My panel on African American Presidential Campaigns will be on tonight at 3am EST if you're on the late night tip. We filmed it during the American Political Science Association in Philly during Labor Day Weekend.
The history of the panel was interesting. During the National Conference of Black Political Scientists, Al Sharpton came to town and allegedly showed the crack of his ass. I was there, and saw some of it....but not all of it. Hence the "allegedly."
So here's what is alleged (that is, what I cannot verify with my own eyes but COULD verify through second hand accounts):
*Sharpton asked the National Conference of Black Political Scientists to pay a significant honorarium even though we barely have enough money to cover the costs of the conference itself.
*Sharpton refused to stay in the hotel suite provided to him by NCOBPS, giving that room to one of his assistants. Instead he requested a suite at the Four Seasons.
*An assistant professor was tasked to escort Sharpton. The young professor wanted to bring an associate, but Sharpton refused to ride with the associate in the young professor's car forcing the professor to evict his own friend from his own car.
*When Sharpton arrived at the banquet to speak, he ignored most of the members of the organization and of the planning committee unless they could actually benefit him in some way. There was a major anti-war rally going on at the same time and one of the people at the conference was one of the planners. When Sharpton was given this information he gave this person every cell phone number he'd had...but blatantly ignored him until this point.
*Sharpton spoke at our banquet where a number of awards are given. After Sharpton gave his speech, the award ceremonies began...and Sharpton stood up to take a call. He didn't return.
By way of comparison, both Cynthia McKinney and Barbara Lee were not only present but engaged in the activities of the day.
So the next day we hold a panel on Sharpton. Ron Walters (author of White Nationalism, Black Interests and involved with both Jackson campaigns), Bob Starks (actively engaged in Sharpton's campaign), Katherine Tate (author of From Protest to Politics ), and Bill Fletcher (political scientist and activist) were on the panel. With the exception of Fletcher, the panelists talked about what Sharpton had to do to succeed in his campaign...ignoring the elephant in the room. When the chair of the conference (Robert Smith, author of We Have No Leaders) basically detailed how unprofessional, disrespectful, and anti-black Sharpton was, Walters asked (straightfaced) "what does this have to do with what we're discussing?"
At that point, I lost it, and cussed the panel out.
Literally. What the hell? They can't take my PhD away from me.
To make a long story shorter....after I cussed the panel out they asked me to serve on the APSA panel.
The panel itself, and the response to the panel, made me even more aware that democracy doesn't work without bastards.
Posted by at January 4, 2004 10:04 AM | TrackBackDid Darren Davis show up at this conference?
Posted by: Michael R Hicks at February 2, 2004 01:59 PMdarren is always at apsa. he just wasn't at this particular panel.
Posted by: lks at February 2, 2004 04:36 PM
Les, just wanted to say I was impressed with your presentation at the APSA convention. I actually saw the panel a week and half ago on CSPAN. I definitely respect you for getting some provocative points across and for not being intimidated by Dr. Walters, the "Dean" of Afican-American political scientists. I found this blog trying to get more info on the young brotha who was going against CW.
I consider myself a yellow-dog Democrat (credit that to seeing the Republicans in Michigan continually disrespect African-American voters during the 90's). However I respect the political space you are trying to lay out for people trying to find something pro-black in the GOP.
As a political junkie, I'll be checking your blog out for your thoughts on the upcoming election cycle. As a native Detroiter ( born and raised on the West side; Wayne State undergrad and now 3rd year med student at Phila. College of Osteopathic Med.), hopefully you'll have some commentaries on the state of Black politics in the D. As a Sci-Fi fan (B5 is the shit!!), maybe you'll have some intesting thoughts in that area as well. Keep up the good work! KJ
Posted by: KJ at January 5, 2004 10:47 PM