Rev Al Sharpton and Paris Hilton Part 2 - 6.7.2007.3

Continued from Rev Al Sharpton and Paris Hilton...

In Mr. Gibson’s own words, Paris Hilton getting released from prison and confined to a mansion with access to all her friends, family, servants and luxuries is “rich white privilege in action.” That is not to say that if you are African American, or Asian or Hispanic/Latino, and have a lot of money you can’t get the same privilege. It’s about money and not color of skin. Sadly, there aren’t a lot of Black Americans with net worth’s of the amounts needed to get this same treatment. If there were at least then the system would be fairer.

No one can doubt that an African American woman in jail right now would be released to home confinement if a psychiatrist said they were ‘about to have a nervous breakdown.’ It won’t happen. But I agree with Rev. Sharpton in his stated effort to go seek out women under similar circumstances and ask they receive the same treatment. It won’t happen, and thus some judge or law enforcement officer should pluck Ms. Hilton from her cozy mansion and but her spoiled butt back in a cell. As to the women Rev. Sharpton will pick to represent, I would hope they are “white daughters of coal miners” as well as African American and Hispanic/Latina women. The point is about justice, not color.

But be ready for the general news media to spin this in to a race issue. If they do it will divert attention from Paris Hilton to Rev. Al Sharpton. It will obscure what happened with issues that while real, do not apply here. Its smoke and mirrors played in front of televisions across America. And it may well happen.

Actually, thinking about it as I write I have to wonder if that isn’t the real reason Rev. Al Sharpton was sought out for a response. The Hilton family didn’t make and keep all their money because they are all as ‘smart’ as Paris. A diversion could help keep the most publicly recognizable family member out of prison and in her no doubt lavish domicile. If that is the case, then it wasn’t an inebriated exec but a very sober and far-planning Hilton that made the call. We shall see.

This is what I think, what do you think?