August 01, 2007 @ 6:15 am

Al Sharpton on Barack Obama (Q&A)

Keith Murphy

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From our September 2007 issue.

From our September 2007 issue: Al Sharpton on Barack Obama, in his own words. Has Barack Obama said anything that makes you think he has a clear view of the civil rights agenda?
I think that he, early, caused a lot concerns for me. He was not talking about affirmative action. There was a ballot initiative in Michigan. He went in and supported the incumbent senator, didn't say anything about the affirmative action, didn't support a sister that was running for mayor against Daly. In fact, he endorsed Daly against her in March of this year. . . So, we asked a question. As of late, we've done a lot more talking. He came to our National Action Network Convention. He's beginning to show more progress. So, I'm not as concerned as I was. I'm not all the way there yet, but I think he has made a lot of improvement. What would it take for you to really endorse the man?
I want to see a strong stand on issues that concern people - the redistribution of wealth. I want to see that they will say, "I will appoint an attorney general that will police misconduct all the way to job discrimination." I want to address the criminal justice system. I want them to address economy. And I want them to say that "I support a single parent plan. A health care program where it is mandatory that every American, they have their health coverage. That's what I want, 'cause then you're rallying around a cause. The cause can't be the candidate, the candidate must be around the cause. The reason is for that is that if they lose, at least we will have advanced the cause. That will be in the debate, that will be in the discussion, and the winner will have to deal with it. But if the cause is only the candidate, when the candidate loses we've lost everything. So, when I ran or when Jesse Jackson ran even though we didn't win, our causes became more popular. And in fact, many of things that Kerry ended up running on and some of what Hillary, Barack, and Edwards is talking about now is what I talked about in '04. If you only have the candidate as the cause, you gotta lose if he lose. When you got a candidate who represents a cause, you can't lose, because the cause may win even if the candidate doesn't win. So, the cause is sometimes bigger than the candidate?
The cause ought to always be bigger than the candidate, and when I said Obama is the cause, the cause can't be Obama. The cause has got to be what you stand for. You gotta decide that. How important would it be to have a black president?
It would be a great moment as long as the black candidate was supporting the interest that would inevitably help our people. A lot of my friends went with Clarence Thomas and regret it to this day. I don't assume that just because somebody's my color, they're my kind. But I'm warming up to Obama, but I'm not there yet.

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