Over the years, Sharpton has earned a reputation of playing the race card to score political points. On Wednesday, during his eulogy for Tyre Nichols – the young black man who had been beaten by five black police officers during a traffic stop in Memphis – Sharpton made this statement:
Sharpton: "I can't speak for everybody in Memphis. I can't speak for everybody gathering. But for me, I believe if that man had been white, you wouldn't have beat him like that that night."
Bishop E.W. Jackson is the host of "The Awakening" on American Family Radio. Knowing Sharpton's reputation, Jackson predicted the left-leaning civil rights leader would bring division.
"And so he has," Jackson tells AFN. "[Sharpton] is the high priest of the cult of racial grievance – and even when there's no racial element to the story, he's got to introduce it because he's the high priest of that cult."
In doing that, Jackson adds, Sharpton performed a "disservice" to the entire country. "Because we're all unified in wanting our police officers to conduct themselves with integrity, as most do," he states.
Tim Parrish is a member of the national advisory council for the Project 21 Black Leadership Network. The remarks by the "race-baiter in chief" – as he describes Sharpton – do nothing but fuel the fire of racism.
"I'm actually outraged – and I join thousands of other black Americans who are outraged by his comments," Parrish shares. "This guy … is using the pain of this family, who's suffering the loss of one of their loved ones, to pay his bills."
Sharpton's bottom line, he says, is based on race-baiting. "[He's] traveling the country to funerals of black men to make these sort of incendiary comments," adds Parrish.
Project 21 chairman Horace Cooper stated on Fox News just last month that "race grifters" like Sharpton don't speak for the majority of black Americans. Sharpton, he said, tells "wokesters and white liberals" whatever they want to hear "because that's where the cash is."
