By Frank Ahrens
Washington Post Staff Writer
A day after his remarks about Sen. Barack Obama helped fuel a rancorous debate about race in the Democratic presidential contest, an unapologetic Robert L. Johnson described how frustrating it is to be on the other side of a candidate he compared to Teflon.
"We've always said we need a perfect, well-spoken, Harvard-educated black candidate who would prove we've transcended race," the billionaire African American businessman and supporter of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) said in an interview yesterday. "Well, now we've got him and nobody knows how to campaign against him."
Johnson reiterated that he was referring to Obama's earlier career as a community organizer when he said during an appearance on behalf of Clinton on Sunday in Columbia, S.C., that the senator from Illinois needs to explain his past. And he elaborated on what he meant when he called Obama "Sidney," a reference to Sidney Poitier's well-mannered character in the film "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
"What has happened, in my opinion, is that what we have created is the quote-unquote 'perfect candidate' that's like in the movies, that has absolutely no blemishes," a vision that is unrealistic, said Johnson, who started Black Entertainment Television and has been a friend of the Clintons for two decades.
He said Obama has avoided talking about race, a tactic that Johnson said made him acceptable to the largely white electorate of Iowa. Obama won the state's Democratic caucuses on Jan. 3. "White America is saying, 'He's safe for us, he should be safe for you guys,' " Johnson said, referring to blacks. "We're letting other people pick our leaders."
"The Obama campaign -- win, lose or draw -- is going to have to address race," Johnson said. "If we don't have this debate about race within the Democratic Party . . . we could find ourselves with a division in this party as we go up against whoever the Republicans put up."
Johnson said that one of President Bill Clinton's political strengths was his ability to connect with black voters, and that it is an ability shared by his wife. "This is a fight between who's going to control the liberal soul of the party," Johnson said. "The people who don't like the Clintons have found the Clintons' worst nightmare -- a very dynamic, talented black man to run up against them."
Johnson is known within the media industry as a tough-dealing, visionary businessman, apt to take a high-stakes risk in a sometimes unpredictable fashion, somewhat like fellow media mogul Ted Turner. He launched BET in 1979 with $15,000. Johnson earned praise for creating a cable channel that catered to black viewers, but he also drew criticism for its raunchy hip-hop videos, which some viewers said reinforced negative stereotypes.
Unbowed, Johnson and his wife, Sheila, became billionaires when they sold BET to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion. The couple later divorced. Sheila Crump Johnson, now president of the Washington Mystics WNBA team, is backing Obama.
Johnson, 61, met the Clintons at a weekend retreat two decades ago at the Martha's Vineyard home of activist Marian Wright Edelman. He reconnected with them in 1988 and joined other prominent blacks from business and entertainment in backing Bill Clinton's presidential run in 1992, donating to the campaign and the party. "But I never got to stay in the Lincoln Bedroom," Johnson said.
Since 1990, Johnson has donated $2 million to congressional and presidential candidates, and 99 percent of that has gone to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. He has given $14,800 to Hillary Clinton since she first ran for the Senate in 2000. He gave $4,500 total to Obama during the 2004 and 2006 cycles, but none so far during this campaign, the CRP reports.
After Bill Clinton left office, he and Johnson traded professional favors, Johnson said. When Johnson was bidding to buy the Charlotte Bobcats NBA team, he asked Clinton to call league Commissioner David Stern and put in a good word for him, which Clinton did.
Likewise, when Hillary Clinton was considering her presidential run in late 2006, Johnson got a call from her staff, asking if she and her husband could use Johnson's vacation home in Anguilla. Johnson said he was staying there at the time but left to make room for the Clintons.
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
Source
__________________________________________________________________________
Could it be that just maybe, there our more important issues facing our country than race?
BTW... I'm still looking for someone to help me bankroll WET (White Entertainment Television) We'd start with David Allen Coe videos and reruns of The Dukes of Hazzard an My Name is Earl. Maybe a little Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy for the weekends.
I'm sure Barack will get around to addressing race. When he does, will Bob Johnson listen? Or does he think he's not black enough to know from which he speaks?
Before you go any further, read this...
Dictionary.com defines a redneck as:
1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.
It goes on to say that redneck is A slang term, usually for a rural white southerner who is politically conservative, racist, and a religious fundamentalist. This term is generally considered offensive. It originated in reference to agricultural workers, alluding to how the back of a person's neck will be burned by the sun if he works long hours in the fields.
While I can't say all that fits me to a tee, a lot of it is pretty damn close.
You see, I lost both my parents before I turned 12 years old. I bounced around in a couple of foster homes before moving in with my uncle when I tuned 15. By age 17, I was on my own. I dropped out of school half way through 11th grade so I could go to work full time. Three months after my 18th birthday, I got behind the wheel of a cab for the first time.
I've learned more about life in 28 years in a hack than any philosopher ever could know. I've had multi-million dollar businessmen, celebrities and pro athletes as well as crack whores, drug dealers and murderers in my cab. I refuse to be an airport jockey or one of those guys that only stages at the hotels, so unfortunately, I have to deal with more of the bottom feeders of life than I do the upper crust.
It is the dealings that I've had the bad apples that has made me what I am today...
The Redneck Cabbie.
You see, to escape the madness of the city streets, my mind drifts off (not while I'm driving) to a quiet country town. A place where everyone knows everyone, and a man's handshake is as binding a contract as a person needs. A place where friends gather to down a couple of cold ones and listen to music that you can actually understand the words.
A place where young men don't walk around with their pants falling down over their ass, and young ladies don't have to dress like sluts to draw a man's attention.
I think you get the picture. I know, boring as whale shit to most city folks. I'd be living in a town just like that if it weren't for the fact that there's just not much demand for my line of work in most small towns.
This blog will reflect these feelings. If I seem a little bitter now and then, its just because that wonderful little town is nowhere in my near future, and because the life expectancy of someone in my line of work doesn't extend much past retirement age, all I can do is dream about it.
1. an uneducated white farm laborer, esp. from the South.
2. a bigot or reactionary, esp. from the rural working class.
It goes on to say that redneck is A slang term, usually for a rural white southerner who is politically conservative, racist, and a religious fundamentalist. This term is generally considered offensive. It originated in reference to agricultural workers, alluding to how the back of a person's neck will be burned by the sun if he works long hours in the fields.
While I can't say all that fits me to a tee, a lot of it is pretty damn close.
You see, I lost both my parents before I turned 12 years old. I bounced around in a couple of foster homes before moving in with my uncle when I tuned 15. By age 17, I was on my own. I dropped out of school half way through 11th grade so I could go to work full time. Three months after my 18th birthday, I got behind the wheel of a cab for the first time.
I've learned more about life in 28 years in a hack than any philosopher ever could know. I've had multi-million dollar businessmen, celebrities and pro athletes as well as crack whores, drug dealers and murderers in my cab. I refuse to be an airport jockey or one of those guys that only stages at the hotels, so unfortunately, I have to deal with more of the bottom feeders of life than I do the upper crust.
It is the dealings that I've had the bad apples that has made me what I am today...
The Redneck Cabbie.
You see, to escape the madness of the city streets, my mind drifts off (not while I'm driving) to a quiet country town. A place where everyone knows everyone, and a man's handshake is as binding a contract as a person needs. A place where friends gather to down a couple of cold ones and listen to music that you can actually understand the words.
A place where young men don't walk around with their pants falling down over their ass, and young ladies don't have to dress like sluts to draw a man's attention.
I think you get the picture. I know, boring as whale shit to most city folks. I'd be living in a town just like that if it weren't for the fact that there's just not much demand for my line of work in most small towns.
This blog will reflect these feelings. If I seem a little bitter now and then, its just because that wonderful little town is nowhere in my near future, and because the life expectancy of someone in my line of work doesn't extend much past retirement age, all I can do is dream about it.
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment