(ThyBlackMan.com) Every time I turned on the television to get an update on the George Floyd murder case, the very first thing I saw was Al Sharpton at the podium playing master of Ceremonies. It made me want to throw up. What’s up with that guy? What makes him think that we always want to hear his mouth every time we turn on the television set?
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Sharpton never fails to turn the most sober occasion into a three-ring circus. That’s his thing. He’s a hearse chaser who never had a real job. He’ll preach, he’ll snitch for the FBI, or he’ll chase hearses. He’ll do anything not to have to hit a clock, and that’s been his MO all his life. But now he’s got the ultimate hustle – Black Man in Chief for MSNBC. He now has a symbiotic hustle – he’s got a valuable source of revenue, a legitimate standing in the White establishment, and a standing expense account and travel voucher to every site of Black abuse in the country. In return, MSNBC gets the inside track on all murders and abuse of Black people all over the country.
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So Sharpton’s got it real sweet these days. Sharpton’s primary reason for existence has always been to turn any gathering of Black people demanding justice into the Al Sharpton show, and now he’s being paid by MSNBC to bring them front row center. But with Sharpton the network crosses the line. They’re allowing themselves to become a part of the story, because Sharpton is creating the news, and that’s unethical. So, Sharpton is clearly an unethical egomaniac, and the Black community can no longer afford such people.
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Sharpton is one of those people who has built his entire life on benefiting from the pain and suffering of Black people, and it’s sick. It was also sickening to watch him introduce his fellow vultures, and having to endure their endless speeches. A man was murdered, so watching Sharpton and Crump giving speeches and slapping one another on the back was disgusting – and worse, the dedicated attorneys who actually won the convictions against Chauvin were relegated to the background. They’re the ones we wanted to hear from, not Sharpton or Crump. So once again, he was corrupting the news. It was a disgusting spectacle to watch.
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Now, I’m sure Sharpton would say that he was merely supporting the Floyd family. But what does constantly grinnin’ into the cameras have to do with supporting the family? What he was actually doing was taking advantage of the family’s pain to promote his own interests. The vast majority of people who were there were there to support the family, but not one of them ever stepped before a camera once. They were content to simply remain a part of the crowd. But not Sharpton. The media couldn’t turn on a camera within a hundred yards of him without him pushing himself to the front of the crowd and giving a speech. So Sharpton’s behavior had absolutely nothing to do with the Floyd family. It was all about Al Sharpton wallowing in his need for celebrity and attention.
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Glory-seeking people like Sharpton do Black people a disservice, because they’re so sickening they turn potential supporters off. So they prevent Black people from getting the kind of support that we could be getting from the overall public. When people think of Civil Rights, they generally have an image of some Black person in their mind, and if they don’t like the image they visualize, they tend to turn their backs on the cause. Well, Al Sharpton has made himself one of the primary images that people think of when they think of Civil Rights. When many are voting in jury rooms to determine whether or not Black lives matter, they think of Sharpton, and that’s bad news. Think about it. What are the chances you would support the cause of a person who brought Donald Trump to your mind?
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When a rogue cop goes before a jury for killing a Black man, the jury is supposed to follow the evidence. But people being people, they take many other things into account, including their attitude towards the victim and the cop involved. But since the victim is deceased, they often replace him with the highest profile symbol of Black manhood that they can think of, and in far too many cases, that symbol of Black manhood is Al Sharpton. So if those people don’t like Sharpton, or see him as a self-serving clown, it diminishes the value of the victim in many peoples’ minds. So it makes them far less prone to punish the rogue cop for taking the victim out. Many people will take one look at Sharpton and say, “Yeah, I see why so many Black people need to be shot.” The only reason that didn’t happen in the Chauvin case was the evidence was so glaring.
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Research done by Bowling Green State University indicates that “Since the beginning of 2005 (through June 24, 2019), there have been 104 nonfederal sworn law enforcement officers with the general powers of arrest (e.g., police officers, deputy sheriffs, state troopers, etc.) who have been arrested for murder or manslaughter resulting from an on-duty shooting where the officer shot and killed someone at incidents throughout the United States. Of those 104 officers, to date only 35 have been convicted of a crime resulting from the on-duty shooting (15 by guilty plea, 20 by jury trial, and none convicted by a bench trial).”
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So it makes me want a scream every time I turn on the news and see Sharpton giving yet another one of his lame and mindless-ass speeches. Personally, I don’t want to be symbolized by Al Sharpton in the eyes of the American people. So why can’t this guy just stay in the background and keep his damn mouth shut like everybody else? Why can’t he just come and give the family moral support and leave it at that? I’ll tell you why – because that would defeat his self-promoting purpose. And beyond that, Sharpton is so arrogantly full of himself that he thinks the people EXPECT to hear from him. He thought he was doing the Floyd family a favor by appearing on their behalf. Well, I don’t, and it’s past time for the Black community to tell him they feel the same. I want him to just shut up, unless he has a specific reason to speak.
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Sharpton’s appearances on camera are not only a complete waste of time, but counterproductive. He doesn’t give a damn about the reasons for most demonstrations, all he cares about is looking good for the cameras. Sharpton’s one and only specialty is preaching into cameras. He never gives trying to find ways of preventing crimes against Black people a second thought. That’s far too close to real work, and there’s no glory in it. So the fact is, if true justice ever came to the Black community, it would be Sharpton’s worst nightmare, because it would mean no more cameras, and thus, the end of his career.
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Now, I know I’m being hard on Sharpton and his ilk, but thanks to Trump, the nation’s bigots are going crazy. So it’s time for the Black community to stop putting up with the Sharptons in the community and get serious.
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There’s plenty of evidence to prove that these attention-seeking egomaniacs are all about themselves. When Barack Obama first appeared on the scene and began to get national attention as the potential first Black President, people like Sharpton didn’t celebrate the arrival of a new day in America, on the contrary, Tavis Smiley all but demanded that Obama come on his show to get his approval to run. Smiley thought he owned the Black community, so Barack Obama had to come kiss his ring to get permission to run for President. Listen to Cornel West in the video below. He’s talking like Obama had an obligation to come on Tavis’ show.
Then later, as Obama began to become even more popular, Jesse Jackson was overheard on a hot mike saying he’d “like to cut his [Obama’s] balls off.” Then after Obama actually won the Presidency, Jesse was in the audience with tears in his eyes, and they weren’t tears of joy. And Tavis Smiley and Cornel West went absolutely berserk with jealousy, and they made it their mission in life to try to tear Obama down at all costs. Tavis and West bad-mouthed Obama worse than the conservative bigots. Yet, they became quiet as church mice when Donald Trump came into office? After all the hell they raised over Barack Obama – even chartering a bus to go all over the country bad-mouthing him – when Trump came into office, all we heard from them were crickets. So the Black community has got to get rid of these kind of self-serving egomaniacs. They hinder Black progress with their internal feuds and division.
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We don’t need any more professional screamers running out to take center-stage every time there’s a tragedy in the Black community – they’re just self-serving distractions. We need real civil rights workers who are thoughtful and sincere, and who are willing to work within the community to organize and educate the people when the cameras are off. We need people who are willing to fight for the community when the media’s not paying attention and there’s no glory to be had. I’ve urged Najee Ali to be such a person – the kind of person that our great grandchildren will be honoring a hundred years from now.
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That’s what the Black community needs, people who are real, and who’s thoughts are focused on the best interest of the people, not trying to become a superstar. We need people we can truly respect, and the rest of the nation can espect as well; peoplewho we’re proud to tand firm with, not people who make us want to hold our nose. The Black community needs people who are willing to shun the cameras to work the crowd and bring knowledge, wisdom, and unity to the people. We need true dedication and sincerity, not hustlers.
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So let us stop allowing ourselves to be hustled. We don’t need one voice speaking for millions, we need millions speaking with one voice.
Staff Writer; Eric L. Wattree