See a transcript of his head-to-head chat w/ Sharpton on CNN here at The Big Lead. In a very nice bit, he referenced the recent Duke LaCrosse case to help lay out his argument that Jesse and Al are just users:
WHITLOCK: You must maintain the moral high ground. You must have some
consistency about you.
Injustice for one is injustice for all. Those young men were exploited the same way these young basketball players have been exploited by Jesse and Al. They run around the country exploiting these young people, making problems where
— making the problems much bigger than what they should be.
These three kids down at Duke, these basketball players have been used and exploited, and it’s unfortunate.
Sharpton's weak retort: "You’re going to have critics. We try to win on behalf of the people we’re fighting for. You can’t satisfy people not involved in the fight."
The Big Lead also links to an interview that Whitlock did on their site (that subsequently got his ESPN job jerked) and he offers this gem:
There’s going to be a new civil-rights movement among black people and the
people bojangling for dollars are going to be put in check. . . it’s in the air. Black people are tired of letting idiots define who we are. It’s dangerous. I grew up loving hip hop music. But the [bleep] is way out of hand now. Flavor Flav went from fighting the power with Chuck D to a minstrel show on VH1. You have all of these young rap idiots putting out negative images about black men and black women, and it’s on us to stop it and say enough is a enough. It’s not on white people. And it’s not on old black people like Cosby and Oprah. We have to police our own. W.E.B. Dubois talked about the talented 10 percent leading the black masses. We’re letting the Ignorant 5 lead us straight to hell. The Ignorant 5 are telling white folks, “Yeah, this is how we really is. Let me bojangle for ya, boss. You say step and I’ll show ya I can fetch.” And what's even more dangerous, the Ignorant 5 are telling black kids,
'It's cool to be locked up. It makes a man out of you. And don't embrace education. Dealing dope and playing basketball are better career choices.' The Ignorant 5 is the new KKK and twice as deadly. That's why you don't hear 'bout the KKK anymore. The Klan is just sitting back letting 50 Cent and all the other bojanglers do all the heavy lifting.
Wow, strong stuff. I've got to say, I'm impressed. And I hope the revolution he discusses occurs, and in a big way. Seems to me all the elements of society (whether black, or white, or hispanic, or Christian, or Muslim, or whatever) are slipping to the level of the lowest common denominator, and unless enlightened, thoughtful, balanced people from all sides police their own, and illuminate the idiocy for what it is, things are just going to get darker for us all.
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