What's that? Who's Michael P Jeffries? Well, according to his bio, he's 'an assistant professor of American studies at Wellesley College. His book, Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop, is available for pre-order at major booksellers...'
Wow. Must put that on my Amazon want list!
So, he's an inveterate race hustler. He's also either got a curious grasp of grammar, or his sub-editor didn't do his job very well:
Glenn Beck has constitutional rights, including the right to free speech – which he exercises regularly. These exercises include calling the Barack Obama a racist.'The Barak Obama'..? Freudian slip?
That aside, little Mikey is upset at the thought of Beck holding a march to Washington to speak, on the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech:
King and his colleagues were social justice advocates who fiercely defended workers' rights, and worked to eliminate institutional racism and other forms of inequality and exploitation for the benefit of all Americans. Beck's stance on issues from military engagement to social justice bears no resemblance to King's.Does it have to? Is that how it works, then? Beck can never tread the same ground on a significant date unless he's mirroring the same reasons?
Impassioned responses to Beck's event, Dr Laura Schlessinger's recent N-word gaffe and offensive remarks about female supreme court justices are justified and necessary. But they must occur in the context of an unrelenting commitment both to change the institutions that provide platforms for such regrettable incidents, and to move away from soundbites towards a sustained discussion of racism and sexism in all its complexity.Somehow, I don't think those words mean what little Mikey fondly imagines they mean. A 'sustained discussion of racism and sexism in all its complexity' is the last thing he and his ilk want.
After all, if they were so certain of their righteousness, why would they be getting so worked up over the symbolism?