According to the South Carolina newspaper, The State:

Jackson sharply criticized presidential hopeful and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama for “acting like he’s white” in what Jackson said has been a tepid response to six black juveniles’ arrest on attempted-murder charges in Jena, La.

Jackson later tried to claim he hadn’t meant what he said, or said what he said, or meant what he whatever, but even from the words of the backpedal, it sounded pretty certain that he said what he said, though perhaps he regretted it later on.

I have to say that if I were Obama, I’d be pretty offended by such a sentiment; perhaps that’s what Jackson later realized, or figured other people would think.

Race should not matter. And if race should not matter, then Obama should not be held to a higher standard, to be a spokesperson and special representative for the black community (unless he volunteered and the community accepted him). I don’t recall Obama jumping up and down, saying, “Look at me, I’m black!” Everyone else seems to have been paying attention to his race, but Obama, as far as I can tell, has not made it a rallying point or anything. It’s as if a black candidate has to be “black,” noticeably so. He can’t just be a candidate, it seems.

What should matter is ethics and morality and justice–in which case any candidate who fails to speak out about the injustice of what happened in Jena is guilty of not caring; not any one of them should be more or less called upon to care or speak out.

Jackson seemed to realize this:

“If I were a candidate, I’d be all over Jena,” Jackson said after an hour-long speech at Columbia’s historically black Benedict College.

He did not say, “If I were a black candidate, I’d be all over Jena.” In fact, any of the Democratic candidates would do well to pay attention to that issue; it means a lot to quite a few people–aside, of course, from being an important matter unto itself.

But the whole “you’ve got to pay attention to black issues because you’re black,” that’s the kind of thing that conservatives jab Democrats for. And it’s wrong. Not because Obama didn’t go to Jena, but because any of the candidates didn’t go there.

Of course, how many of us could be expected to pay attention to racial injustice in Louisiana when O.J. is catching our attention so? If only there were some kind of organization whose members were tasked to find out relevant goings-on and, oh, I don’t know, “report” on them or something, so the people could know more about what’s actually important and not be so easily distracted. Too bad we don’t have one of those.