A boxing history lesson

There’s a group called “Republicans for Sharpton” whose goal is to “turn the 2004 senate primary into the most bizarre political circus in history”. Normally I wouldn’t give this much thought, since I’ve been known to register Republican and vote for the lesser of the evils in the primaries myself. The thing that really caught my eye though was this picture at their website :

Being a minor boxing history buff, it seemed odd to me that they’d chose a photo like that to represent the two candidates. I figured they’d just PhotoShop-ed an old picture from a Jack Johnson or Joe Louis fight, but after looking around online, I found this picture :

What’s funny is that this isn’t Joe Louis or Jack Johnson. This is a picture of James J. Jeffries [left] and Robert Fitzsimmons [right], two white guys. What’s even stranger is that they pasted Sharpton’s head on Jeffries, the guy who actually won the fight! Are they trying to imply that Sharpton would beat Bush? Democrats don’t even think that!


posted by greg on June 24, 2003 @ 2:31 pm

3 comments

  1. This is an old, old tactic. Tennessee has open primaries, and I’m expecting to see a groundswell for Sharpton in our tonier neighborhoods.

    Comment by hamletta — June 24, 2003 @ 6:48 pm

  2. You?ve picked up on all of the clues. However, you?ve failed to explain to your readers the moral of the story.

    1)Race has absolutely nothing to do with our campaign. You?re right, there are plenty of black/white photos we could have used. If you look through our Site you?ll notice that we frown on racial slurs and demeaning racial stereotypes.

    2)Who knows, Sharpton may get lucky. After all, this is the fight where Jeffries was able to come back from a horrific pounding after Fitzsimmons broke his knuckles and thumb on his opponent?s face.

    Comment by MetroSpy — June 25, 2003 @ 8:37 am

  3. cmon metrospy, al sharpton is way too easy– even most dems think he’s goofy.. try furthering the republican cause with intellectual debate and issues… your french bashing and ad hominem attacks mirror that of self-promoting talkshow hosts… don’t become a part of this sad political climate… you neo-conservative bigot

    Comment by Erin — June 25, 2003 @ 7:32 pm

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