Sharpton: The New Rev. Jerimiah Wright

August 25, 2014
Sharpton's Growing Influence Inside The White House Disturbing

Racial Politics: If you count the Rev. Al Sharpton, the White House sent four officials to pay their respects at Michael Brown's funeral, a VIP turnout that families of slain American soldiers never see.

Marlon Marshall and Heather Foster of the White House Office of Public Engagement joined Broderick Johnson of the White House's My Brother's Keeper Task Force at Brown's funeral in St. Louis. They gave presidential imprimatur to Sharpton's tub-thumping eulogy for Brown.

Not that he needed it. Sharpton earlier this year headlined the president's "My Brother's Keeper" event creating the $300 million public-private task force that hopes to remove "barriers" to young black men, including "discriminatory discipline policies" in schools.

Sharpton also stood by Obama in the Oval Office as he signed an executive order creating the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans, another program whose central goal, again, involves pressuring schools to ease up on disciplining young black men. Yet Brown's case, like Trayvon Martin's before, screams for more discipline — not less.

Even the New York Times reports the 18-year-old Brown "was no angel," noting the 6-4, 300-pound Brown not only robbed a liquor store but once assaulted a neighbor. He also was accused of stealing at his high school, and was bounced from one school to the next. The paper confirms he did drugs and hung out with gang-bangers. And the college he reportedly was supposed to attend was in fact a trade school that can't confirm he ever enrolled there.

It appears Brown was a victim not of racism but of a pervasive gang culture in the black community. But pointing that out doesn't advance the grievance agenda of Sharpton and Obama. So they focus on racism.

"Michael Brown's blood is crying for justice," Sharpton bellowed. "Those police that are wrong need to be dealt with," alluding to Officer Darren Wilson, who police say shot Brown in self defense.

He called for laws making it harder for police to stop blacks for "low-level crimes," claiming Brown was shot simply for "walking in the middle of the street."

The easy access and growing influence this racial arsonist has in the West Wing is shocking. According to Politico.com, Sharpton often visits, and when he's not there, he's texting or emailing Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett or Attorney General Eric Holder.

"There's a trust factor with The Rev from the Oval Office on down," a White House official said. "He gets it."

"Getting it" apparently means seeing the country as Obama's long-time preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright saw it, as "this racist United States of America." A place where police wage war on black males. Such escapist myth-making helps no one, least of all young black men.