John McCain Wants President Obama To Pardon Boxer Jack Johnson

lea322
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 04:39 pm: [report]

Well…was he guilty?

As Pretty Does
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 04:58 pm: [report]

Precisely… did he do it or not? Whether or not he was the “first” to be singled out and prosecuted is irrelevant if he did in fact transport a woman over the border for prostitution purposes. If he simply smuggled the lady over ‘cause he really liked her, and he was unfairly accused, then that’s another story.

H. Blue
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 05:14 pm: [report]

I read about him a while back, and just did again to refresh my memory.  He did consort with prostitutes, but as we know, a lot of celebrities do.  I think his worst offense was that he consorted with white women, and people didn’t like it.  His second wife was a former prostitute, and also white. 
He had an interesting life.  Doesn’t sound like he was the greatest guy- apparently he beat the crap out of his first wife several times and she ended out killing herself.  He married twice more after that.
He was probably guilty, and he only served one year.  I think the thing that peple protest is that he was probably treated more harshly than a white man would have been, facing the same charges.

H. Blue
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 05:29 pm: [report]

Although apparently the report that she was a prostitute has been argued.  So they think his incarceration was just a product of racism.

Ginger
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 06:03 pm: [report]

I had a teacher in high school who made damn sure we all learned about this because he liked teaching us the little interesting parts of history.

Johnson was the first to be prosecuted under The Mann Law because it was basically created to put him in jail. He was a black athlete trouncing all of these white ones. And, to make matters worse, he kept picking up white women. Some may have been prostitutes, and I think his girlfriends later reported lots of abuse from him but the real issue was that most of them were white. It’s bad enough he’s making all the white boxers look bad, but then he has to take the women that should rightfully be theirs (because women just belonged to men who are the same color as them) out to dinner with his profits? Nope. That’s not going to keep happening.

So yeah, I’d say that the whole thing was just a tad bit racist.

smh
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 06:10 pm: [report]

Would this even be a question if his name was Polanski? This man unlike Polanski who did not even violated the law, had a trial that was flawed, was sentenced and fled but came back served his time - despite the fact that 1) the law did not then and does not now make sense 2) there were biases and flaws in the system.

A pardon posthumously does nothing and serves no purpose I fail to see why this is even an issue; save for the transparent attempt to create a distraction. Then again this is the same country where an interracial couple can be denied a marriage license because of a racist, bigot with an over inflated sense of himself - despite the progress that has been made.

CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on October 17 2009 @ 02:02 pm: [report]

Everything around that time period was based in racism. It’s the reason marijuana is illegal, and schedule 1, now. The all white government wanted to keep white women away from mexicans and black guys in jazz clubs and that is why we have prohibition.

FYI, the Los Angeles mayor is on the Mexican drug lords side when he said that nearly 100% of dispensaries are illegal. What a douche.

cattgirl813
wrote on October 17 2009 @ 02:53 pm: [report]

The racist part of this whole story is how Sen. McCain is using the Jack Johnson story to push President Obama into a potentially embarrassing dilemma.  If President Obama pardons Mr. Johnson, Republicans are almost guaranteed to use this against President Obama in one form or another.  (“See?  He supports a scary black man who beat up whites, abused women, and transported women across state lines for immoral purposes.  Is he really what America needs?”)  If he ignores the request, Republicans will try to use it to challenge his authenticity in the African American community.  (“See?  He was unfairly castigated in his time because he was a powerful black man guilty of nothing except being a good fighter who loved white women, and yet Obama won’t pardon him.  Why is that?  Does he not care about African American history?”)  The question at hand is this: If Sen. McCain is genuinely concerned about getting Mr. Johnson a pardon (which he does deserve) and righting the wrongs done to him, why didn’t he fight for it when President Bush was in office?  He had plenty of opportunity, but never did.  This is yet another display of mudslinging and and cynical politics.

Bee Mee
wrote on October 17 2009 @ 03:42 pm: [report]

I don’t trust John McCain.  He’s the kind that will pretend to be working with you behind the scenes, then go behind your back and oh… do something like claiming he’s suspending his campaign to solve the financial crisis to make the other guy look bad and back him into a corner.

I could totally see McCain using this to create a Willie Horton moment for President Obama.

BlueVibe
wrote on October 19 2009 @ 08:39 am: [report]

I’m with cattgirl813 and Bee Mee—I think McCain is using this to push Obama in to a corner, and to create a distraction.

Johnson died in 1946.  This is some seriously old news.  I can’t believe that people can complain that Obama isn’t paying enough attention to Afghanistan, to gay rights, to the environment, to the economy, to soldiers overseas, to their various pet causes . . . and yet possibly consider this worthy of his time and mental energy.  IT IS JUST NOT A PRESSING CONCERN.

Johnson did, in fact, maintain long-term relationships with at least two prostitutes.  He married one, although not until after he had transported her across state lines.  He did not marry the other, and traveled with her, too.  I don’t think there’s much doubt that he did just what he’d been accused of doing.

But the bigger point is: Why does this matter?  Does anyone seriously care that he was accused of doing these things?  Not really.  He’s remembered for being a great boxer and an outrageous character.  Anyone who still has a nose out of joint about this after _sixty-three years_ needs to move on.

Erin Flaherty
wrote on October 19 2009 @ 01:44 pm: [report]

interesting that the man who famously voted against a federal holiday for the rev. mlk jr. is suddenly so interested in this “pressing” issue. what a creep, ugh.

cattgirl813
wrote on October 20 2009 @ 02:58 pm: [report]

@Erin: Exactly. It’s totally hypocrisy on McCain’s part.