Lee Bey: The Urban Observer

Bob Johnson thinks Geraldine Ferraro is right about Barack Obama. That the billionaire would relegate himself to racial attack-dog status when there is so much to talk about in Decision '08 says more about him than anything.

With his billions, Johnson could be a real voice in this election, even though is not impartial (he is a Clinton supporter.) He could challenge Obama, Clinton or McCain to develop a real plan-to uplift American cities. He could force a real open debate on healthcare, mass transit, economic development, fiscal responsibility---all sorts of things.

But this isn't the first time Johnson has suffered from a gross lack of imagination. BET, the cable network he founded in 1980 and sold to Viacom for $3 billion a little while back, could have been a proud voice of black America. Instead, Johnson programmed music videos with black rumpshakers and minstrel-grade stand-up comedies. All that was missing was this.

And now, sitting on his billions, he appears all too happy to serve no other purpose in Decision '08 than to use race to poke at Obama whenever the bell sounds. And even then, Johnson can't come up with an original criticism, and instead picks up the frayed baton of Ferraro's tired claim. The rumpshakers were at least interesting...

(BTW: The animated Boondocks series did a wicked take-off on BET, but the episode was supposedly banned for reasons that appear open to dispute. See a clip here, but a warning: the scene contains foul language, use of the 'n' word and a Prada shoe as an instrument of death.)