I wonder how many people actually checked the facts before they made their comments about Sharpton?

[Redbear]

Sharpton complains to FCC about rap music:

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2005-03-25-sharpton-rap-music_x.htm

Sharpton confab claims music-money apartheid:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0229,kelley,36569,5.html

http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2005-03-21-sharpton-music-stock_x.htm

Sharpton disses rap against women:

http://www.bet.com/Music/Archives/BET.com+-+Al+Sharpton+Disses+Rap+Against+Women+1081.htm

"To think that we have come down dangerous alleys, that we have traveled through the backwoods of terror, that we have survived beatings, been shot down in cold blood doesn't give you the right to call your mama a whore," Sharpton said during a dinner for executives from minority construction companies on Saturday.

" I had a discussion with a few rappers a while back, and I asked them why they use so much profanity and are so misogynistic in their music. 'Rev, we're like a mirror to society,' one of the rappers said. 'We are merely reflecting what we see, he wrote of his encounter. "'Well, I don't know about you, but I use a mirror to correct what's wrong with me,'" I told them. 'I don't look in the mirror to see my hair messed up and my teeth need brushing and just walk out of the house that way. I use the mirror to fix me.'"

[KittyWampus]

1. Thanks! Sharpton may make mistakes from time to time, but he's on the side of righteousness

He has the gift of a sharpened wit, had it since he was a child. Over time he's learned to use it for the greater good.

[Casper Alabaster]

5. Are you sure?

The Rev. Sharpton indeed has incisive wit, but how do you arrive at the fact that he's used it for the greater good? Did he help oppressed Jews or something?

[WinkyDink]

10. WTH??

[Connie_Corleone]

15. I don't think he was alive during WWII.

[Catherine Vincent]

2. Thank you!

Sharpton and others have always discussed and tried to do something about the lyrics in these rap songs. But there was too much money to be had. It had to take some white guy to bring it to the forefront to get attention.

[Redbear]

3. Exactly. Sharpton has been fighting violent, mysoginist rap for awhile

But nobody paid attention until now.

[Casper Alabaster]

4. Did you look at anything else?

Howzabout Crown Heights? Freddie's Fashion Mart?
It's been nice getting to know you!:hi:

[EST]

6. Based on the ill considered posts that have floated around

even on this bastion of liberal, intetlligent thought site, having no intrest in first finding out the truth is no barrier to forming strong, idiotic opinions.

It can't all be blamed on trolls. Careful, reasoned contemplation is helpless in the wash of the need to hate and get agreement for it.

[Grandrose]

7. Thank you...

Yes that's true, but what about Twana Brawley? :sarcasm:

Some people do not want to know the truth and be fair, I commend Rev. Al for his good works and determination, even under fire!!:kick:

[Connie_Corleone]

8. Look how fast this thread dropped with few comments.

Really says something.

[Saturday]

9. Nope, don't care....

in the same way no one cared about Imus' good works. Once someone does wrong they can never be forgiven. Go look it up, it's in the DU pledge.

[Connie_Corleone]

12. Forgiveness and good deeds have nothing to do with this thread.

People here have specifically asked how come Sharpton doesn't speak out against derogatory rap lyrics. The OP has given examples of Sharpton speaking out.

This has nothing to do with anyone forgiving Sharpton. That's not the issue.

[crispini]

13. The difference is that people think they're calling out Sharpton for his inconsistency

when in fact he's always been consistent on this issue.

And it's not black and white, you know, it's certainly possible for Imus to do good deeds AND to be a racist jerk. The two are not mutually exclusive.

[crispini]

11. K&R

[bonito]

14. Its easer to jump on the wagon with the crowd

and feel excepted, free thinking is rarer and might bring isolation, I'll take a moment alone in the truth than a lifetime without it.

[spooky3]

16. The ad hominem attacks on him here have disgusted me.

The merits of what he is saying in the present case stand on their own. Whether someone likes him or not, or approves of other behavior of his, has nothing to do with whether he is correct about the Rutgers case.

And, it is good to have your links to show yet another reason to object to these attacks, i.e., at least some criticism of his behavior is without basis, as he said when asked by journalists.

[KittyWampus]

17. some of the comments remind of Jiacinto, a troll who used to go off on Sharpton

[spooky3]

19. agreed

[ComerPerro]

21. fuck, that was a long time ago

[Virginia Dare]

18. The tiresome divide and conquer meme that the media has been reinforcing:

this is a hypocritical attack on all white men. It makes me sick.

Of course Al Sharpton has come out against offensive rap lyrics, many times.

[Karenina]

20. Very few.

The Imus flack is not about Sharpton or rappers or the definition of "nappy." It's about civil discourse in America. It's about democracy. Imus' straw did two things: it triggered the tipping point for a discussion that America has long needed (I am intrigued by another DUer's speculations on the sports angle) AND it removed a very tiny thorn in the BFEE's side. What a 2fer and how ironic!

Hate radio is ubiquitous on Americans' airwaves. Too few understand what happened in Rwanda. Too few realize the IV bag filled with poison that has been injected into the body politic. Too few really understand how money and power work. And too many are ADDICTED to their "isms."

*dimson and the MIC, Limbaugh, Coulter, Savage, Beck and all the rest are manifestations, symptoms of the disease that is wracking and destroying the "enlightened" experiment. America is in DENIAL and DYING.

[butterfly77]

22. It doesn't matter because...

they hate Jesse and Al anyway. They want to make the issue about them when in reality the black journalists were the first to bring up this issue. The MSM runs to Jesse and AL and portrays them as the spokesmen for the black people. Something needs to be done about the lyrics in the songs also.