Mamalicious!

Compton, California. Home to assorted Crips and Bloods. The birthplace of NWA. Apparently the ideal place for Hillary Clinton to kiss-and-make-up with Black America for comments which discounted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s role in the civil rights movement. Of course, she didn’t come right out and say she was sorry in Compton today. Instead, she talked about “green collar” jobs for young black men and helping ex-cons transition from prison. She wrapped all that up with a nice James Baldwin quote, and presumably all was forgiven. (I know the James Baldwin quote is always what does it for me.)

Still…I’ll take Hillary’s “my bad” over the brand of insincere, self-serving contrition served up last year by Isaiah “I Made a PSA and Still Got the Ax!” Washington and PETA’s BFF, Michael Vick.

But the most surprising olive branch to come out of this recent round of non-Iraq-related campaigning (remember Iraq?) was offered by none other than billionaire Bob Johnson, the founder and former CEO of the ever-noxious BET.

At a Clinton rally in South Carolina this past Sunday, Johnson contrasted the Clintons’ long-time involvement in “black issues” with Obama’s past “in the neighborhood–I won’t say what he was doing, but he said it in the book.” Not known for his humility, Johnson then defended his comments against criticism that he was dragging Obama’s already-admitted past drug use back into the spotlight. Johnson claimed he was referring to Obama’s past as a community organizer (huh?), and that any other interpretation was “irresponsible and incorrect.”

But Bob ate those words on Thursday after Clinton herself called his comments “out of bounds” during a nationally televised debate. He apologized to Obama in a written statement saying, “In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made some very inappropriate remarks for which I am truly sorry. I hope that you will accept this apology. Good luck on the campaign trail.”

Funny the difference a smack on the hand from Miss Ann makes.

And file under, “Who Knew?”…Am I the only one who assumed Bob Johnson was a Republican??? Turns out, of the $2M dollars he’s given to congressional and presidential campaigns since 1990, 99% has gone to Dems.

Speaking of wealthy black folks…Where’s Puffy this election season? Remember “Vote or Die” back in ‘04? Word has it that Puffy’s sitting this one out because billionaire Clinton supporter Ron Burkle just happens to own a majority of his SeanJohn clothing line. It seems Burkle worked a similar magic on Magic Johnson, who endorsed Clinton and threw a fundraiser for her at his house.

Not that Puffy or Magic or any black person is obligated to support Obama, but it’s sad to watch black folks going to the highest bidder…again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 17th, 2008 at 9:29 pm and is filed under In the News, Politics, Race Matters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.