Missing history

Matthew Hoy
By Matthew Hoy on December 4, 2003

The New York Times has a pretty positive candidate profile of every Democrat's favorite hatemonger, the Rev. Al Sharpton.

The Times piece is fairly standard stuff, but it leaves out some facts that informed voters should know about.

Not mentioned in the article are:

  • Sharpton's demonstration, protest and incitement against the "white interlopers" at Freddie's Fashion Mart in 1995. Sharpton's incindiary rhetoric prompted one of his "supporters" to burn down the building -- killing eight people.
  • Sharpton's part in the Crown Heights riots of 1991 are also conspicuously absent from the piece. National Review's Rich Lowry helpfully provided some necessary background on this case on Wednesday.

    "If the Jews want to get it on, tell them to pin their yarmulkes back and come over to my house."

    Those were the immortal words of the Rev. Al Sharpton during the Crown Heights crisis in New York City in 1991. A car driven by a Hasidic Jew had run over a black child in the Brooklyn neighborhood, prompting black-Jewish tensions that eventually spilled over into antisemitic riots. Sharpton's contribution to civic peace was statements like the above, together with such classic anti-Jewish smears as: "Talk about how Oppenheimer in South Africa sends diamonds straight to Tel Aviv and deals with the diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights."

Sharpton isn't a serious candidate. He doesn't poll in double digits anywhere, so the other Democrat candidates for president make nice and refuse to point at the racist hatemonger in their midst.

Denouncing Sharpton would take bravery, because the second a candidate does it, the charges of racism will rain down on them like Niagra Falls. However, it's unfortunate that no one has the guts to do it -- even the Times lacks the journalistic fire to group Sharpton with Louis Farrakhan on the black racist fringe.

Al Sharpton won't be president. He won't even be the Democrat nominee. But the Democrat Party is worse off for tolerating his presence.

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