At Thanksgiving dinner David Shankbone told his white middle class family that he was to interview Reverend Al Sharpton that Saturday.  The announcement caused an impassioned discussion about the civil rights leader's work, the problems facing the black community and whether Sharpton helps or hurts his cause.  Opinion was divided.  "He's an opportunist."  "He only stirs things up."  "Why do I always see his face when there's a problem?"  
Shankbone went to the National Action Network's headquarters in Harlem with this Thanksgiving discussion to inform the conversation.  Below is his interview with Al Sharpton on everything from Tawana Brawley, his purported feud with Barack Obama, criticism by influential African Americans such as Clarence Page, his experience running for President, to how he never expected he would see fifty (he is now 53).  "People would say to me, 'Now that I hear you, even if I disagree with you I don’t think you’re as bad as I thought,'" said Sharpton.  "I would say, 'Let me ask you a question: what was "bad as you thought"?' And they couldn’t say. They don’t know why they think you’re bad, they just know you’re supposed to be bad because the right wing tells them you’re bad."  
David Shankbone:  You grew up around so many great American musicians and singers like Mahalia Jackson and James Brown. 
DS:  What was that like touring with Mahalia Jackson?
DS: Did you keep in touch with her throughout her life?  Did she have a presence in yours?
DS: Ralph Abernathy?
DS: Are you still close to Reverend Jackson?
DS: How did James Brown’s death affect you?
DS: He was such an icon, but then to also have had this deeply personal relationship must have had an extraordinary impact on you.
DS: What was one lesson that he taught you?
DS:  There is so much anger at injustice, and that anger can fell a person’s ability to right wrongs, or can steer them down a bad path. You have been able to take your anger and use it productively. When you come across a young person who is angry at the world around them, what kind of advice do you give them?
DS:  What would you do?
DS:  Which you see today.  Dennis Kucinich or Tom Tancredo, they’re not there because they think they are going to win; they are trying to frame the issues.
DS:  A lot of the criticism that is lodged at you is that you always seem to pop up around hot button issues, or where there is some race issue.  My interview with you came up during my Thanksgiving dinner with my family, and I’d like that dinner to inform our discussion because it illustrated many of the typical perspectives about you.   My brother-in-law made that point, that there you always are around the controversial race issue.  I responded with, “Well, what was he saying?  Was he wrong about what he said?  Why do we focus on Sharpton and not the issue he is talking about?”
DS:  Nadine Strossen, the President of the ACLU, brought up in our interview that their critics intentionally distort their work to serve their own purposes.  For instance, many people believe the ACLU works to keep religion out of the school, yet they have consistently fought for the right for religion to be in schools.  She debated Falwell and Robertson on these issues, and they will still say that the ACLU is fighting to remove God from the public sphere.
DS:  When you come across people who intentionally misinform the debate in order to scuttle your goals, what do you do?
DS:  That’s the same response Ingrid Newkirk gave in an interview when I told her people say she cares more about fighting for animals than for humans.  She responded that’s what PETA does:  give a voice to those who do not have one.  She said that criticism is like telling a homeless shelter they care more about the homeless than people who live in mansions.  
DS:  Are you tired of hearing Tawana Brawley always paired with your name?
—Al Sharpton on Tawana Brawley.DS:  How would 2007 Al Sharpton have handled the Tawana Brawley case differently than 1987 Al Sharpton?
DS:  You are saying that when you become involved you are fighting to ensure that there is a fair investigation into whatever has happened, and that sometimes you are paired with the fact that not everything turns out in favor of the person being investigated?
DS:  Earl Ofari Hutchinson recently wrote a relatively laudatory column about you in The Huffington Post. In it he said, "When Sharpton toppled Jesse Jackson from the top spot as black America's main man, the notoriety, and the hostility, that that title carries with it, insured that he'd take the heat for whatever went right or wrong when blacks took to the streets in protest."   What do you think happened to Jesse Jackson’s place in the black community?   Hutchison is a prominent black man saying you toppled Jackson.  
—Al SharptonDS:  Clarence Page again in reference to this wrote, "'gangsta' culture punishes those who don't 'Stop Snitching,' to quote a popular inner-city T-shirt slogan, even when the victims are innocent neighbors. A lot of us black Americans would like to take back our streets. We could use a little more help from our leaders."  
DS:  You are saying that black columnists,  whether it be Clarence Page or Juan Williams, who seem to have made their names by attacking a lot of the work done at the grass roots.  How can you change that?
DS:  Such as Juan Williams?
DS:  At Thanksgiving we were talking about the different voices for different communities, and I said that there is no Latino "Al Sharpton"—the Cubans used to have Jorge Mas Canosa, but nobody has taken his place—nor is there an Asian "Al Sharpton".  With the black community it seems like Americans are always looking for the voice.  Do you think that your visibility has been externally imposed?
DS:  But there’s no one voice.  It seems like the others never have a singular voice.  
DS:  Shane Johnson is an African-American blogger who was protesting your Washington, D.C. Department of Justice march. Clarence Page, who is one of your critics within the African-American community, wrote a column about it.  He wrote, "Why do we black folks get so much more agitated about occasional white-on-black insults than about the black-on-black assaults that constantly terrorize certain neighborhoods?"
DS:  Is getting your message out that you do more than just race-based issues a challenge you have difficulty overcoming?  That’s all that people hear and see you do.
DS:  Recently a poll came out that showed sixty-one percent of the black Americans surveyed said values between poor and middle-class blacks are moving too far apart to be viewed as a common black experience. Only 41 percent expressed that view in a similar 1986 poll.  Do you think the black experience is no longer defined by race, but by socio-economic status?
DS:  What did you learn about national politics from your Presidential run?
DS:  Is there one moment that sticks out in your mind?
DS:  The way it’s presented in the media.
DS:  It seems the media—both liberal and conservative—has to follow a narrative.
DS:  Was there a moment that sticks out in your mind during the campaign with anyone in particular?
DS:  What about during the debates?
DS:  Who are you supporting for President?
DS:  The Post reported back in April that you have a conflict with Obama.  What do you think is behind that story?
DS:  Why do you think Obama is not dominating the black vote?
DS:  Do you think there should be conscription?
DS:  Do you consider our military a volunteer army?
DS:  Which you saw in Vietnam, and many national leaders now found ways not to go.
DS:  How has the war affected you?
DS:  Are you optimistic for the future?
DS:  I interviewed documentary filmmaker Kira Nerusskaya, who is one of the leading voices in the fat acceptance movement.  She is what she calls a “BBW”.  A Big Beautiful Woman.  Your name came up in that interview and she called you "Reverend 9-1-1" and mentioned that fat people don’t have their own "Al Sharpton", someone they can turn to when they are being hassled at work because they are a drain on their insurance, or when fat people are discriminated against or harassed.  When you hear that you have become a symbol that transcends your community, what do you think?
DS:  When you were ten, when you were preaching—
DS:  It’s interesting that you have become that to other people.
DS:  Do you think the criticism is more because you are successful for bringing attention to it?  
DS:  Why do you think that happens?
DS:  Did you ever do a DNA test to see if you were related to Strom Thurmond?
DS:  Do you keep in contact with Essie Mae Washington-Williams?
DS:  Did you ever think you’d reach fifty?
DS:  Who are some up-and-coming civil rights leaders under thirty?
DS:  At Thanksgiving my brother-in-law’s brother made the point that we in white America don’t remember history, and that when we come across people who do remember history and we are always shocked.  “Why don’t you get over it and move on?”  But that doesn’t take into account that there is a long history of racial problems that have set people behind in the race by half a mile, and suddenly it’s supposed to be, “You’re equal, it’s a fair race now.”
DS:  One sees this problem with history with the Christian Zionists in the right wing.  They have an entirely different perspective on history.  They don’t view Thomas Jefferson and George Washington—who were secular—as our founding fathers.  When they talk about America’s founding fathers they mean Cotton Mather and the Puritans.  
DS:  Then the focus is on gangsta culture and instead of looking at how that came about, it is talked about as if it is a phenomenon that just happened?
DS:  At the end of the Thanksgiving discussion, I said that if a black person was sitting at the table with us, we would never have had the entire conversation.  We talked about that.  Do you think there is a nervousness amongst the races to engage each other?
DS:  I think it was Lani Guinier who used to talk about the problem is the races too afraid to talk to each other about race.  
DS:  Would you say what sums up the problem with dialogue as you see it is that white people are too afraid to offend black people by asking questions about their perceptions, but that black people become too offended by white people’s ignorance?
DS:  When you think about Imus, Michael Richards and Duane Chapman, it’s starting to seem almost like a rehearsed play.  They have these racist explosions, and then they come to you seeking absolution.  How do you feel about playing this?
DS:  One of the issues that came up in reference to that at Thanksgiving was political correctness.  My brother-in-law brought up the Don Imus ‘nappy-headed hos’ issue and said it was political correctness.  His brother said that there is a big difference between calling black girls playing basketball nappy-headed hos versus asking a black person why their families are in trouble.
DS:  But those get equated as being politically incorrect.  
DS:  Are you okay that Don Imus is going back on the air?
DS:  Do you work with the Hip Hop Action Network?
DS:  How did they disagree with you?
DS:  If you could choose how you die, how would it be?
DS:  What do you think is the greatest threat to humanity?
DS:  Global warming?
DS:  Are there any national politicians you look up to as leaders?
DS:  Do you think Joel Klein has done a good job with New York City public schools?  

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Al Sharpton speaks out on race, rights and what bothers him about his critics