Did Jesse Jackson really say this?

My friends and I were talking about Jesse Jackson today, and I mentioned an article that I believe I read in a magazine like Newsweek several years ago.
What I think I remember is that Jesse Jackson was quoted as saying something about how if he were walking alone at night, and heard someone behind him, he would be relieved if he turned around and saw that the person wasn’t black.
Am I remembering that correctly? Did he actually say that?
If not him, was it someone else that said something like that?
My friends think my memory is impaired (quite possible), but I do think I remember reading something like that.

According to this article, yes.

…he’s not worried they knew he spit in their food?

http://www.politicalusa.com/columnists/brewer/brewer_003B.htm

stockton I don’t get it. There doesn’t seem to be any support in your cite that Jackson said it. Did I miss it?

And here I thought this was a question about whether or not he referred to a part of New York as ‘Hymi-town’ (Spelling fucked, I know).

Some guy, Jesse Jackson.

First of all, it’s from The Washington Times, whose fact checkers are known for being REALLY, REALLY, REALLY loose in determining what is and what isn’t a “fact.”

Also, NO specifics are given, it simply says, “A few years ago, Jesse Jackson told an audience…” What audience? How long a time period is encompassed by “a few years?”

Nice try, now go back and do it right.

Well, I’m not KarlGauss, but will this do, WSLer? (BTW… I wasn’t aware that the Washington Times had disreputable fact checkers… can you cite that, or is it just supposed to be common knowledge that I should read this paper with a grain of salt?)

Here, and here, and here for starters. In fact, I could go on for quite some time, but I don’t think there should be any doubt that KarlGauss’ source is correct.

Here is the actual quote:

“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

I did a Google search and found this quoted many times, mostly by conservatives trying to make a case for racial profiling. Most of the time though, all they said was that the quote was made in 1993.

This aritcle says that it was made in Chicago in 1993 to a black audience. It was written fairly close to when the quote was supposedly made (look for the quote between Points 4 and 5 in the article.) This seems like a fairly liberal source with no axe to grind against Jackson.

Here’s a better cite. It’s from the Duke University Law Journal about racial profiling. Jackson’s quote begins the article and it is actually cited. The only true cite for this in all of the Google hits. Please see Footnote 1 here.

Jackson did indeed say it at a speech Operation PUSH Headquarters on November 27, 1993. It was published in the Chicago Sun-Times two days later.

Is that a good enough cite?

Haj

Hi samclem! One of my favorite posters. Cheers, mate.

Sorry, I was being a bit oblique and was referring to this snippet in the cited article:


These incidents only scratch the surface of the man’s illegitimacy as a bonafied leader of black America.  Jackson has been reported on record reminiscing about his days as a cook in a southern diner where he would routinely spit in the food of white customers.


…I’d think he’d be worried about a former customer behind him that knew what he did.

Jackson said yes, he did spit in their food. I even went down to the library and looked up the article (Life? Look? From July 1969 I think) in the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature and copied the relevant paragraph in the interview into the GQ thread where we were talking about it, and now of course I can’t find the thread anymore.

I tried “Jesse AND Jackson AND spit” and both “a year ago” and “any date” and no soap. Gahh… :mad:

It’s pretty much common knowledge. It’s owned by the Moonies and has a far-right agenda. Common mistake though.

Dunno about the agenda, but it’s definitely owned by Rev. Moon. He also owns UPI.

Read for yourself–is it “far right”?
http://www.washtimes.com/

This makes my day. It’s not often that we get validation here.

I must confess that I was tweaking you. I knew what you meant.

While I am a LIberal from way-back, I have no love for Jesse and his stupid side. I think that he is a necessary evil, as an advocate for people who need an advocate.

And the Washington Times is not a great source, in general. In this case, it was probably correct.

I need to leave now, just to help poor DDG. :smiley:

This makes my day. It’s not often that we get validation here.

I must confess that I was tweaking you. I knew what you meant.

While I am a LIberal from way-back, I have no love for Jesse and his stupid side. I think that he is a necessary evil, as an advocate for people who need an advocate.

And the Washington Times is not a great source, in general. In this case, it was probably correct.

I need to leave now, just to help poor DDG. :smiley:

See what Rev. Moon himself has to say about the newspaper’s agenda here.

Oh, I was aware that it had a right-wing bias (although I’m not sure that I’d call them far right, given stuff like National Review and the like), but having a right-wing bias and printing things that are flat out untrue but calling them facts are two distinctly different things, aren’t they? I mean, if we accepted cites even about matters of fact only from completely unbiased newspapers, we’d probably be down to stuff like the Podunk Post and the Timbuktu Times, and not much else. :frowning: Given that, I guess I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt on something as easily checked as this was, although since I’d seen this cited before anyway that might have influenced me somewhat. shrugs

I have read the article mentioned in the OP. It was in Life magazine. Jackson definitely was quoted as saying that he spit into people’s food.

I think I quoted it in a thread on this topic earlier also.

Former Black Panther leader Jesse Jackson admitted in a November, 1969 “Life” magazine interview that when he worked as a waiter in a Greenville, South Carolina hotel he spat into the soups and salads of White customers. “[Spitting into the food] gave me a psychological gratification,” Jackson said.

During his early years in the communist civil rights movement Jackson often repeated this story to audiences. In fact the New York “Times” in a July, 1972 article, said: “Jesse would spit into their soup or salad before he brought it to the table, and watch with enjoyment as Whites ate gobs of saliva as though it were, say, oil and vinegar dressing.”

http://www.duke.org/library/badguys/spittingjesse.html

First off-Jesse Jackson was never affiliated with the Black Panthers.

Second-DAVID FUCKING DUKE???
:rolleyes:

Okay, yeah, sucks to David Duke and his twisty “Black Panther” thing, but I went and read the Life interview down at the library, and Ol’ Jesse did say that yes, he did used to spit in the customers’ food when he was a teenage waitperson.