Civil Rights Group Seeks Kerry Apology

[rodbarnett]

WASHINGTON (AP) - The head of a civil rights and legal services advocacy group wants Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to apologize for saying he wouldn't be upset if he could be known as the second black president.

"John Kerry is not a black man - he is a privileged white man who has no idea what it is in this country to be a poor white in this country, let alone a black man," said Paula Diane Harris, founder of the Andrew Young National Center for Social Change.

Last week, Kerry told the American Urban Radio Network: "President Clinton was often known as the first black president. I wouldn't be upset if I could earn the right to be the second."

<snip>

Harris also criticized civil rights leaders who "sit back and ignore these types of comments, a practice that further insults African Americans."

"It seems that all these leaders care about is their personal agendas in how a 'John Kerry' will keep up their personal causes," she said.

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040309/D816KE9O2.html

[dand]

1. The head of the civil rights organisation

is trying to get his face on TV, he is desparate for reason to complain. He should be looking for knuckle dragging skin heads for *

[ODBPROS]

2. It was foolish than...

The notion that Clinton was the first Black president is a racist notion. What was it that made Clinton Black? I felt he only said so in reference to his numerous personal and legal problems. And don't tell me that he was Black because of the way he "felt our pain" or any thing like that. In terms of empathy, Carter is unmatched, but no one calls him the first Black President.

[DarkPhenyx]

4. But he has been refered to as that...

...by black people. So, the question isn't if he was or was not black. Obviously he wasn't. The question is why some people in the black community felt that he was "black".

I think a more important issue is "who the fuck cares".

[0007]

7. Yeah! Kerry should blow this one off -

[vi5]

8. Actually, Nobel prize winner Toni Morrison said that...

Morrison is as you probably know one of the premiere black literary voices of the last half of the twentieth century, if not the whole damn century. She said that Clinton due to his personal struggles and what he rose up from, is the closest thing to a black president that we have had. Her feeling was that he could relate to the poverty, to the desperation to rise above and to prove ones self made him completely empathetic to a large portion of the black experience in America.

That being said, I still don't think that this was the smartest thing that Kerry has ever said. But nor is it anything that was self proclaimed by Bill Clinton.

[Dhalgren]

3. She's a "she", not a "he".

Kerry said he wanted to "earn" the right to called the 2nd black president. There is no reason to appologize - this was meant in a tone of solidarity not dismissal. That being said, Kerry needs to remember that Clinton was called the "first black president" by black community leaders, he never referred to this honorary title himself.

[John_H]

5. well said and exactly right

[Cooley Hurd]

6. I confess that I'm unfamiliar with the AYNCSC...

...but the voter survey on their website focuses on "independent" candidates and voters pretty heavily.

Does anyone know what the true political agenda of the AYNCSC is?

[lazarus]

9. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=408950&mesg_id=408950