Sen. John Mccain is pushing hard for a presidential pardon for boxer Jack Johnson, America's first heavyweight champion, and aside from O.J. Simpson, perhaps the most roundly hated, unliked and reviled black person among whites in the history of our country.
That's how disconnected McCain is: He thinks he can shore up his bonafides and buy a pass into DarkTown by reaching back in time and lobbying to give a dead black man a pardon. He hopes that maybe me, Toure, Questlove, The Root and Byron Crawford will all want to follow him on Twitter, now that he's giving the "ups" to the corpse of a Negro.
I have this saying, that America only really loves black men once we are hobbled or dead: Muhammad Ali was only a national treasure when he could no longer speak strength to power, and Jack Johnson is only a hero when we can be reasonably sure he won't be taking any white girls across state lines to bump uglies. McCain's train of altruism is too wobbly for either Al or Jesse to hop on, but leave it to Don "don't make me cut you" King to bring his Buh'wheat and his cosignature along for the ride. King said this pardon would "remove a cloud that's been over the American sporting scene ever since (Johnson) was convicted on these trumped-up charges….I think the moment is now," he said.
Of course it is.
Single Father, Author, Screenwriter, Award-Winning Journalist, NPR Moderator, Lecturer and College Professor. Habitual Line-Stepper