Sharpton Shakedown: How Obama's Race Guru Makes Money

If a white guy did this he'd be prosecuted for blackmail!

It's no secret that Obama works hand in glove with Al Sharpton. But how does the king of the racebaiters, the guy who can be counted on to inflame any racial incident, make a living? The New York Post has the report. Here's an excerpt:

“Al Sharpton has enriched himself and NAN for years by threatening companies with bad publicity if they didn’t come to terms with him. Put simply, Sharpton specializes in shakedowns,” said Ken Boehm, chairman of the National Legal & Policy Center, a Virginia-based watchdog group that has produced a book on Sharpton.

And Sharpton, who now boasts a close relationship with Obama and Mayor de Blasio, is in a stronger negotiating position than ever.

“Once Sharpton’s on board, he plays the race card all the way through,” said a source who has worked with the Harlem preacher. “He just keeps asking for more and more money.”
...
Sharpton raised $1 million for NAN at his 60th birthday bash in October, with donations rolling in from unions and a corporate roster of contributors including AT&T, McDonald’s, Verizon and Walmart.

Companies have long gotten in line to pay Sharpton. Macy’s and Pfizer have forked over thousands to NAN, as have General Motors, American Honda and Chrysler.

NAN had repeatedly and without success asked GM for donations for six years beginning in August 2000, a GM spokesman told The Post. Then, in 2006, Sharpton threatened a boycott of GM over the planned closing of an African-American-owned dealership in The Bronx. He picketed outside GM’s Fifth Avenue headquarters. GM wrote checks to NAN for $5,000 in 2007 and another $5,000 in 2008.

Sharpton targeted American Honda in 2003 for not hiring enough African-Americans in management positions.“We support those that support us,” Sharpton wrote to the company. “We cannot be silent while African-Americans spend hard-earned dollars with a company that does not hire, promote or do business with us in a statistically significant manner.”Two months later, car-company leaders met with Sharpton, and Honda began to sponsor NAN’s events. The protests stopped.Sharpton landed a gig as a $25,000-a-year adviser to Pepsi after he threatened a consumer boycott of the soda company in 1998, saying its ads did not portray African-Americans. He held the position until 2007.

That's just a few of many examples. And it doesn't matter to Sharpton whether any of these companies actually change their hiring or other policies. He just cashes the check. The same goes with each of these racially charged incidents he inserts himself into. Once he milks the situation for all the publicity he can he moves on and those who claim to be aggrieved are left to fend for themselves.

And you thought Rev. Wright was a charlatan? Sharpton is the very worst sort of racial demagogue. The fact that Obama embraces him so closely is all we need to know about Obama's approach to racial issues!