Maybe there was a boat full of slave kids, maybe there wasn't. Either way, the story got our attention and that's OK because slavery is real and a worldwide problem, especially in parts of the world that don't get much media attention. When Jesse Jackson offered his services to try to break the impasse over China's detention of an American surveillance plane and its crew members, I wondered what took him so long. He didn't plan to do it. He merely fell prey, as politicians often do, to the age-old Law of Unintended Consequences.
Most people view slavery as an abomination, pure and simple.
David Horowitz, president of the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Popular Culture, has a different spin. An oddly antagonistic tone infects much of the news and commentaries about how Hispanics may now outnumber African-Americans. I winced when President Richard C. Atkinson of the University of California recently proposed ending the use of the SAT in admissions. When he finally faced a firing squad of reporters to explain the complex finances of his non-profit organizations, it did not take long for the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson to portray himself as a victim. He has at least half of a case.