Learning From Jesse Jackson
This morning, February 17, I awakened to hear on my radio that Jesse Jackson had died. I have known Mr. Jackson as a colleague and close friend for 40 years. I worked with him since 1984 to help him as the “ghostwriter” of his autobiography.
Mr. Jackson had been the first black man to give it a serious go-over. He was an intelligent, well-read Democrat. He won 11 primaries across the nation. For a time, it looked as if he were going to be the main national candidate to run against the GOP standard-bearer.
My experience working with Jesse Jackson was eye-opening. Like the preacher he was, he told the young people in his audience that they could complain and march, but if they simply learned to plumb a house or lay in electrical lines, they would be able to pay for their kids to go to college.
Mr. Jackson told his friends that their lives would be comfortable if they laid in a stock of knowledge — they would pay for their future better than if they were able to shout and scream. He was a realist, and he loved the next generation better than anyone else ever would.
I learned a lot from Reverend Jackson and I am still learning from him.
Praiseworthy TV Ads
In the last few months, I have been watching the most TV I have ever watched. For reasons that any TV watcher will understand immediately, I mostly watch a show that’s been on for decades called COPS. Many of the episodes are decades old, and some are recent.
The recent ones are sponsored largely by products and services aimed at African American viewers. There are ads for black family vacations, black family savings accounts such that the viewers will be able to send their children to college, ads for weight loss meds, and ads for black families playing games together.
To me, what’s most compelling is that the ads show black families with caring, loving fathers in the home with their sons and daughters. That is, these ads tell black people that the norm is for black men who have children to stay home with their offspring. This is super powerful and super needed medicine for our beloved America.
We have a giant crisis in this land in and about non-white families. (We also have many crises in and around white families, but it’s considerably worse in and around non-white families.) If we as a nation can harness the mighty power of Madison Avenue to preach togetherness, Madison Avenue will have done a super good deed.
Let’s give praise where praise is due.