Carsonogenic

On the same day that Don Imus gets fired for racial insensitivity the City Council is asked to approve the naming of a street in Bed-Stuy after the infamous Sonny Carson. As the NY Daily News reports this morning, this is not siting well with Council Speaker Quinn. As she told the paper, Carson has a "clear history of statements saying he was anti-white."

Not only that. What Sonny had said, when accused of being anti-Semitic, was that he hated all white people not just the Jews. For those of us old enough to remember Carson, along with Vann, had played the key roles in fomenting the anti-Semitic response to the 1968 teachers strike (one that we also opposed as a teacher at the time). Carson also played a racist role in the boycott of a Korean deli that led to the demise of Mayor Dinkins. Carson was a determined enemy of immigrant entrepreneurs in the neighborhoods of Brooklyn.

Now we have disagreed with a number of the Speaker's initiatives but as far as Sonny Carson goes, she is right on target and she needs to make this a policy issue for the council. If racism isn't to be tolerated on the airwaves than it shouldn't be memorialized on the streets of this city. Calling Al Sharpton!