Jesse Jackson gaffe exposes black rift

Jesse Jackson’s controversial comments about Barack Obama’s attitude towards African Americans have started a debate. Did Jackson have a point when he suggested that Obama was patronising black Americans, or was it simply the redundant opinion of a spokesman for a bygone era?

Jackson made the remarks on the Fox and Friends morning chat show once the programme had gone off-air. Not realising that the microphone was still on, he whispered to another guest: "See, Barack's been talking down to black people," before adding: "I want to cut his nuts out".

Patrick Healy in the New York Times believes Jackson’s comments may actually help Obama. “The Jackson problem,” says Healy, can actually help “with white voters who have questions about whether Mr Obama shares their values, and with black voters who see Mr Jackson as a figure of the past.”

“The idea that black voters might sour on Mr Obama, the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas, simply because Mr. Jackson criticised him [is] laughable.”

Healy also makes the point that while Obama is currently trying to move to the centreground - away from being perceived as the candidate of the left - Jackson’s criticisms could help with this too. “If Mr Obama’s goal is to show independence from interest groups and ideological orthodoxies, Mr Jackson, some say, may just have helped him.”

Eric Easter, a senior writer for Johnson Publishing (a publisher of black-interest magazines in the US), says that Jackson was airing a legitimate grievance. Easter writes: “No one realistically expects that the first black man with a real shot at President of the United States was going to be the reincarnation of Stokely Carmichael… [but] some highly visible supporters are worried that Obama’s move to the centre is a move away from urban issues and the community suffering from those issues.”

Specifically, black people are fed up with being patronised, says Easter. “Some black progressives are deeply suspicious of the change in white America that has led to Obama’s position… Hearing about black problems does not fit into their idea of this new America that will be created when Obama becomes president. There are equal parts of truth, paranoia and resistance to change in that suspicion. That’s one of the reasons Jackson said what he did.”

Frank Schaeffer on the Huffington Post believes that Obama shouldn’t lose any sleep over the incident: “With enemies like these Obama doesn't need friends… Nothing will calm America's fears about voting for him more than the fact that the national village idiots are lining up to attack him.” The cause of Jackson’s remarks according to Schaeffer? “Jealousy”.

FIRST POSTED JULY 11, 2008