There is something both comical and tragic about Don Imus trotting over to Al Sharpton's radio program today to apologize, yet again, for some trash talk street culture remarks that if they had been made by any black person in America would have elicted a chuckle and then been quickly forgotten. A few decades from now when we are all chocolate and habloing in Amerirexian, when the Obamas are the rule, not the exception and the bottom-feeding race exploiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have exhausted their pools of fake outrage, this sort of thing will go away. And not a moment too soon.
For those of you too young to remember, let me tell you a story about real racism. Back in 1987, a 15-year-old black girl named Tawana Brawley disappeared and was found four days later covered in dog feces with racial slurs written on her body. She claimed that at least two and possibly six white men, one of them carrying a badge, had repeatedly raped her in the woods in upstate New York. She refused to meet with prosecutors and Sharpton and a couple of now disbarred radical lawyers named Alton Maddox and Vernon Mason took up her cause. According to the Associated Press, Sharpton and Brawley's lawyers asserted "on 33 separate occasions" that a local prosecutor named Steven Pagones "had kidnapped, abused and raped" Brawley.
There was absolutely no evidence to support this charge and a grand jury investigation concluded in late 1988 that Brawley "was not the victim of forcible sexual assault" and that the whole thing was a hoax. She had smeared herself with dog shit and written the racial epithets herself in an attempt to fool her hot-tempered stepfather about her whereabouts. Several witnesses testified that they had seen her at various parties during the time she was supposedly being held against her will.
Not to be outdone, Sharpton and Maddox and Mason accused then state Attorney General Robert Abrams of "masturbating" over Brawley's crime scene photographs. The whole Brawley affair was one of the ugliest episodes of race baiting of the last half-century and the whole thing was based on a lie that Al Sharpton must have recognized as such at the time.
Pagones' life was ruined and it took more than a decade for his defamation suit to come to trial. In 1998, a jury finally found Sharpton, Maddox and Mason liable for defaming Steven Pagones and ordered them to pay hefty fines.
To this day, Sharpton has never apologized to Pagones or anyone else for his part in this sordid business. There may be lots of people to whom Don Imus owes an apology. But Al Sharpton isn't one of them.
Full disclosure: I knew Don Imus pretty well back in the early 70s, hung out with him a lot, and once wrote an article about him. He is one of the most color blind people I've ever known. If he's a racist, I'm a martian.
Ramblin' Guys
Jerry Bowles
J.A. Barlett
Culture Warriors
Groom Lake
Blackdogred
Political Pundocrity
John McCreery
Josh Hammond
Michael Scott
Leftcoast
Krugies
We're Back!
Shrub, the Wedge
Uncommon Sense from the Right
Cry, My Beloved Country
Osama's Mission Accomplished
The Real Clash of Civilizations is Here
Blame Bush: Joe Scarborough Sees the Light
Bush Confesses to War Crimes
The Wildlife Strike Back - Adios, Mate
Thank You, Mr. Karr. Your 15 Minutes Are Up.
May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 April 2007
