Dear Jesse, Thanks for the Ride. Here's Where You Get Off.

We got Barack, we got David Banners and Young Jeezys. "We're the voice now. It's no more Jesse. Sorry. Goodbye. You ain't helping nobody in the 'hood. That's the bottom line. Goodbye, Jesse. Bye!

- NAS, Rap Artist

Dear Jesse,

Well, I saw this coming. The official end of your relevance.

The same week that rapper Nas and your black conservative nemesis, Larry Elder, merge into intra-racial harmony on your irrelevance to the "black community." The train pulled into the "old coot" station, and you hopped on. Rev. Al, always viewed as a low rent version and copycat artist to your career, made hay with your new "relic" status by praising Obama's Father's Day comments and his commitment to the well being of the 'hood.

I could have told you of your coming nuclear self-implosion back in '91. There you were, on MTV with Luther Campbell, the Stone Age rap/porn entrepreneur and leader of Two Live Crew. You were right by his side, squeezing in for screen time as the semi-nude rump shakers bounced up the background to "Me So Horny." You proclaimed for the cameras you were "needed" at the outdoors strip show to support "first amendment rights, the right to free speech." Luther was another strong black man threatened with imprisonment for speaking truth-to-power.

Uh huh.

I racked my brain for years -- how could a man called by God could hang out with men who took glee and profit exploiting women? Black women. Yes Jesse, Jesus hung out with thieves, whores and murderers. But Jesus didn't have video hoes holding up the background, or an office issuing press releases on his up-to-the-minute comings and goings.

You had to move on from Chicago in '83. Our first black mayor, Harold Washington, wasn't Mr. Subtlety where you were concerned. Harold was "in", and you found yourself suddenly "out" -- like bell-bottoms. Harold made no place for you officially or otherwise in his administration. The local press took the hint, and when they wanted a black man's opinion, they'd head over to the Mayor's office. So you went "global", first putting the Reaganites on notice by heading to the Mid-East and securing the release of a black Navy pilot held by Syria. Then, you ran for president. You were the darling of the new progressive movement. You sat at the boardroom tables of Fortune 500 companies, forcing them to compensate your people (though I never received my check, thank you very much). You organized marches and marched along powerfully troubled men, including Ken Lay and Bill Clinton. You were a fixture at every cause celebrè, until you became The Cause Celebrè. For all the criticism and name-calling -- "poverty pimp," "race-baiter," "pulpit hustler" -- you pushed on, all of your agendas drum-tight. Personal flaws be damned, you seemed unstoppable -- at least by outside instigators.

But you cursed your good fortune, balled up your luck and threw it to the wind. Personal envy and professional greed left you with a nasty case of agita, and you gave up a legacy-ending burp on Fox News. You channeled a Sopranos episode. "Silvio, get the ball cutter!" I'm being pushed off the stage I built and I can't take it no more. Instead of Obama's, it was your nuts that you cut off. You even chipped in for the silver platter.

Now you've gone and relegated yourself to the civil rights kiddy table, alongside BET's Robert Johnson and Andrew Young, back-biting old men in search of that mythical cultural Viagra to make them as relevant with "our" people as they used to be.

The movement was never about the "leaders." You were one many doormen, the highest honor to be had. If the journey was/is to deliver our people to the promised land, there can be no stars. The Movement thrives if each of us opens a door to let the others in. Then we politely step aside to assume our place in history. The battleground is different, with no place for those already struck in past stone. There can be no deference to living monuments, Jesse.

Next time you find yourself at a beach party or legal defense fund dinner for some gangsta rapper, perhaps you should have reminded yourself of the words of your generation's rapper, James Brown. "Open the door, I'll walk through it myself." Thanks for the ride, Jesse. We'll get "there" from "here."

All the best,
Alice

Comments

[IslandGyal]

And of all places FAUX NEWS!

[wm1066]

Jesse is always so self rightous and angry, that didn't work and its not working now.
Obama can talk about the issues without being angry, and because of that people of all colors can trust him to get at the core problems. Jesse's anger only entrenched white people.
There was reason to be angry in the 60's but today its a different world.

[JennyJay]

Alice Singleton - you are a terrific writer, with outstanding insights, and the ability to make us all
see a clearer view. . . . Thanks for the article, it was GREAT!

[JennyJay]

"old coot station, and you hopped on" - - LOVED, loved this article, and so freaking RIGHT ON!
Those old goats never know when to let go and give up until it is forced on them - like now!
They just keep bumbling around, bumping into things, making fools of themselves until they
finally step into a hole - and Bam! . . . .Society forces them out to pasture out of necessity.

[Gogetter]

I think a lot of the youngsters who are so busy chewing up and trashing Jackson need to take heed to the fact that Obama, quite literally, might not be where he is if it hadn't been Jesse Jackson's 1984 and 1988 Presidential runs. This isn't some vague notion that Jackson paving the way for Obama. Jackson complained that in states that awarded delegates on a winner-take-all basis within each congressional district, he had been deprived of his due share of delegates. This resulted in the proportional awarding of delegates that Obama exploited to keep Clinton from running up big delegate totals off her wins in states like Pennsylvania. It's very possible that Clinton would've overtaken Obama in the delegate count if it weren't for those rules. The point is don't get so caught up in the caricature of Jackson, partly of his own making, that so many people reveling in right now. Also, you might want to consider the rescue of Lt. Robert Goodman when contemplating Jackson's legacy. He's the navy pilot whose release Jackson secured from the Syrian government after the Reagan Administration all but abandoned him.

[marignymitch]

If there's an open mic and a rolling camera the Rev Jackson will be there, preening. Meantime at least two generations of poor young black men are fatherless, under educated and without hope and many of them either are on drugs, in prison or premataurely dead. Great job, Jesse.

[Grissom1001]

The man has been an embarressment to people for years with his talk of God and his ability to speak for the black community and all the while fathering children out of wed lock and running his mouth whenever the spot light was on someone else. There was a reason that Dr. King ignored and avoided him.
He has now written his own legacy and he has to live with it. This is called a Karma debt Mr. Jackson....and it's been long over due.

[Jane]

When I saw this, I thought it was about Jesse Helms. I thought this might be about celebrating his death. I celebrate his death. Jesse Jackson has screwed up in some ways, I admit. And you're perfectly welcome to criticize him. But when can we break out the champagne for the death of the real sinner? THe things that are wrong with America were not caused by JJ, but they were caused by JH. The US is self-destructing, and it is because men like JH preached hatred and greed for as long as they lived. JJ tried his best, which you maybe think hasn't been very good. But I do think he meant well.

[Nommo]

Funny how quick we are to turn on our own. Either way, we are forced to continue to justify our existence. We are not responsible, we are not educated we are not moral, and all of this is a vexation of the souls of white folk.

Don't pretend that Jackson speaks for no one. It seems ok that the crimes and speech of whites is just fine. They can call for lynching, call us ugly names and somehow it is all ok. No one writes ugly and rather personal screeds denouncing them. Some how they always seem to find one thing that they can spin into good and that excuses the gaffe.

[larry278]

A few years ago it was news when Jessee Jackson, Sr had the courage to pray with Muslims. President Obama will have the courage to negotiate with Muslims; it may be news at 1st but it will become President Obama's every day policy.
Have a big, very cold glass of iced tea, Pastor, & rest. Jessee Jackson, Jr is doing a good job in the family business of hope. Sip your iced tea & smile. We white people like what you & Dr King did for our country. Thank you, now sit & rest easy; you earned your rest.

[GoodNews]

Absentee fathers were the focus of Obama's speech about the Black family. He asked the men to step up...take care of their own, assume the responsibility. I suppose that message hit a little too close to home for the good Reverand...according to Chicago sources, he has little or nothing to do with the children he fathered outside his marriage. How dare Obama call him out!

[Syco]

i was hating on jesse before it was cool