Open Letter To Al Sharpton

Dear Rev. Sharpton:

As a preface, let me first say that I have listened to your show over time and although I don't always agree on the position that you take on certain issues, I do appreciate what you are doing in the Black community and your effort to keep issues that affect our community in the public arena.

With that said, I was a commenter about the return of Don Imus to the airwaves on your show on the afternoon of December 3rd, when I made the comment to the effect of, "It's not what you are called, but what you answer to...”

In that exchange, in which you became very agitated, perhaps because of the comments of the previous caller, it seems that my comments regarding this issue were not only taken out of context, but also personally, which certainly wasn't my intent. What I said, was that WE as a PEOPLE (not you personally or your organization) need to use the current wave of activism to better effect by choosing productive fights to pick, as we have much more pressing issues surrounding our world and community. I also said that although we saw a kinder, gentler Imus today, what was done really doesn't seem effective to us "house Negroes" (as one of your callers referred to me as being, again not you), because of the fact that he has returned to the air, he has lost no money, he has a new, re-tooled show with two Black sidekicks (the new Robin and Beetlejuice, perhaps?) which give the visual impression that he's "down", and the notoriety given to him through all this free publicity (even bad publicity is good, right?), he's more powerful than when he left and with a bigger, rabid audience since he left. The man had an eight month vacation with publicity, his base is probably much larger, the advertisers are back, and the man rolled up to work in a limo, probably laughing his behind off and saying the word, 'ho, during the entire ride. So he won't say it out loud, great, but he'll just be more careful, but again, he does have that right, offensive or not, to say what he wants under the First Amendment, and what has been done with this situation has more serious ramifications, as it starts us as a society into the realms of censorship. Careful, sir, your show may be next, based on the same logic and rationale. Classic Newton's law, which says, "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."

Your argument is that wasn’t about changing his point of view, you said that the point was to change the standards of radio broadcasting. If that was the final objective, because if you go back and listen to your archive that wasn’t always the case, you wanted him off initially, then that's a beautiful thing and kudos to all who made it come about. I have no problem with that and I'm glad that you were able to accomplish that. That should have been the objective anyway. You also got agitated and asked me if I was a part of your network and the movement to remove Imus, of which I was not, but to say because I am not a part of yours or any other Black organization, doesn't mean I don't fight the struggle EVERY DAY. I am the parent of five children, one of them being a son, and being a Black woman, I'm very aware of the fights and struggles, large and small, that we are faced with on a daily basis. I choose to pick the fights that are most effective for me in my neighborhood, admittedly small steps, but when you have a long journey to make, one must use small steps in order not to tire one out and have energy for the actual fight. To imply that because I'm not a part of any organization means I'm not fighting, is an arrogant and presumptuous statement to make at best. No one can do everything, but everyone can do something. You can choose to go big, or go small, but you gotta go, right? I choose to go small; it's what's more effective for me and MY neighborhood. But I do what I do, as you do what you do, but I think that neither effort is without merit.

Black people are going through a renaissance of sorts, in which the activism spirit of the Civil Rights Movement is being resurrected. Again, a beautiful thing. But what I'm seeing is a lot of rushing to judgment, bickering and infighting between the major Black organizations, and a lack of vision of the time line of the issues affecting us as a whole. For example, I'm trying to get the word out about curious goings-on with the Georgia Board of Elections (contact me if you'd like to hear more), the discounting of thousands of voters affected by Hurricane Katrina, and other issues affecting the upcoming elections as well as issues that affect our economy and our neighborhood's economies. Are we looking at this now and making sure that we can make a change before it's too late in November? Is it on anyone's radar yet? I say, no, and by the time it does and the problems start cropping up, it will be too late to change because we have spent all of our time and resources on something that could have been put on the back burner. We're upset that a man, who was a bigot when I was young and growing up in New York City, expressed his feelings out loud? We Blacks (and other minorities) have been called detrimental names for years. Our previous leaders in the Movement, ancestors, even ourselves, have been called much worse, but they kept their heads up and eye on the prize, which led to them earning the respect that they sought. What I hold on to is the pride instilled in me by my family and the knowledge in that I'm secure in who I am when confronted with such, I do as I was taught to do. The rest will follow. Not to say that the Don Imus situation isn't an important issue, but with our neighborhoods and economy in danger from losing homes and businesses due to the sub prime mortgage fiasco, which was an issue that was left to run unchecked and under the radar, why should any political party take us, as a people, seriously when we are so easily distracted by lesser matters. Should we demand respect? Absolutely. But you have to earn it, through actions and how we carry ourselves, we give people the ammunition to shoot ourselves with every time.

I have no problem listening to an opposing view, often one can come away with a new understanding or in some cases, the exchange may lead to a change of position through intelligent discussion. I'm perfectly capable of that emotion, and I suspect that you may as well, although I didn't hear that today. I don't presume to know the inner workings of your mind, as you aren't privy to my thought processes, but to take what I said and twist, misinterpret and broadcast my comments to seems as if I attacked you and your organization personally, and called both ineffective is just dead wrong and not keepin' it real, sir. Listen to the archives and please get it right. Just as Don Imus was wrong for calling the Rutgers team out of their name, you have done so to me, in a lesser manner. I don't have a radio talk show, I'm not heard coast-to-coast, but if you are going to open your phone lines for comments, let the people say what they have to say, and get it right, or you're doing us all a disservice.

In closing, I will continue to listen to your show, it's important that we hear what our people are thinking, and even after all this, I still think that what you are doing is a wonderful thing for the collective whole, but if we are going to pick up the ball and run with it, we all need to make sure we don't run to the wrong end zone.


Respectfully yours,

Stacey Hopkins
Atlanta, Georgia