On June 13, 1992, candidate Bill Clinton went before Jesse Jackson and the Rainbow Coalition and said:
"You had a rap singer here last night named Sister Souljah. ... Her comments before and after Los Angeles [meaning the riots] were filled with a kind of hatred that you do not honor today and tonight. Just listen to this, what she said: She told The Washington Post about a month ago, and I quote, 'If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? ... So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person?' ...
"If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech."
That encounter -- what journalists have dubbed "pulling a Sister Souljah" -- showed that Clinton was willing to stand up to one of his party's interest groups. It is the sort of moment that has conspicuously been missing this year as the Democratic candidates have moved from one conference to another (abortion rights advocates, blacks, gays) pledging their support.
We've been thinking about this in light of the public scolding that the head of the NAACP delivered this week to three Democratic no-shows -- sort of a reverse Sister Souljah. Kweisi Mfume said that Joe Lieberman, Dick Gephardt and Dennis Kucinich were now "persona non-grata" for not showing up at Monday's gathering. "Your political capital is the equivalent of Confederate dollars."
Which raises some intriguing questions. Is showing up at a convention and saying the right things more important than what kind of civil rights record a lawmaker has compiled over several decades? Lieberman, for example, marched with Martin Luther King in the '60s. Is that record now erased in the eyes of the NAACP because he blew off the meeting?
By what standard does the NAACP presume to speak for all black people? Aren't there people of color who disagree with the leadership on some issues? Mfume said the no-shows have no right to go seeking African-American votes in the community, so great was the disrespect they showed. Really?
And just on the realpolitik level, don't NAACP officials realize that it doesn't help any Democratic candidate to be seen as the captive of an interest group?
| The Washington Post's Howard Kurtz goes hunting "Pander Bears"
Also see: The Roc Magazine, "Sister Souljah Statement" and ABC News, "Clinton Takes on Key Groups: Unpopular Message Aimed at Showing Integrity"
posted in articles on July 18, 2003 12:31 AM | t (0)
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The little devil on my shoulder read one statement and thought: But does 'Marching with King in the 60s' give Lieberman a pass for the rest of his life? What, really, is his civil rights record and is that all that Black voters should be considering in the first place?
That little devil has a big mouth.
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