Saint Louis has been blessed with a visit from Al Sharpton who has taken the side of supporters of a boycott against the Saint Louis Public Schools. He came into town last night for a church rally and joined a group of protesters carrying a child in coffin on a route to City Hall this morning. That’s gonna cost someone a whole lot of therapy.
The boycott was unsuccessful with about 4.5% more students attending the first day of school this year over last. While not as strong of a day as school management had hoped for, it is improvement. It’s important to note that nearly 10% of students are in transitional housing or homeless in the SLPS and beyond that, nearly many schools have 25% mobility rates during the year, so moving around during the summer is a challenge to many families.
The boycott supporters include local radio show host and obnoxious twit, Lizz Brown. She attempted a stand down campaign in 2002 against Jean Carnahan to no noticeable affect in the ward vote totals. She is generally disliked by most black political leaders with the exception of a couple Northside alderman.
But the important news for Al is that he is lashing out at his base. He attacked St. Louis’ black leadership that generally opposed the boycott by calling them rented negros and Uncle Tom’s. While such language might buy him a few votes amongst the nihilist faction of St. Louis Black Politics, he isn’t going to win a majority of the black vote who he is calling, well, rented negros.
Taking on your base ala Sister Souljah is a useful technique. Pissing on your base’s leg is generally just unproductive.
What’s Al’s strategy then? Get on Tv?