Negro, Please: Bob Johnson

I gotta start a Negro, Please series, with targets across the political and ideological spectrum, when they talk crazy.

Bob Johnson, the billionaire founder of Black Entertainment Television, yesterday slammed Sen. Obama while on the campaign stump for Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential bid. He argued that Sen. Obama's own record should give voters pause. "To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues — when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood that I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book — when they have been involved," Mr. Johnson said.

OK, so Bob Johnson is reiterating the implied drug dealer charge that Sen. Clinton's campaign against Sen. Obama has been doing for some time. Personally, if President George W. Bush's alleged cocaine abuse didn't hurt his presidential bid, then I don't see why Sen. Obama's youthful drug experimentation from 25 years or so ago should do so.

Many folks in the black blogosphere, including myself, across the ideological spectrum wondered how a man who made his fortune "doing something in the neighborhood" across Black America using the "b__s, bling, brew, and bud", booty-shaking videos formula (which, however, foul, obviously met a market demand so consumers share most of the blame here) could trip, today Johnson claims that his comments yesterday referred to Sen. Obama's work as a community organizer in Chicago "and nothing else. Any other suggestion is simply irresponsible and incorrect."

He's kidding right? I'd respect ol' boy a lot more if he had said, "Yeah, I went there. I ain't apologizing for it because [insert plug for Clinton camp]. Instead, Johnson denies that, as a Clinton surrogate, he was making a not-thinly-veiled reference to Sen. Obama's drug use as a youth. See Johnson's comments for yourself.

Angela Winters, a black moderate blogger, writes: "This is such B.S. that I can't even abide. Bob Johnson tried to paint Obama as being a druggie while Clinton was off fighting for black people. First, she was doing no such thing. Second, WTF with that? It's bad enough that he tried to use a black man w/drugs 'in the neighborhood' stereotype, but then he tried to cover it up with some lame excuse that he was referring to Obama's community service. Uhm...I don't have $1.5 billion dollars, but I'm not stupid. An idiot knows better.....You were talking about his community service in Chicago? Yeah, right. And what if he was snorting some coke, which he admitted was a mistake in that same book? The image of black men and drugs weren't so offensive to Bob when he was making millions off of it while running BET?"

Jack & Jill Politics, a black liberal blog that supports Sen. Obama's candidacy, writes: "This political theater is incredible and hilarious. We can't even get Sunday off around here. Of all the black people in the world who would attack Obama on behalf of the Clintons, it would be Bob Johnson, founder of Black Exploitation Television. Gimme a break!"

What About Our Daughters, a black blog, says hell no to a Clinton-Johnson tag team at a recent South Carolina political event: "This right here is ridiculous! Would she be sitting in church next to Larry Flint or Hugh Hefner? Heck No! So Why is Bob Johnson, exploiter of Black women and girls acceptable company? Bob Johnson is a modern day slave auctioneer. He sold Black women and girls down river, breast by breast-butt cheek by butt cheek and he did it all to get paid! THIS IS SOME FOOLISHNESS!"

I wouldn't go that far. As foul as BET (which is no longer black-owned) has been - even during Bob Johnson's tenure - he is not comparable to pornographers like Flynt and Hefner. What About Our Daughters continues in another post: "I am more disturbed by Clinton's relationship with Bob Johnson than with anything that Billary has said. I think that the Obama camp has handled this recent tussle quite well -- although I wish that they would take more offense to what Bob Johnson has done to Black people than what he is saying about Barack Obama now. That would definitely get me waving the Obama flag."