Tom Joyner to Juanita Bynum: "Are you telling your flock to vote for Obama?"

[journalist3072]

Normally, I'm a huge supporter of radio personality Tom Joyner. Specifically, I love the work that he has done to support our historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs).

But lately, he's been more and more of a disappointment to me, especially with his advancing this notion that Black America should support Obama for President, because he's Black.

And Tom reached a new low on yesterday. He was interviewing Prophetess Juanita Bynum, who he ran into over the weekend at the Oprah Winfrey fundraiser for Obama.

During the interview, he said to Juanita Bynum: “I’m glad to see you supporting Barack Obama, as I am too. Are you telling your flock to vote for Obama?”

Is Tom Joyner really that clueless? I do not know whether Bynum's church is tax exempt or not, but if her church has a tax exempt status, then I believe that would be illegal for her to tell her "flock" to vote for a specific candidate.

Even more importantly, Tom Joyner's suggestion that someone in the ministry needs to tell their congregation who to vote for, is especially dangerous. Does he believe people aren't smart enough to decide on their own who to vote for; that somehow they need to be told who to vote for?

Whatever happened to just telling folks to vote their own best interests, and leaving it up to them to decide who presents their best interests?

[Freddie Stubbs]

1. More importantly, what was the minister's response?

:shrug:

[journalist3072]

5. She did not answer whether she told her congregation to vote for him. However, she did say that

she's going to be traveling with his campaign to support him.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. The 'Profitess'....I mean Prophetess is busy getting divorced.

Her 'bishop' husband beat the crap out of her. Sounds like a match made in .... well... heaven?
It's a daily soap opera in Atlanta. As The Stomach Turns...

[Connie_Corleone]

3. I'm surprised she was there after getting beat up by her husband.

[sandnsea]

4. women's groups aren't telling women

to vote for Hillary so we'll have our first woman President. ???

Well oh my goodness, yes they are. I've seen it right here on DU in fact.

But it's racism if African Americans do it??

:crazy:

[journalist3072]

6. Well, in this respect I'm an equal opportunity basher. It's wrong for women's groups to tell women

to support Hillary simply because she's a woman.

And yes, as an African-American myself, I do believe it's racist to say vote for the Black candidate because he's black. I think we as African-Americans would be outraged (and rightly so), if someone said they were voting for Clinton, Edwards, Kucinich, Gravel, etc....just because they are White.

Just because someone looks like me, doesn't mean they represent my values.

And I'm absolutely offended by the notion that a specific group of people (whether it's women, or African-Americans, etc) need to be told who to vote for. That kind of monolithic group think is dangerous.

Like I said in my original post, whatever happened to just encouraging people to vote for their own best interests, and then letting them decide which candidate represents their best interests?

That is what I believe we should be doing.

[sandnsea]

7. Do you support affirmative action?

Because I don't see it any differently. If you think an African American candidate relates to you better because of shared values due to your racial background, there's not a thing in the world wrong with including that in your calculations on voting. If I thought Hillary represented feminist values that relate to me, I'd vote for her. I just don't think she does. But it's all fair to consider.

[journalist3072]

9. Yes, I support affirmative action....here's why

I do not support the idea of quotas (i.e. saying we must have 3 Blacks, 2 Hispanics, 2 Koreans, etc).

But I do support affirmative action. I believe it is a corrective program to right past wrongs.

Here is my ideal notion of how affirmative action should be used. I will use the workplace as an example.

Let's say you have 3 equally qualified candidates applying for the same position. Two of the candidates are White, and the other candidate is Black. They each have their doctoral degree, and have the same amount of experience which makes them qualified for the position that they are applying for.

Let's suppose that no African-American has ever held the position which is open. And so the employer says to themself "I've just interviewed 3 equally qualified candiates; two White, and one Black---all possessing the same amount of experience that has equipped them to hold this position. And guess what? No African-American has ever held this position before. So, I'm going to select the African-American candidate."

That is my ideal of how affirmative action could and should be used as a corrective program to right past discriminative wrongs.

[sandnsea]

11. And there you go

So why shouldn't African Americans apply the exact same thinking to the Presidency. Obama is easily as qualified as Hillary or Edwards, so why shouldn't they say to themselves, "I'm going to select the African-American candidate."

Divide and conquer tactics. It's not only Republicans who use them.

[journalist3072]

13. Well, the problem for me is that

I do not believe Obama to be as equally qualifed as Sen. Clinton. I believe he has shown that throughout the debates---that he is not ready. That's my own personal view.

Also, I have several other issues with Obama, including 1) the fact that he voted to report Condi Rice's nomination as SoS, out of the Foreign Relations Committee, and send it to the full Senate. I do not believe she was qualifed to be SoS, and I thought her nomination should have died in committee. 2) I am still disappointed in Obama for not even bothering to vote, when the Senate held the vote on whether to hold a no-confidence vote on Alberto Gonzales. Obama did not even want to be on record, as stating whether or not he believed the Senate should have a no-confidence vote. That's political cowardice.

Again, I believe that elections are about determing which candidate you believe represents your intersts and values. And I make no apologies for believing that this particular Black candidate (Obama) doesn't necessarily represent my interests.

[sandnsea]

15. So typical

Clinton votes to confirm Rice, yet somehow you pass that by and concoct some lame excuse to bash Obama.

Cloture on Gonzales wasn't going to pass. There will be lots of votes candidates miss and their campaigns will make hay out of nothing, like they do every single year.

And anybody who is black who says the word black in connection to Obama, is a racist.

It's all just bullshit campaign rhetoric.

I honestly don't know why anybody supports Hillary, unless they're part of the upper 25% of Democrats who like to rally around progressive causes. They didn't do anything for the people, they supported the war, they let Bush get by with his war lies, they support outsourcing, they have the most corrupt fundraisers around. If that's what you support, go to it.

[AspenRose]

8. I heard a black guy on Ed Schultz say today he was voting for Kucinich

And that he resented the notion that he HAD to vote for Obama because he was black

[journalist3072]

10. I'm supporting Sen. Clinton, but I absolutely agree with that caller about being offended

by the notion that we as African-Americans should support Obama simply because he's black.

As Rev. Al Sharpton always says, just because someone is my color, doesn't mean they are my kind.

He's absolutely correct. I think people like Condi Rice, Colin Powell, and Rod Paige and Michael Steele are prime examples of that.

[AspenRose]

12. "There's no difference between a black snake and a white snake....

....both bite." --Thurgood Marshall

That's like saying hispanics should vote for Bill Richardson....I'm not going to insult their intelligence like that.

[journalist3072]

14. Exactly right!! eom

[politicasista]

16. I don't agree with him all the time, but

I don't have a problem with him openly supporting Obama. He is a Clinton fan, but I don't see anythng wrong with him encouraging people to support a black man.

I think in the end, people will make their own decisions about each candidate and where he/she stands on the issues.

[Catherine Vincent]

17. Joyner can suggest to his listeners to vote for Obama if he wants but

I'm sure he realizes they won't listen to him. I doubt if his other sidekicks support Obama. They seem to be a mixed bunch.