Jesse Jackson Wants to Talk about Phil Robertson

Jesse Jackson wants to talk about Phil Robertson. Time has started to run down on the demand that the Rev. Jesse Jackson wanted in a meeting with the executives of A&E about Duck Dynasty’s head of , Phil Robertson, Jackson has declared that Robertson is “more offensive” than the bus driver who told Rosa Parks to move to the back of the bus.

Rev. Jackson, who is the leader of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, commanded a meeting with the executives over Robertson’s claim in a magazine interview in GQ that African-American individuals were perfectly happy before Civil Rights happened. Rosa Parks helped to begin the movement when she refused to give up her bus seat to a white passenger on Dec. 1, 1955.

Jackson exclaimed that such statements uttered by Robertson were more offensive than the bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, more than 59 years ago. At least the driver of the bus, who told Mrs. Parks she had to give up her seat to a white person, was following the law of the state of Alabama at the time. Robertson’s words were uttered out in the open. He was talking in a way that showed he thought he had some sort of “white privilege”.

A&E refused to respond on whether it would meet up with Jackson or not. Jackson also wants GLAAD and administrators from the Cracker Barrel restaurant to attend the meeting. Cracker Barrel had originally decided to pull all Duck Dynasty merchandise from its shelves, but reversed the decision after Duck Dynasty fans defended Robertson and his statements.

The A&E Network has already suspended Robertson for his comments in the interview. What he said about Civil Rights has been majorly outshined by his remarks over homosexuality. In his interview, he assembled gay people together with “terrorists” and “drunks” and stated that he did not understand how someone could prefer a “man’s anus” to a woman’s “vagina”.

When he began to comment on race, Robertson, age 67, started to talk about his childhood years while in the Louisiana backwoods.

He stated how he never saw any sort of mistreatment of any black person. He said he did not see it one time. Where he lived was an area of all farmers. He explained that black people worked for farmers. He said he hoed cotton with black people. He also said, that he belonged with black people because he was white trash.

He explained how he would go across a field and black people would be happy and singing. He stated that he never heard any of them, not one black person, say that they were unhappy. He said this was before there was feelings of entitlement, before there was any kind of welfare. Black people were happy and godly. There was not anyone that was singing the blues back then.
These statements have been basically ignored due to his homosexual attacks, but they need to be focused on just as much. They are just as important in showing what type of man Phil Robertson really is. People need to be paying attention to what this man is saying.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson may not get his meeting but at least he has brought attention to more of what Robertson has said, and that is a good thing. Jesse Jackson is talking about Phil Robertson.

By Kimberly Ruble

Sources:

The Chicago Tribune

The Wrap