Jesse Jackson has angered black leaders in Boston with his latest remarks on "racism."
Jackson stoked the Hub's racial fires yesterday as he headed into the FleetCenter on the second day of the Democratic National Convention, saying Boston has yet to live up to its promise as a center of racial justice and equal opportunity for minorities.``There is such a class gap between the haves and the have-nots,'' Jackson said. ``If you look at inner-city Boston and the suburbs, it's like there is a doughnut and then there's the doughnut hole.''
Jackson added that Boston falls short of being a model for urban democracy around the country.
``Boston must work even more diligently at being the academic center it is, at being the shining light on the hill,'' Jackson said. ``This can be the city with an urban agenda that becomes the ideal for all of America.Boston ought to aspire to no less.''
Reactions?
``Jesse's talking trash and blowing smoke. This is Jesse's showboat,'' said the Rev. Eugene Rivers, chair of the National Ten Point Coalition and one of the city's most respected leaders on racial issues.
and
``Jesse Jackson has never, ever come to me or any of the black clergy that work on the streets of the city of Boston,'' Rivers said. ``Jesse has been too big to actually meet with the black clergy that work in the trenches and have been doing that for years, so we are sort of mildly amused that Jesse has so much to say about something he knows so little about.''
Well.
Jesse Jackson? "Talking trash" and "blowing smoke" over "something he knows so little about?" Really?
Why should today be different from any other day?
Posted by Craig Ceely at July 31, 2004 04:34 PM