Al Sharpton hammers the Washington Wizards’ Gilbert Arenas, who was caught with guns in his locker at the Verizon Center:
“The NBA needs to stand up and send a strong message by dealing with this situation,” Sharpton told the Daily News. He also chided black leadership groups for not speaking out about the “culture of violence being perpetuated in professional sports.” Sharpton cited former Giant Plaxico Burress as an example of professional athletes run amok.
This statement shouldn’t really surprise anyone who has actually paid attention to Sharpton over the past few years. Most conservative critiques of Sharpton rely on the belief that the man hasn’t changed since 1987. There’s a weird way in which liberal figures become part of a settled mythology in the conservative imagination, regardless of how close that image is to the truth. So Sharpton will always be the kind of guy who blames white people for everything, and Barack Obama will always be a secret Muslim communist who wants to punish whites for slavery rather than a left-of-center Democrat.
This isn’t a sign of the post-racial apocalypse; it just shows that once you’ve become a political bogeyman, there isn’t much room for nuance or personal growth. This doesn’t mean, of course, that media outlets should flit through their Blackberrys for Sharpton’s number every time they want the uh, “black” perspective.
— A. Serwer
