Black GOP Congressman Livid With Al Sharpton’s Boycott of Billionaire

(StraightNews.org) – Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana has condemned civil rights activist Al Sharpton for protesting against billionaire Bill Ackman over his part in the sacking of former Harvard President Claudine Gay. Sharpton and his supporters picketed Ackman’s office in New York, and Kennedy said Mr. Sharpton takes the wrong approach to race relations in believing that ignoring race is, in itself, racist.

“We’ve made a lot of racial progress in this country. And I think we’ve reached the point where most – not all, but most – Americans don’t think about that much about race. They think about character,” Kennedy said before adding, “To a bear, we all taste like chicken.”

The Senator went on to state that Sharpton believes not focusing on a person’s race is an act of racial prejudice. “I think he believes that to disregard race is racist,” Kennedy said, and he believes this view is contrary to the US Constitution.

Claudine Gay resigned from the Harvard Presidency following an antisemitism and plagiarism scandal. Gay, the first black President of the elite school, was grilled by New York Republican Elise Stefanik in Congress during an investigation into antisemitism in American universities after the terror attack on Israel on October 7. Gay refused to say that calling for the death of Jews breached Harvard’s code of conduct, and a video of the encounter went viral online, attracting more than a billion views.

Bill Ackman, who attended Harvard, was outraged by Gay’s stance and openly called for her resignation, advocating the withdrawal of donations until she stood down. Veteran civil rights activist Mr. Sharpton said Ms. Gay had been used as a scapegoat in the right-wing fight against Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DEI) employment processes.

Ackman, who has donated millions to Harvard, argues that “DEI is inherently a racist and illegal movement.” Still, Sharpton accused the businessman of declaring “war on affirmative action” and defining himself as a “rightwinger in terms of dealing with racial equality.”