I agree with him this time" or "oh...he finally got something right". You have shown your ignorance or your ass (as I would say). He says things like this all of the time.
By the way,
I co-sign with Tiffany in Houston and AC in Brooklyn.
Adam a.k.a. DNA said this,
"When the man's good, he's good. One of the reasons no one has ever been able to marginalize Al Sharpton is that no matter how frustrated people around the country get, his political power base is regional, and it's located in New York. Harlem will always have his back, and he will always have theirs. It takes some courage not to take that for granted and to challenge people, knowing how many of them will disagree with you."
Thank You, people in NY know Al Sharpton and have respect for him.