In Response To Al Sharpton’s Comments

Al Sharpton weighed in on the senseless killing of Australian baseball player Chris Lane. He said there’s no reason for conservatives to be up in arms over the slaying, because “the system worked.” And besides, there’s nothing to protest since the killing obviously wasn’t racially motivated: “That doesn’t stop my friends over at Fox and Donald Trump and others saying, ‘Why isn’t Al Sharpton protesting this?’ I protest when I’m called in and when there’s an injustice. The three were arrested, there was nothing to protest, the system worked there. And racial? Not only did the police not say it was racial, one of the three were [sic] white.”

REPLY TO AL: You say “the system worked” here so there was nothing to protest. Did not the system “work” in the Zimmerman case? So why does it continue to be held up and used even now as a symbol of a racial crime? You say the killing “wasn’t racially motivated” and that “Not only did the police not say it was racial, one of the three were white.” Did not the police in Florida say in the Zimmerman case that it was NOT investigated as a racial hate crime because they found no evidence of such? And ‘voila’ guess what? After a trial it turns out that there is no evidence of a racial hate crime. You “say one of the three were white,” yet you would not acknowledge that Zimmerman was Hispanic and insisted he was white. It appears that your concept of “racism” is a bit skewed and inconsistent at best.

But what would possibly motivate such a “hero” of the civil-rights movement as yourself to make such a “protest” to drive the Zimmerman case into court if it was not a conviction that justice had not been done by the police? If you knew of the police evidence, why would you waste your time on something which, even by your standards, is tangentially racial at best? What could you possibly hope to accomplish which would further civil discourse on the race question by your involvement?

When the motivations which drive human beings are reduced to a simple few, it can be simple to figure out which applies in any situation. If your motivation was to actually affect racial relations in a positive manner, the resulting outrageous behavior of recent days in which Zimmerman’s case was specifically referenced should be enough to show that your involvement accomplished the opposite effect. I have two questions. Were you really that stupid? Or, was there some other, ulterior motive behind your actions?

I submit it would be difficult for most people to believe, given your history and accomplishments, that you really were that stupid. Your education and associations belay that theory. So it would seem, as no one acts without motivation, other motivations were behind your actions here Al. What would be those motivating factors?

Do you think, again given your history, that perhaps a strong desire for both money and increased or renewed influence in the public arena may have motivated you Al? Perhaps self-aggrandizement is not too far from the real culprit in this case, wouldn’t you agree? Since you took the opportunity of a tragic killing to exercise your self-aggrandizing behavior, could it not be claimed that you might be akin to a “self-aggrandizing opportunist” rather than a “civil-rights hero”?

The real screwed-up part is the effect of your actions on the racial relations in our land, and how some are being targeted with lethal action now specifically because of their race with direct reference to revenge over the Zimmerman verdict. Are you proud of what you have accomplished here Al? After all, this is just the latest of a long line of such escapades since Tawana Brawley. Perhaps you are proud after all. I hope not because I believe that a true civil-rights hero, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., would most certainly be ashamed of it.

Related articles

• Sharpton speaks: ‘Nothing to protest’ about white man’s murder by black teen
• Al Sharpton: Murder Wasn’t Racially Motivated; “Nothing to Protest”
• Sharpton on Lane: ‘System worked’