Why We Can't Move Beyond Sharpton

Is it a question of his relevance or our interest?

The Rev. Al Sharpton, according to Ta-Nehisi Coates in Sunday's Outlook section, is a media-savvy digression from real social and political progress. "Sharpton needs the media to keep up the illusion of his relevance," Coates writes. But Sharpton should not be so quickly written off -- at least until the media and politicians pay more sustained attention to the enduring problem of civil rights.

Coates argues that Sharpton is irrelevant in part because his overstatements and misstatements have undermined his own legitimacy. He cites, among the most notable transgressions, Sharpton's support for the Tawana Brawley rape allegations.

As someone who grew up in a small New York town near where that incident supposedly took place, I can certainly understand the anger and disillusionment many people felt when Brawley's claims proved false. But surely Sharpton's role in the Brawley case, now two decades ago, was not so egregious that it has prevented subsequent redemption. Jena Six is just the most recent example of legitimate cases he's championed since.

In fact, Sharpton may play such a central role in today's injustice debate in part because of the excesses of his earlier campaigns. It often takes social fireworks and political outbursts to get national media coverage of flawed and unglamorous black teenagers -- whether in the old confederate states or remote pockets of northern racism. And, by now, Sharpton is nothing if not well practiced at fireworks and outbursts. As Coates acknowledges, "Indeed, the one thing that [Martin Luther] King and Sharpton share is the use of the media and spectacle to advance their ends."

True, as Coates writes, Sharpton's presidential run in 2004 was an embarrassing failure. But that's not to say that Sharpton didn't have an impact on that election cycle. Kerry and John Edwards might have not made quite so much of issues of concern to minority voters had it not been for Sharpton's annoying little campaign. Moreover, the Democratic debates would have been even better entrées to a good long nap had Sharpton not been involved.

Yes, as Coates suggests, Sharpton may not be the best person to represent the "complexity" of the "rise of a generation of African Americans with unparalleled opportunities." But is this a problem for Sharpton or the media? By focusing on larger-than-life Sharpton, we avoid real questions about why racial injustice and socioeconomic inequality persist.

The writer is a professor of political science at Howard University.