Lott's Statements vs. Jesse Jackson's: What's the Difference?
Sen. Trent Lott will address his controversial statements with Ed Gordon tonight at 8 p.m. (ET) and 11:30 p.m. (ET). Immediately following the telecast, a panel of leading African American journalists and political analysts will offer their reactions to the interview in a BET Nightly News Special hosted by Jacque Reid.
Updated Dec. 16, 2002 -- It was bound to happen: Black leaders and politicos express their concern over Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott's recent racist statements, and somehow, the finger gets pointed back at them.
On radio talk shows and some news accounts, Lott's statements praising South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond's run for president on a segregationist platform have been compared to the Rev. Jesse Jackson's 1984 comments when he referred to Jewish people as "Hymies." Jackson, it has been pointed out, was able to apologize for his comments and move on and Lott should be able to do the same.
But are such utterances, one by a civil rights activist and one by one of the most powerful lawmakers in America, comparable?
There is a big difference between Jackson and Lott, said Mark Potok, spokesman for the Southern Poverty Law Center, a non-profit organization that combats hate, intolerance and discrimination through education and litigation.
"Jackson did make an ugly remark about Hymietown and was forced to apologize and rightfully so in my opinion," Potok said.
"But Jackson did not have a 35-year history of making these kinds of remarks, and there was nothing to suggest that Jackson's remark was connected to an entire ideology of anti-Semitism. In the case of Trent Lott, the man has been making remarks like this for 35
years."
"What these remarks call up is an era in which virtually all southern politicians defended a system of racial apartheid based on physical terrorism," Potok said. "And if one fought this system, they were likely to end up in the bottom of a river with an engine block tied around them, and it happened time and time again -- and you didn't have to be Black to be murdered."
Hilary Shelton, director of the NAACP Washington Bureau, says the differences between Jackson and Lott don't stop there. Lott is in a position of power, which makes him dangerous, Shelton said.
"Jesse Jackson is a private citizen who works for an organization; Trent Lott is four people removed from the president," Shelton said. "He is the gatekeeper for legislation going through the Senate, and somebody who is predisposed to opposing legislation that is important to African Americans and other ethnic minorities is absolutely alarming. We should all be alarmed."
And it isn't just what he says that is alarming, Shelton pointed out. His ideology plays out in his voting record.
Since 1990, Lott has voted against at least 80 percent of the NAACP's civil rights agenda issues.
Lott has voted against making Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday a national holiday, and was the only negative vote against the nomination of Judge Roger Gregory as the first Black judge ever seated on the United States Court of Appeals. He also voted against the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982. On the flip side, Thurmond supported all three issues.
"Thurmond doesn't even speak in those terms anymore," Shelton said. "Lott is someone who is espousing an ideology that is racist, and is voting an ideology that is right wing and extremist."
Black legislative leaders point out that Lott's most recent remark is not an isolated incident. In a statement from the Congressional Black Caucus, the lawmakers said Lott's recent comments represent "a longstanding pattern of behavior that can no longer be ignored or tolerated" and have called for the Senate to censure him, one of the strongest rebukes that the body can take against a sitting member.
"It is offensive and morally reprehensible that a public official with such a record would be reinstated to serve as majority leader of the United States Senate. Senator Lott's remarks echo comments, and recall actions, made by him throughout his public life, that condone racial bias and disharmony. Because of his pattern, an apology will not suffice," the CBC statement said.
Lott has said that his support of Thurmond was not meant as a slight to African Americans; a mistake of the head, not of the heart.
But the National Urban League issued a statement tearing down that admission.
"First, Mr. Lott is well aware that his state, with the highest percentage of African Americans of any state, denied voting rights to African Americans in 1948, and that the State's Rights Party clearly would not have had the support of African Americans at the time," the statement said.
"Second, this is the second time that Mr. Lott has referred to Mississippi's support of Mr. Thurmond's 1948 campaign."
According to the Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., Lott made an almost identical statement after a Thurmond speech 20 years ago: "You know, if we had elected this man 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the mess we are today."
In support of Bob Jones University retaining its tax-exempt status, despite their policy banning interracial dating, Lott filed a brief in 1981 on the school's behalf that said "if racial discrimination does not violate public policy, then surely discrimination in the practices of religion is no violation."
Lott has also been known to keep company with members of the Council of Conservative Citizens, a group known for it's extreme racial views. According to the group's newsletter, during a 1992 meeting, Lott said: "We need more meetings like this across the nation ...the people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy. Let's take it in the right direction, and our children will be the beneficiaries."
In the face of this history, the NAACP also issued a statement earlier this week that supported the call for Lott's resignation as Senate majority leader.
"Senator Lott's statement is the kind of callous, calculated, hateful bigotry that has no place in the halls of the Congress," the statement from Kweisi Mfume, president and CEO, said. "Sen. Lott should resign from the position of majority leader elect to make way for another member of the Republican Party whose moral compass is pointed toward improving race relations and not dredging up this nation's poor, polarizing performance in the past."
"We are asking that he resign from being the Senate majority leader, but it's up to the people of Mississippi whether he should continue to represent them," Shelton said.
"But in terms of representing the entire nation, he should not."