SAY IT AIN'T SO, BEAU (via John Resnick)

Doing the Hustle (Again): Jackson and NASCAR. (Deroy Murdock, May 2, 2003, National Review)

ow fitting that the Rev. Jesse Jackson has subjected NASCAR to his unique brand of activism. Like so much of Jackson's world, car racing involves noise, smoke, and spinning in circles while ultimately going nowhere. Meanwhile, poor blacks in the bleachers wonder how this helps them.

Jacksonologist Peter Flaherty - president of the Fairfax, Virginia-based National Legal and Policy Center - studies the reverend's behavior. In an April Capital Research Center report, Flaherty explains how Jackson shook down the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, a sports body light on black participants.

"The fact of the matter is there is frustration because of exclusion," Jackson told a 1999 conference attended by NASCAR chairman, Bill France Jr. "We must now turn that pain to power. We were qualified to play baseball before 1947. We are qualified to race cars now."

NASCAR responded by paying $150,000 to sponsor Jackson's Rainbow-PUSH/Citizenship Education Fund conference in 2001 plus another $100,000 last year. NASCAR anted up even though it cannot sponsor teams. Companies do that. Moreover, Jackson has not demonstrated NASCAR's alleged racism.

One somehow would have expected better of NASCAR. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 3, 2003 6:02 AM