Making a political endorsement by the NAACP completely irrelevant… 

You’d think in order to get an endorsement from the NAACP or its members that you’d have to demonstrate loyalty and allegiance to black causes, but you’d be wrong. All it takes is some cold hard cash. An NAACP chapter president is offering up political endorsements from a Political Action Committee he represents in exchange for a fat stack of Ben Franklins.

Hezekiah Jackson is the Birmingham, AL NAACP chapter president. He is also the co-chair of Team Seven, a powerful local PAC whose endorsements promise to deliver votes from the black community. Team Seven is hosting a banquet on February 4 for local candidates to connect with voters. Of course this banquet is not free to the candidates, but there’s something even dirtier about it.

I know that I wrote in my headline that Jackson was busted for selling endorsements, which implies he was sneaking around and got caught. In actuality, he was flaunting this pay-off scheme and didn’t care who noticed. According to AL.com, Jackson sent the following e-mail to candidates he hoped would slide a little money his way. It’s basically a list of how much things cost and what you get for it:

1. Deadline to submit payment is Friday, January 23, 2016 to me (Jackson) or Pastor Webb (Ad committee co-chair Gwen Webb).

2. Candidates purchasing an ad ($500) will have two minutes to speak.

3. Candidates purchasing a table ($500) will have two minutes to speak.

4. Candidates purchasing a combo (ad — $250 and table for eight — $500 = $750) will have three minutes to speak.

Pay close attention to the next one:

5. Candidates who do not purchase an ad nor a table WILL NOT be considered for endorsement.

Did you get that? The candidates either pay up or they won’t even be considered for an endorsement from Jackson’s PAC. No matter how you look at it, that’s unethical as hell and probably illegal. Political Action Committees are bound by certain laws and I’d like to believe shaking down politicians for endorsements is a big no-no.

This is a classic Al Sharpton race-hustling scheme. You want an endorsement? You want to be absolved of offending the black community? You want to avoid bad press and a boycott? Just pay some tribute to the good Reverend and he’ll handle everything. Some may see this as extortion, but to Sharpton it’s just black activism. Via: DownTrend