The John Edwards Saga Has Legs....Long Ones!....And What Makes Reille Hunter Any Different Than Sheneneh Jenkins From The Streets?

I always find it extremely interesting when rich and powerful white men screw up on a national and international level. It is humorous how quickly their advocates start talking about how folks are human, all people make mistakes, and that these matters are private. I also find it interesting how black folks react to these high profile scandals with a cynicism and acceptance that proves that we as a social group are not equal and never will be equal in American society's eyes.

Reverend Jesse "Baby Daddy" Jackson became a running political joke in the eyes of white America and many black Americans with a barely tolerated voice and absolutely no hopes of any political power, but John Edwards shouldn't count his career dead in the water? And President Bill Clinton gets to pout and screw over Barack Obama after black Americans were his most vocal supporters when he was caught sticking cigars in some star-struck intern's private parts?

If Barack Obama was not the nominee and he was the third place finisher, now private citizen and this kind of story broke about him, would folks really be talking about it in the same way they are discussing Edwards? Everyone and their mama knows that the answer would be a resounding Hell Nawh!!!! Could you imagine if Reille Hunter or Andrew Young was black? Payoffs and private houses to all the parties in involved, they would be talking about criminal charges if this was Barack Obama. Yet, it's John Edwards and it's a private matter. It doesn't matter that he lied, it doesn't matter that he is still lying, he's white, rich, and powerful and lives by clearly different rules.

Further, I am stunned at how quickly the world is always willing to give white women a free pass. The more I think about that fact, the madder I get. Both Elizabeth Edwards and Hillary Clinton went into national Presidential campaigns knowing that their husbands had potential explosive sexual skeletons in their respective closets. And we are feeling sorry for them?!!!! Would these same white folks extend the same sympathy and pity if the wronged, but knowledgeable woman was Michelle Obama? I sincerely doubt it. Folks would be talking about how arrogant BOTH the Obamas were.

Everyone is wrong in this case, from John Edwards, his wife, and his mistress, to his buddies who helped him maintain his love affair and those who tried to help him cover it up. Yet, while everyone is shouting what a bastard John Edwards is, all the white women involved are victims. Say what? The last thing both Elizabeth Edwards and Reille Hunter are is passive victims in this case. Elizabeth Edwards stopped being a victim when she told her husband to go on with his campaign and Reille Hunter chased after Edwards, so she was NEVER a victim, she was just another woman putting her needs and desires before anyone else's.

And what exactly is the difference between what John Edwards' mistress did and what black women get criticized for all the damn time? This woman had an affair with a married man and produced a child of wedlock with an unnamed father with no job and no means of income relying on others to foot the bills. And folks are talking about it's a private matter!!!! Who's zooming who here? Did folks forget last month during the CNN Black In America specials when they were blasting black women for out-of-wedlock births and for absent black fathers? Why isn't that a private matter? Why are the social and sexual behaviors of black women open to NATIONAL discussion, but the very same social and sexual behaviors of white women are sacred and private?

This is a double standard, that I am no longer willing to accept. That damn dog just don't hunt no more!