Boy, Al Sharpton is something. It amazes me that there are any blacks left who pay attention to this asshole. He claims to speak for the black community, but what he does is speak to further his political career, period. And the way he does it makes about as much sense as Tom Cruise firing his sister, who was his acting public relations manager at the time, when she somehow failed in her duties by not stopping him from spouting off to the world about how wrong it was for Brooke Shields to take prescription drugs to counter suicidal feelings during the post-partum depression brought on by the birth of her child. In other words... Al Sharpton is clueless as to the world's interest in what he has to say. Like Tom Cruise and his absolute refusal to accept that others have the right to their own opinions and the ability to make life choices for themsleves causing him nothing but grief in the longrun, Al Sharpton steps up to the podium every chance he gets, stuffing his face in front of the hungry cameras of today's sensationalistic media, and calls whites racist simply to stir up the pot and give him reason to get in front of more cameras, and the result is that each time he does it he loses favor amongst both blacks and whites. He recently called for the firing of Don Imus for the (stupid, yes... racist, perhaps) remarks he made regarding the women's basketball team at Rutgers being a bunch of "nappy-headed ho's" (a quote from a Spike Lee movie, by the way...). Imus, (who I have never liked as a talk show personality, but feel has the right to speak his opinion as long as it's not inciting bodily harm on anyone) went on television with Sharpton and made a heartfelt apology for his remarks, to which Sharpton responded by shoving the knife in a bit further and continuing his campaign to get Imus fired. This is the same Don Imus who owns a ranch where he allows groups of children suffering the debilitating effects of cancer to go and be among others who are in their same state of physical disrepair so they can enjoy themselves without fear of judgement from others who are afraid it will somehow jump to their bodies if they get too close. Al Sharpton offers no one any such outstretched arms and warmth. It seems that an apology means nothing to Sharpton. And this makes sense if we look at Sharpton's own actions in the past. When he brought Tawana Brawley before the world and paraded her around as the poster child for white cruelty to blacks after she claimed she was raped by a group of white men, some of them policemen, in Wappingers Falls, New York in 1987, the world screamed out for revenge. The black community was understandably incensed at the outrageousness of the crime alleged. Many whites were as well, but Sharpton and those like him in the "race-card" game try not to pay attention to that. What followed was classic Sharpton; fist-pounding, name calling indignation at an entire race for the supposed actions of a few members. However, a grand jury was convened to study the evidence and determine whether there was enough to take the case to court and eventually found, through interviews with witnesses and doctor's examinations of Brawley immediately after her discovery in a garbage bag near an old residence, that Brawley had been seen at a party during the alleged abduction period, had been seen climbing into the garbage bag on her own, had not been reported missing by her mother until the day that Tawana was seen getting into the garbage bag... the same day that the mother, Glenda Brawley, was seen at the very same prior residence they had shared-the apartment complex where Brawley was later found. Along with this damning evidence was the discovery that all of "the items and instrumentalities necessary to create the condition in which Tawana Brawley appeared on Saturday, November 28, were present inside of or in the immediate vicinity of Apartment 19A." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tawana_Brawley). It was determined that the entire episode was a hoax, but not before the public put up $300,000 for a defense fund for the family. After Brawley and her mother disappeared to Viginia with the $300,000, in defiance of subpoenas issued by the grand jury (arrest warrants still linger there in hopes of their return), Al Sharpton never once apologized for his behavior in the case and was even sued by the prosecutor, Steven Pagones, for calling him a racist and a rapist and saying that he was involved in the rape. Pagones was awarded $345,000 in his suit against Sharpton and the others representing Brawley, and another $185,000 in the case he brought against Brawley herself, which was awarded when she defaulted by not appearing in court. All the time, Sharpton was in the foreground screaming racist at the white people. All the time, as the evidence mounted against Brawley, blacks were becoming more and more uncertain of Sharpton's actual motivations in the case. Sharpton was again in the news recently after stepping into the camera lights to support a black woman who claimed that three Duke lacrosse players sexually assaulted her (they were later found to be innocent of the crime). In another case of whites having been singled out by a black "victim" for alleged atrocities, only to find out that the "victim" was a liar, Sharpton was there in the background, soaking up the limelight and playing the race card and trying to further his political career and expand his visibility in the media. Even after the prosecutor in that case, Michael Nifong, withdrew from the case and was subsequently disbarred for fabricating evidence against the Duke players, Sharpton would not apologize to them for having spoken up against the players when saying "I'm sure the district attorney knows what he's doing". Whoopi Goldberg voiced her opinion that Sharpton should apologize on national television to which he responded that, since he had not taken any stand against them, he owed no one any apologies. Sharpton said, while speaking at Kean College in 1994, that “White folks was in caves while we was building empires ... We taught philosophy and astrology and mathematics before Socrates and them Greek homos ever got around to it.” Not only did he show blatant disrespect for an accepted part of society by using the word "homos", but he also showed the limits of his intelligence in his butchering of the english language. Ebonics was proved to be a backwards-thinking approach to what amounts to the problems that personal choice can cause... in this case the personal choice being to retain the linguistics of one's race in separatist fashion as a form of unity with that race. Speaking poorly does not make one a better person, no matter what race they are. There is no lofty regard given by society at large for the black person who says "axe" when he means "ask". It makes the person seem less intelligent than he may well be. When our idiot president says the word "nucular" when he means "nuclear", it makes you want to ask him how he spells it, knowing all the time that he's probably going to spell it "n-u-c-u-l-a-r"... and it's the same when an otherwise intelligent sounding black utters the word "axe" in place of "ask", you want to say "are you stupid or just lazy?". Bill Cosby has chided the black community for years for what he sees as the poor choices that many among them have made regarding parenthood, lifestyle and the lack of application of work ethic to achieve goals instead of coasting on governmental assistance (just as many whites and 'proud' native americans do) and whining about how their inability to climb the societal ladder is due to the oppression of the white man. That may have been true years ago, but those times have changed a great deal, and it serves no good purpose to have people like Al Sharpton fanning the flames of racism by making blacks think that they have not gained as much as they have in their search for equality. Women have made huge gains in equality as well. Have either become totally equal in today's society? Sadly, no. But times are changing, day by day. And someday maybe all men and women will be seen as equals. But it will take hard work by the people themselves, without the interruptions and misguidances of people like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson who, by pointing fingers at the white race and saying "it's all their fault that you cannot amount to anything" are simply giving those who are struggling through a tough existence an excuse to quit trying and sit back and join the fingerpointing. After all, it's easier. And it seems that Al Sharpton would rather victimize the people he claims to represent than actually help them out of their rut. He would rather give blacks a reason to give up than a reason to fight to better their surroundings. He would rather have a podium from which to spread his name and show his face than acuate real change in the black community. In my mind, that is real oppression! That is racism in it's rawest form. Subverting the betterment of an entire race for one's own political gain is immoral and should be a criminal offense.