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BOB JOHNSON APOLOGIZES TO OBAMA: BET founder says his drug and race-related remarks against senator were 'inappropriate.'
*BET founder and Hillary Clinton supporter Robert Johnson has issued an apology to Sen. Barack Obama for pointing out the Democratic candidate's earlier drug use and offering the analogy of Obama as Sidney Poitier's character in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?”
While introducing Sen. Clinton during a campaign stop in Columbia, South Carolina earlier this month, Johnson criticized Obama's response to her comment that Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of racial equality was realized only when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Some black leaders have criticized that remark as suggesting Johnson deserved more credit than King for the passage and enactment of major civil rights legislation.
Asked to respond, Obama told ABC News that he didn't believe Clinton's comment was racist, but added: "I do think it was indicative of the perspective that she brings, which is that what happens in Washington is more important than what happens outside of Washington." He said he believes the quote betrays a belief on her part, "that the intricacies of the legislative process were somehow more significant than when ordinary people rise up and march and go to jail and fight for justice."
Speaking to Clinton supporters at Columbia College, Johnson said of Obama's response: "To me, as an African American, I am frankly insulted the Obama campaign would imply that we are so stupid that we would think Hillary and Bill Clinton, who have been deeply and emotionally involved in black issues — when Barack Obama was doing something in the neighborhood; I won't say what he was doing, but he said it in his book — when they have been involved," Johnson said.
Moments later, he added: “That kind of campaign behavior does not resonate with me, for a guy who says, ‘I want to be a reasonable, likable, Sidney Poitier ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.’ And I’m thinking, I’m thinking to myself, this ain’t a movie, Sidney. This is real life.”
Johnson's stated in his apology letter to Obama, "I’m writing to apologize to you and your family personally for the un-called-for comments I made at a recent Clinton event. In my zeal to support Senator Clinton, I made some very inappropriate remarks for which I am truly sorry. I hope that you will accept this apology. Good luck on the campaign trail."
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