The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

I know this is slightly old news, but I thought I was pretty interesting to hear from a Black college student. Here is some excerpts of her article:

Though Kelly has not been tried, the CBC should have been conscious of the message that scheduling him to perform would send out: “If these are Black America’s best and brightest, then Blacks must think that it’s okay for grown men to have sex with underage children.” What is even more appalling is that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was in attendance to speak to the group the day after. What message does this send to our possible future president?

The “innocent until proven guilty” mantra is no excuse for condoning abhorrent behavior. Not only is Kelly facing child pornography charges but he has also made sexually explicit songs throughout his career and continues to do so, feeding into the stereotype of the oversexed Black man.

For an organization so concerned with helping Black youth, the CBC should really consider the message they send not only to the Black community but also to the rest of America as well. (This article is split up in two sections. What you see above are excerpts of the second part that you can only see if you register. This link with take you to the first unregistered part)

Don’t look to these self-appointed leaders to draw the line when it comes to morality (in fact, that covers politicians across the board). They are not moral leaders, nor do many of them believe in accepting personal responsibility. Many of them will align themselves with anybody that is perceived to be the victim of The Man’s system. I talked about this some time ago. Do you remember all the mess that took place in Haiti this year? The CBC completely looked over the fact that Jean-Bertrand Aristide had been raping his country for years only to come to his side and accuse the Bush administration of hijacking the country.

Speaking of not wanting to accept responsibility, don’t you hate it when this happens:

The congressman decided to turn the tables on the host, saying, in the course of a heated exchange, “the last time I checked, you were palling around with Rush Limbaugh. … I know what his philosophy is politically, and you complement each other … and I have never heard you criticize Rush Limbaugh one bit for his drug use accusations.” (full article)

This was an interview with congressman James Clyburn, D-S.C. on The O’Reilly factor. Bill asked him point blank about the R. Kelly deal and instead of accepting responsibility, he justifies bad judgment by pointing to someone else’s. We use this diversion tactic all the time in our interviews.

I dunno. I am just one of those people that believe that although what a person does behind closed doors is their business, it still has an affect on the character of that person. If the CBC did not think twice about having Kelly (a person that is facing 14 counts of child pornography) perform for a benefit to help Black youth, that move says a lot about how much they are really concerned about the well-being of our youth.