[I]f she takes this path to (presumed) racial absolution, Black folks will think Pascal is not only a closeted racist but a shameless cynic to boot.
After all, we know all too well that this venal reverend would grant racial indulgences to the grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, in a minute, for an extortionate fee, er, contribution (to a slush fund operated by his notoriously indebted National Action Network). Pascal knows this all too well … too.
But only God knows why so many White folks think kissing Sharpton’s brass ring will wash away the stain of their racism in the eyes of all Black folks…
I don’t know anyone who thinks this race-baiting charlatan wields racial authority over even a few Blacks, the way the pope wields moral authority over more than one billion Catholics.
(“Sony Chairman Buying Racial Indulgences…?” The iPINIONS Journal, December 13, 2014)
The above was my cynical take on Sony Chairman Amy Pascal seeking absolution (or buying indulgence) from Reverend Al Sharpton. Guilt, to say nothing of embarrassment, compelled her to do so after hackers leaked e-mails of her engaging in racist banter with über producer Scott Rudin.
A surprising number of you thought I was being unfair to Sharpton. Not least because of the purported respectability he has earned as at-large adviser not only to the Mayor of New York City, but even to the president of the United States.
But here is how the more authoritative reporters at the New York Post affirmed my take:
Want to … not be labeled a racist?
Then you need to pay Al Sharpton.
For more than a decade, corporations have shelled out thousands of dollars in donations and consulting fees to Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN). What they get in return is the reverend’s supposed sway in the black community or, more often, his silence.
(New York Post, January 4, 2015)
In fact, I have been denouncing Sharpton as little more than a brazen shakedown con artist “for more than a decade” (i.e., when he was still fat):
It is with profound disappointment and disillusionment that I comment on yet another of the heirs to the leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. who has defiled his legacy.
The reprobate minister in this case is that portly, permed, and cantankerous Rev. Al Sharpton who has been caught on tape allegedly bartering his moral and political inheritance for a sack of cold hard cash! And, such was the righteousness of his greed that he could be heard demanding more as he stuffed his loot into every opening of his thousand-dollar zoot suit.
I can just imagine him laying down the law to targets of his corporate shakedowns as follows: Hey, nobody owns me! Now, if you want to buy a piece of me, have cash, let’s talk…
It seems that, when he’s not collecting charitable contributions as the court jester among candidates for President of the United States (as was the case here), Rev. Al is either being sued by one business or another for failing to pay his bills or performing on TV for his daily bread.
(“Rev. Al Sharpton Caught Selling His Soul … Again?” The iPINIONS Journal, April 13, 2005)
Frankly, sometimes I feel like Harry Markopolos.
You probably do not know/recall that he is the relatively obscure financial analyst who had been warning the SEC about the Madoff scheme for almost a decade. It took the 2008 financial crisis, which triggered “an avalanche” of withdrawals (reportedly over $7 billion worth), to finally stop Bernie….
I fear it will take a political crisis of some sort, which triggers a long-overdue day of reckoning for the Sharpton scheme, to finally stop Rev. Al….
Related commentaries:
Sony…
Sharpton…
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