Devaluing the Racism Sin

As if it seems possible at all to stop writing about Al Sharpton, here comes another new grenade lobbed into the discussion.  The New York Post this week published a piece detailing Sharpton's record of shaking down a large roster of companies, from Pepsi (from whom he was paid a $25,000 a year retainer as an "adviser") to McDonalds, car companies, you name it.

What service did they get from the good "reverend" for their money?  Well, according to the article, in exchange for direct payments or donations to his National Action Network, these companies receive the right not to be called racists by Sharpton.  Seriously.


So if this is all true, and the money trail certainly suggests so, then along with bigot, tax cheat, inciter of riots and liar, we can now add "extortionist" to the lengthening list of offenses and unpleasant characterizations -- to a man who has made dozens of visits to the White House and is a close, unapologetic confidant of this president, who is himself similarly unapologetic about having a bigot, tax cheat, inciter of riots, liar and extortionist as his crony.

Worse, however, is the unintended consequence of Sharpton's actions on race relations in the USA.  Of course, he has severely damaged race relations in the USA just by being himself, but this exposure makes things even worse, in ways no one is thinking.

The best analogy is tokenism -- the unintended consequence of affirmative action programs, where black students admitted to colleges with quotas, or black applicants hired for jobs, have to fight the perception that they were admitted or hired, not for their ability and qualifications, but their skin color.

I've never felt racism to be nearly the worst of sins, but how, we must ask, can anyone ever again be accused of racism, if the accusation can be bought and sold by a race hustler?  How can Sharpton, or Jesse Jackson or any of the racism industry try to hurl a corporate, or even individual accusation now, when the accused can turn around and point to the accuser as an extortionist, and completely defuse, if not dismantle, the threat?

Eventually Sharpton will get shut down for good, the weight of his offenses and diseased credibility finally trumping his association with Barack Obama, Bill de Blasio and others who protect him, and unable to prevent the IRS or some other authority from slamming the door on him for a long time.  But until then, he has had one weapon removed from his arsenal, because his capacity to claim that anyone is a racist has been shown not to be of content, but of compensation.

This is a bad one, Big Al.  I'm sure you don't care as long as you get paid, but at some point you will realize who and what you are.  And today we can add "extortionist" to the list.

Copyright 2015 by Robert Sutton