Jesse Jackson is an asshole

Why does no one ever criticize Jesse Jackson for the stupid, stupid things he says?

For good reason, he’s upset about Michael Richards’s hideous name-calling rant (I won’t call it “racist”: to me, racism is something that goes beyond mere name-calling, and I think that if we, as a society, decide that mere name-calling is racism, then we are doing a terrible disservice to people who suffer from real racism—the kind that doesn’t just hurt their feelings; the kind that persecutes people by denying them the same rights that other people have.).

Anyway, here’s Jesse Jackson sticking up for blacks by trashing not only Michael Richards but also the Seinfeld show. Because it featured only whites [emphasis mine]

Though Richards made an apologetic call to the civil rights leader last week, Jackson said he wants to use the comic’s outburst as an opportunity to start a national discussion about “racial insensitivity and indifference” in American society.

“We want to raise the larger question of racial insensitivity … and have a dialogue,” Jackson said. …

Jackson said Hollywood has a history of racial inequality and singled out “Seinfeld” for not reflecting reality. He noted that other than the occasional appearance of a black lawyer, the show was “lily white.”

Really, now. Is it somehow helpful, when talking about racial insensitivity, to paint everyone associated with a “guilty party”—in this case the Seinfeld show—with the same broad brush?