The Tawana Brawley affair - Another View

[JustinF]

This is one of those stories where the black press and the mainstream media sounded like they were describing two different worlds. Sadly, most people don't read the black press. I love newspapers like the Amsterdam News. When Mayor La Guardia tried to censor a commision report on the Harlem Riots in the 1930s (because it blamed the riots on white racism), the Amsterdam News obtained a copy and printed it.

I've been looking at some articles by Tawana Brawley's lawyer, Alton Maddox. I don't know what to believe about this story cause I've never been interested enough to really look in to it deeply. To me, even if the accusations are true, it just isn't a very important issue to me. Sharpton couldn't commit the crimes other politicians commit even if he wanted to. He doesn't have the power.

However, I heard many people in the Democratic Party saying they refuse to embrace Sharpton because of the Brawley affair. I figured these people might be interested in hearing another perspective on this story.

There's too much here for me to sum up, but the most interesting things to me were the questions of why, if it was a hoax, was Tawana not prosecuted? And if it's true that documents about the case are being held from the public, why is that the case?

Tawana is smelling like a rose this spring
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=42218&sID=34

A legal primer on the Brawley appeal
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=12632&sID=34

Oh no! Kobe joins Tawana as racial victim
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/article/article.asp?NewsID=29678&sID=34

1987: The remake of Al Sharpton
http://www.amsterdamnews.com/News/search/Article_Search.asp?NewsID=13660&sID=34

[aquart]

1. My students tipped me off.

I was subbing at Martin Luther King Jr. High School. We were talking current events. At the time, I, and the whole country, believed Tawana and I was upset for her. My kids, teenagers, didn't. They flat out told me to look in the home, check out the home.

I think I even argued with them. They looked at me as someone who didn't get it.

[cmkramer]

2. Tawana Brawley

I read a book about the case some years back, and frankly, this was not Sharpton's finest hour. If I recall, it turned out that she made the whole thing up to avoid getting into trouble for coming home late. Apparently she had a rather abusive stepfather who beat her. Unfortunately, there were some unscupulous types who were all too willing and eager to exploit the situation -- including THE AMSTERDAM NEWS -- and it spiraled way out of control. The last I heard she was doing well in school -- I think she went to Howard University. I imagine she's gotten on with her life.

I don't think Sharpton ought to be judged on this one case alone. It's going to be part of the mix -- much as Clinton's legacy will always include the Lewinsky affair -- but it's not the whole story.

[K-W]

3. Sharpton's speech hides the fact that he operates on simple principles

and is very easily mislead if those principles fail him. Thats always been my read on him.

[JustinF]

4. But

According to the articles referenced above, they never established that it was a hoax. And I believe Tawana still claims her story was true to this day. If the things Maddox says are true then I think there are serious reasons to doubt the conventional wisdom about this story.

[Name removed]

5. Deleted message

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[tkmorris]

7. Not Fair

The guy is defending Sharpton in a way. Oh I understand, you believe it's just an opportunity to raise the issue from the dead again, but if it's a Freep it's a good one. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt.

FWIW, I don't blame Sharpton at all. We are all wrong sometimes, and even at that I don't believe that the truth of this case was ever established. As the man says, Bradley was never prosecuted and she would have been, I have no doubt, except that the police had good reason to want to just let it die.

[LTR]

8. Al's main crime there...

...was believing a little girl.

He did what he thought was right. And I can't say I really blame him.

[Baltimoreboy]

6. Not his finest hour?

Thanks for the understatement.

[HamdenRice]

9. A local perspective on Sharpton and Brawley

Here is the view of a black New Yorker. First of all, the Amsterdam News (where believe it or not, I was a reporter for a few months as a post college job way back in the early 80s) is not the Amsterdam of the 1930s or 1960s. In fact, shortly after I left, there was a change of management and it became a really unreliable newspaper that most black people stopped reading. This is very unfortunate.

Brawley probably did pull off a hoax. Sharpton pretty much admits this, although Alton Maddox continues to propogate the hoax.

Sharpton, himself, is a big paradox and disappointment. He has raised important issues of police brutality and racial justice in New York when no other politicians or leaders would touch them. On the other hand, it's pretty clear to me that Sharpton is basically an opportunist who has no core beliefs or commitments.

Did you know that early in his career, he was a paid informant for the FBI, informing on other community leaders? That was reported in major newspapers like Newsday and the New York Times. Did you know that his 2004 "campaign" was financed by Republicans to embarrass the Democrats and alienate swing voters by keeping him in the debates?

One more interesting local perspective: my mother was a school aid at PS 134 in Queens from the early 1960s. There was a little boy there named Al Sharpton who was living with his grandmother. Whenever any other kid got in trouble, Al would run to the principle's office and try to defend him. He used to say, Mrs S---, believe me, one day I'm going to be an important preacher and civil rights leader!