In an edition of his Hop Hop Political Newsletter which is unfortunately not online, Davey D makes a crucial point about Trent Lott’s wildly offensive remarks at a birthday bash for Strom Thurmond.
It will be interesting to see how the media references his remarks when mentioning his name. In other words there’s a tendency to always make mention of past transgressions when speaking about African American leaders even if the events or remarks were made 20 years ago. I still read newspapers where Jesse Jackson’s off color 1984 ‘hymie town’ remarks are made mention. Al Sharpton and the Tawana Brawly case are seemingly always in the same sentence. The word ‘anti-Semite and NOI leader Louis Farrakhan are always made to go hand and hand. I’ve heard apologies and explanations from these individuals just like Lott and his folks are trying to explain his ‘poor choice’ of words. My question is will Trent Lott go back to simply being the Senate Majority Leader or will he be forever known as the Trent Lott the Senate Majority Leader the ‘Jim Crow Law Supporter’? Will we start referring to Trent Lott as a bigot or will he still be viewed as a distinguished United State’s Senator who leads the Senate?For chewy context, dig Howard Kurtz’ round up of recent media coverage: Lott’s ‘Sorry’ Doesn’t Cut It.
