Jesse Jackson's " Nutty" Comment

“I can just rip his _____ off". I know you've heard about the comments by now so you can fill in the blank. In fact on Anderson Cooper 360, the clip was played 4 times in one hour. Yes, everyone one agrees that his words chosen showed lack of taste.




However I feel that it is important to look past word usage, vulgar or not, and look at what Jesse Jackson was saying. Does Barack Obama indeed speak down to black people?

The issue stemmed from Barack Obama comments on Father's Day in African American church where he addressed the ever increasing problem of father abandonment within the African American community. Jesse Jackson believes that if Barack Obama addresses issues in the black community, then issues in the white community need to also be addressed, Latino community and so forth when he speaks to those groups. When addresses others why are African Americans given messages of condemnation when others are given a message of hope and change. Is this an unfair analysis of Obama?

Opponents of this view of Obama say that Jackson’s comments were made from pure jealousy. Though I do not know the motivation of Obama’s words it hard to deduce that from a two sentences made about Obama. However, these opponents do make a valid point regarding the speech made by Barack on father’s day. They ask: If Obama is not the right person to address the issue of single mothers due to father abandonment within the black community than who is? Why ignore an oozing sore? Everyone sees it and ignoring the problem will not make it go away.