Rethinking Al Sharpton

 

In the 1980s, Al Sharpton became known both nationally and internationally as a fiery advocate of black civil rights, although at times he was not so civil. He was particularly vociferous in the Howard Beach and Tawana Brawley campaigns.

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Al Sharpton was one of several black radicals who championed the case of Tawana Brawley, only to be left with egg on his face when a detailed investigation revealed it to be a colossal hoax.

The former was an ugly incident in which three innocent black men were attacked by a gang of whites. One of them was hit and killed by a car while trying to escape; this happened just before Christmas 1986. Although no one was killed, the Tawana Brawley case was even more controversial because it could not be dismissed as a spontaneous but ugly incident. Tawana Brawley was 15 years old when she was found disoriented and violated both physically and sexually. At least that was how it appeared, in reality she had fabricated this “hate crime” herself, ostensibly to avoid a beating from her wicked stepfather. (It doesn’t take an MRA to realise that whatever the outcome, a man will be cast as the villain).

To this day, there are those who refuse to face the facts about the Tawana Brawley hoax, but for those not blinded by the specious dogma of “rape culture” or the mantra of racism, a thoroughly documented exposé was published as long ago as October 1988.

Al Sharpton can be forgiven for being taken in by Tawana Brawley and then refusing to face the facts, but 19 years later he was on the wrong side of the fence again when the Duke Lacrosse rape case materialised. Again the accuser was black and the white guys were cast as the villains, and again virtually from the outset the claims were shown to be false. Indeed, the accuser’s dancing partner, who was also black, said the claim Crystal Gail Mangum had been raped was a “crock”. Mangum was later convicted of the second degree knife murder of her lover Reggie Daye and is currently behind bars.

Sharpton also attracted criticism for his involvement in the Trayvon Martin case; the Washington Post accused him of playing “several sides”.

On the face of things, Sharpton is still the fiery black radical he was portrayed as in the 1980s, although like most of us he has mellowed somewhat with age, but in April this year, some information was unearthed that should cause all of us – black and white – to view him in a entirely different perspective. This information is startling, according to an in-depth investigation by The Smoking Gun, Sharpton worked as an FBI informant. Naturally the man himself tells a slightly different tale, but just for once a government nobody in his right mind trusts might be telling the truth. How else can one explain Sharpton’s meteoric rise from race-hustler to TV host? While it is true that extremists – racial and otherwise – have a certain novelty value for the media, would Malcolm X have been offered his own TV show from one of these white racist networks, much less have the ear of the President

The reality is that Sharpton is not quite the radical he likes to make himself out to be, and a likely motive for his cultivation by the establishment was put forward by James Manning of the Atlah Worldwide Church. Black Americans are among the staunchest opponents of the organised homosexual movement, and many of their religious leaders, including Manning, have taken an uncompromising stand against such ideas as gay marriage, gay studies in schools (read indoctrinating schoolkids) and so on. Not so Sharpton, rather he has come out in support of so-called gay rights. Without delving into the nether regions of conspiriology, this does rather beg the question how genuine has the man been from the word go? In short, was Sharpton less black than a black op? As the anti-Nazi propagandist Sefton Delmer wrote, the simplest and best black operation is to spit in a man’s soup and cry “Heil Hitler!”. In other words, was Sharpton really not a radical at all, but was he being used to discredit those who were?

Next week, Sharpton will be in Alabama to open a chapter of his National Action Network. Although he is still talking tough on race and so-called civil rights, don’t be too surprised if in future he makes gay rights a central issue. And don’t expect him to speak out against the continued oppression of the Palestinian people, or the war on terror, nor indeed to buck the establishment on any issue in anything but a token way.

[The above article was published originally July 24, 2014.]

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