Begging For Relevance

One has to wonder what Jesse Jackson thinks of Barack Obama. On the one hand, assuming he really believes in the advancement of black people, Jackson must be ecstatic that Obama has a real chance at a major party's presidential nomination. On the other hand, Jackson must hate that it's Obama and not the good reverend himself in that position. Even more, Obama has gotten where he is without repeatedely playing the race card, much unlike Jackson and Al Sharpton.

Today's Variety online edition (I cannot believe that I am citing the entertainment trade journal for the second day in a row) is reporting that Jackson is planning a conference in April to discuss the supposed dearth of blacks in the movie industry. Jackson's announcement, coming just days before this Sunday's Oscar awards ceremony, is pretty pathetic. For example, Jackson doesn't think it's enough that five of the twenty, or 25%, of actors nominated this year are black and that three of the four winners could very well be black despite the 2000 United States census showing that 12.3% of Americans are black. Jackson also thinks that whites, who constituted 75.1% of the 2000 United States population, are overrepresented in the 69% of roles that he alleges are reserved for white actors. As an aside, I have no idea where Jackson gets that 69% figure or whether there is any such quota for any race in Hollywood.

My question for Jackson is how much will be enough? I am in no way suggesting that any one group should have a maximum quota, or a minimum quota for that matter, whether it's for jobs, education or whatnot. At the same time, this is just one more example of Jackson playing the race card because that's the all he has in his arsenal.