Word: sharpton
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Sharpton's Surprise...
...SHARPTON, black activist who ran for President in 2004, on Joe Biden's calling fellow 2008 presidential hopeful Barack Obama "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." Biden apologized...
...then came Joe Biden. On Wednesday, announcing his run for President, he praised his Senate colleague and presidential rival Barack Obama as "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," and declared that this was a first for African American presidential candidates. The Rev. Al Sharpton, who ran for president in 2004, informed Biden, who called to apologize, that he takes a bath every day. Sharpton is good at moments like this. He manages to declare himself available for compensatory pandering, without pretending that he doesn't get the joke. But generally, the first thing that happens when...
...social vocabulary, means those descended from West African slaves," wrote Debra Dickerson on the liberal website Salon. Writers like TIME and New Republic columnist Peter Beinart have argued that Obama is seen as a "good black," and thus has less of following among black people. Meanwhile, agitators like Al Sharpton are seen as the authentic "bad blacks." Obama's trouble, asserted Beinart, is that he will have to prove his loyalty to The People in a way that "bad blacks" never have to. Obama, for his part, settled this debate some time ago. "If I'm outside your building trying...
...kids for attacking other smart successful black kids by questioning their blackness. But this is suddenly permissible for presidential candidates. Beinart's good black/bad black dynamic is the sort of armchair logic that comes from not spending much time around actual black people. As the New Republic points out, Sharpton has an overstated following among black people. In 2004, when Sharpton ran for President, his traction among his alleged base was underwhelming. In South Carolina, where almost half of all registered Dems were black, both John Kerry and John Edwards received twice as many black votes as Sharpton. But this...