Rev. Jackson calls Obama a “nigger”
Recently Jesse Jackson made derogatory statements about presidential hopeful Barack Obama on the FOX Network. Now it’s being reported Jackson said more than what was initially reported. Jackson is believed to have called Obama, “A no good, half-breed nigger.” This situation is very unfortunate. First off, Jackson should have reframed from such statements. If that’s something he needed to say he should have taken confronted Obama face to face in private. Jackson clearly has provided fuel for the media pit two African Americans against one another but I urge you to look beyond the obvious. I think this is a good opportunity to engage in dialogue about the word “nigger” and put it in its proper context. To me it’s not about Jackson calling Obama a nigger-it’s about how the word was utilized in Colonial America and beyond. In the early 1600’s in Virginia Anglo-Saxon Europeans began referring to imported Africans as niggers. When they began importing natives for indentured servitude and eve...