CNN Commits Journalism: Reveals Hakeem Jeffries' Troubling Past Statements and Concerning Lie
We’ve written about some of the issues with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) in the past, including his “election denialism” and his infamous uncle, Leonard Jeffries, known for his anti-Semitic and racist statements.
Leonard Jeffries was a professor at the City University of New York and had been the chair of their Black Studies department for twenty years, “recruiting like-minded scholars and attempting to expand the number of faculty and students within or associated with the department.” The issue blew up in the early 90s when his views became known, as were his references to the “sun people” (black people) and the “ice people” (people of European descent).
But Hakeem Jeffries — when confronted about his uncle — said he had only a “vague recollection” of the controversy, saying he couldn’t even recall coverage of it in the local press. Jeffries attended Binghamton University in upstate New York at the time.
“And so when a lot of the controversy took place and my brother and I were away at school,” Jeffries said. “There was no Internet during that era and I can’t even recall a daily newspaper in the Binghamton, N.Y., area but it wasn’t covering the things that the New York Post and Daily News were at the time.”
Except now CNN has committed journalism and found out that what Hakeem Jeffries said is not quite true. Indeed, it’s just a ridiculous lie.
Turns out that he knew a little bit more than he was letting on — he was a board member of the Black Student Union, and the BSU invited Leonard Jeffries to speak at the school for a fee after the controversy blew up in 1992. That upset other students on campus. Guess who spoke at a press conference defending the invitation? If you guessed Hakeem Jeffries, you would be correct.
After a Jewish student group called on the BSU to cancel the professor’s speaking engagement, Jeffries led a news conference defending his uncle and his speaking engagement.
“We have no intention of canceling a presentation that contains factual information, proven through scholarly documents and texts,” read Hakeem Jeffries from a statement reported in the student newspaper the Pipe Dream. “The proper way to way to debate scholarship is with scholarship–not with high-tech lynchings, media assassinations, character desecrations and venomous attacks.”
The BSU executive board also wrote an editorial in the student newspaper, Pipe Dream, defending Jeffries and condemning a comparison of the professor to the Ku Klux Klan.
But Hakeem Jeffries himself also wrote an editorial at the time about his uncle in “The Vanguard,” the BSU student newspaper.
“Dr. Leonard Jeffries and Minister Louis Farrakhan have come under intense fire,” wrote Jeffries in February 1992. “Where do you think their interests lie? Dr. Jeffries has challenged the existing white supremist educational system and long standing distortion of history. His reward has been a media lynching complete with character assassinations and inflammatory erroneous accusations.”
It gets worse.
“There has been a recent trend in the Black political arena which I believe threatens to sustain the oppression of the Black masses. The phenomenon I refer to is the rise of the Black conservative,” wrote Jeffries.
He referred to black conservatives as “token” and “opportunists,” and compared them to “house negroes.”
“Perhaps this is the problem with the Black conservative politician of today. Their political agenda is not designed to contribute to the upliftment of their people. These right-wing opportunists espouse the political ideology of the power structure and, in return, they are elevated to positions historically reserved for whites.”
Jeffries also attacked Black conservatives for buying into the “idea of the American dream,” which he said ignored “the economic reality of this country’s capitalist system,” adding that “capitalism necessitates the perpetuation of a permanent underclass.” [….]
He pointed to Black conservatives such as Clarence Thomas and Colin Powell as prominent examples of the phenomenon.
“Clarence Thomas was appointed by George Bush to the highest court in the nation. Colin Powell was appointed by George Bush to lead the military establishment ‘policemen of the Wall Street Bankers’, in the words of Cesar Augusto Sandino. Where do you think their interests lie?” wrote Jeffries.
CNN said that Hakeem Jeffries’ team made it clear that he “does not share the controversial views of his uncle espoused by his uncle over thirty years ago.” Notice the interesting construct there. It doesn’t condemn the “views” or acknowledge the statements were racist or anti-Semitic. The question also wasn’t just whether he shared them, but that he lied about what he knew, and now he has his own “controversial” statements in this editorial. He didn’t say “I was an idiot” thirty years ago and I learned more. Instead, he lied about what he knew and his involvement.
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