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Posted By: howard

The Tawana Brawley case was small potatoes compared to the Freddie's Fashion Mart incident. In Harlem in the mid-90's a jewish store owner raised the rent of his black sub-tenant. Even though he had done this because his own rent had been raised (by a black church, no less) Sharpton called it an attempt by a rich Jew to drive a small black store out of business. Sharpton organized a massive and lengthy protest against Freddie's Fashion Mart which was the jewish-owned store. Shoppers at Freddie's were harrassed, spit on and occasionally beaten. Some of the protesters were seen to simulate striking a match as if they would burn the store down. Sharpton went on TV several times to whip up the frenzy, at one point saying that they would not stand by while a "brother" was forced out of business by a "white interloper".

Predictably, one of the protesters went in the store and after shooting a few people burned the store down, killing seven or eight people. Naturally, Sharpton was "shocked". Like Imus, he went on several news shows to claim he was not a racist, at least once uttering the classic bigot line, "some of my best friends are white". Mostly, however, he went on the news to say that the attack was not his fault. Sadly, he emerged unscathed and more powerful than ever.

I could load this post with racist quotes from Sharpton but I'd be writing all day.

Howard