Amos and Andy
and Jesse and Al

April 28, 2002

by Doug Patton

“Oh, yeah, Andy, I gonna teach you how ta fly … In fact, we gonna do some solo flyin’… Yep, we gonna fly so low, we ain’t even gonna leave da ground!” – The Kingfish

Because of its offbeat characters and screwball plots, my favorite 1950’s TV show was Amos & Andy. Every week, the conniving Kingfish would find a way to swindle the gullible Andy, who was always looking for a shortcut to riches. As the show’s straight man, Amos, a sensible, hard-working cab driver and family man, was forever bailing his naive friend out of the messes created by the seductive cons of “da Kingfish.”

Some would argue that my view of blacks was skewed by the show’s stereotypes. All I knew was that these guys were funny!

Looking back, Amos & Andy was no more stereotypical than The Honeymooners, with its fat jokes and clenched-fist references to sending Alice “to the moon.” But because loudmouth bus driver Ralph Kramden and his dimwitted buddy, sewer worker Ed Norton, were white, while Amos, Andy and the Kingfish were black, political correctness has banished the latter from cable reruns and video stores. Too bad. There was some great entertainment in those old programs.

There were also some solid moral lessons in them, a fact that came back to me as I thought about today’s self-proclaimed black “leaders.”

Heading the list is the “Reverend” Jesse Jackson, whose outrageous public and private behavior – mugging for cameras while living large on donated and extorted funds, paying off mistresses, fathering children out of wedlock and generally lying about everything and nothing – would impress even the scheming, self-centered old Kingfish.

Jackson’s lifelong con has spawned a whole new generation of little Kingfish. There’s the “Reverend” Al Sharpton, who apparently believes that the experience he gained perpetrating the Tawana Brawley rape fraud and failing at several campaigns for public office now qualifies him to run for president. Hey, Jesse did it … twice.

Then there is “Professor” Cornell West, who is moving his Afro-American Studies program from Harvard back to his previous academic soap box at Princeton. West, whose $200,000-per-year salary makes him one of the highest paid elites in the Ivy League, has said that he was “insulted” when Harvard’s president dared to suggest that he actually step into a classroom occasionally, rather than spending so much of his time recording rap music and acting as chairman of Rev. Al’s presidential campaign.

Then there are the angry black congresspersons whose very presence in the House of Representatives has become a disgrace to the very Americans for whom they claim to speak.

Major Owens of New York once said on the House floor that so many slaves bound for America were thrown overboard (his number was 200 million) that the ecology of the Atlantic Ocean was changed forever. This, he said, is what causes sharks to follow ships to this day.

Maxine “no justice, no peace” Waters, coined that now-infamous phrase in 1992 to excuse the murderous hatred of rioters in her South Central Los Angeles district following the first Rodney King verdict.

And most recently, there was the accusation of Georgia’s Cynthia McKinney, who believes that President Bush and his cronies had foreknowledge of the September 11th attack, yet did nothing – simply to increase the value of their stock portfolios!

Of course, every one of the aforementioned congressional Democrats voted against impeaching their amoral hero, Bill Clinton (the ultimate white Kingfish).

From slave ships to riots, from reparations to O.J., too much of black America has been deceived by unscrupulous leaders fomenting hatred toward anyone who opposes their corrupt agenda. Like Andy ensnared in another con, they have been beguiled by the Kingfish.

So, if Jesse, Al, Cornell and the congressional loonies are “The Kingfish,” perpetually victimizing the collective “Andy,” what group symbolizes the faithful, hard-working “Amos?”

It is the growing black middle-class who, instead of viewing themselves as victims, have chosen to access the opportunity of America. They recognize the value of committing to marriage before having children. They work hard, perhaps at a job not of their choosing, in order to save enough to start a business or send their kids to college.

Their numbers began to grow during the 1980’s, as a booming economy fueled by Reagan-era tax cuts and entrepreneurial creativity caused prosperity to continue through the Clinton years (in spite of Clinton’s policies) and sent more opportunity their way than they had ever known.

Their spirit is reflected in the accomplished lives of such great Americans as Clarence Thomas, Alan Keyes, Condolezza Rice, J.C. Watts, Ward Connerly, Star Parker, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell and Herman Cain. And although they will never be recognized by the out-of-touch elite of our national media, these leaders will continue to stand with freedom-loving Americans of all races for the realization of Martin Luther King’s dream – the American dream – wherein we are all judged not by the color of our skin, but rather by the content of our character.

The alternative is that when the Kingfish came by selling flying lessons, Andy hopped on board, taxied down the runway, took flight … and promptly crashed and burned.

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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a speechwriter and policy advisor to federal, state and local candidates and elected officials. His work is published in newspapers across the country and on various web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com and www.AmericasVoices.org. You can e-mail him at dpatton@neonramp.com.