Why Did I Bum Rush Bill Clinton?

By Kembrew McLeod, Iowa Chapter President of MR. IFOBCA* (a.k.a. Mad Robots In Favor Of Bill Clinton Apologizing)

On December 11, 2007, the Des Moines Register reported:

Iowa City, Ia. -- A University of Iowa professor dressed as a robot interrupted Bill Clinton at a campaign stop here late Monday, screaming for an apology before security escorted him from the building. The professor, Kembrew McLeod, stood on a chair and screamed several statements, including: “Robots of the world want you to apologize.”

McLeod, before security officers could reach him, tossed hundreds of cards into the audience of about 400 people in protest of statements the former president made in 1992 of Sister Souljah, a member of the musical group Public Enemy... [to read the entire story, click here]

Here is some raw video footage of the incident posted by a blogger:

And here is the MSNBC footage:

This is why I did it:

The first time I fully realized Bill Clinton was not on the side of racial and social justice was after the “Sister Souljah Moment,” as it has come to be known in political circles. In a mean-spirited move, Clinton tried to demonize a young Black woman named Sister Souljah by taking something she said out of context. (For a fuller understanding of how he twisted her words, read the short book excerpt below.) Clinton did this to ingratiate himself with white upper-middle class swing voters during the 1992 presidential campaign, and he portrayed Sister Souljah as a reckless radical who advocated killing white people. This was patently false, and Bill Clinton knew it, but that didn’t stop him from cynically turning her into a sacrificial lamb that helped save his flagging campaign.

Souljah was a member of the outspoken hip-hop group Public Enemy, a crew known for its pro-Black politics. Twelve years ago, the Washington Post asked her to discuss the 1992 Los Angeles uprising that was sparked by the Rodney King verdict, in which an all white jury acquitted the white officers who brutally beat King on tape. In Souljah’s comments, she criticized the institutions that looked the other way while Blacks were being murdered in the streets. She also put the beating of Reginald Denny—a white man who was dragged from his truck and beaten during the riots—into context, paraphrasing the mindset of a gang member, though Sister Souljah said unequivocally that she did not advocate violence against whites.

“In other words,” she explained, “white people, this government, and that mayor were well aware of the fact that Black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you’re a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person?” She added, “Unfortunately for white people, they think it’s all right for our children to die, for our men to be in prison, and not theirs.”

Addressing the political convention of Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow Coalition, Bill Clinton disgustedly laid into her, reducing Souljah’s analysis to, “If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?”—rather than acknowledging her point about laissez-faire attitudes concerning Black-on-Black violence. Jesse Jackson was hopping mad, but it was political gold for Clinton. Mission Accomplished. In effect, Bill Clinton was telling Blacks that he was happy to seem “down” with their kind by appearing on The Arsenio Hall Show, but if they dared to voice substantive concerns he would dismiss them as mouth-foaming zealots who wanted to kill Whitey.”

For fifteen years I have wanted Bill Clinton to apologize for dissing Sister Souljah while happily accepting the honor of being America’s “first black president,” as novelist Toni Morrison once put it. In my capacity as President of the Iowa Chapter of MR. IFOBCA* (Mad Robots In Favor Of Bill Clinton Apologizing), I vow to continue sending an army of robots to all future Clinton appearances until he apologizes to Sister Souljah.

For more details on the “Sister Souljah Moment,” the best coverage of this incident I have found appears in Jeff Chang’s award winning book Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. Here is an excerpt from pages 394-6:

Clinton Vs. Souljah

While Democrat Bill Clinton and President George Bush moved toward their formal nominations [during the 1992 election season], Texas billionaire H. Ross Perot threatened to upset the usual political calculus with a third-party run. Perot was particularly attractive to middle-aged, upper-middle class, suburban and exurban “swing” voters, the so-called center that both parties so desperately coveted. Skillful exploitation of racial and generational fears might prove the key to the election. [...]

Young Black activist Lisa Williamson had become Sister Souljah when she joined Public Enemy in 1990. During the late ë80s, she had worked with the crew when she served as organizer for the National African Youth/Student Alliance. ... After appearing on the Terminator X and Public Enemy albums, she worked with Eric “Vietnam” Sadler on her own album, called 360 Degrees of Power. Released in March, it had not been a big seller. Souljah was a better polemicist than a rapper, and she settled into a heavy schedule of interviews and lectures. Days after the [1992 Los Angeles] uprising, she sat down for an interview with David Mills, who had now moved downtown to the Washington Post.

Mills baited Souljah on the riots, asking her if she thought the violence against Reginald Denny was a “wise, reasoned action.” Here, he writes, “Souljah’s empathy for the rioters reached a chilling extreme.” He quoted her answering:

“I mean, if Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? You understand what I’m saying? In other words, white people, this government, and that mayor were well aware of the fact that Black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you’re a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Do you think that somebody thinks that white people are better, or above dying, when they would kill their own kind?” As she said on Sunday Today: “Unfortunately for white people, they think it’s all right for our children to die, for our men to be in prison, and not theirs.”

On June 13, as a guest of Jesse Jackson at the Rainbow Coalition’s political convention, Bill Clinton read an edited version of Souljah’s words in disgust. The night before, Souljah had participated in the convention’s youth panel, and Clinton’s advisor believed he had been handed the perfect opportunity to distance himself from Jackson’s constituencies and ingratiate himself with Perot voters. Clinton said to the stunned crowd:

Just listen to this, what she said: She told the Washington Post about a month ago, and I quote, “If Black people kill Black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? So if you’re a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person?” I know she is a young person, but she has a big influence on a lot of people, and when people say that—if you took the words white and Black and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech.

Souljah blasted Clinton for taking her statements out of context. She had never personally advocated violence against whites, she said. Clinton, she said, was trying to maker her “a Willie Horton, a campaign issue, a Black monster that would scare the white population.” Jackson and other Black leaders seethed at Clinton’s well-placed, high-profile 10 percent dis. “She represents the feelings and hopes of a whole generation of people,” Jackson said after Clinton’s speech. “She should deserve an apology.”

None was forthcoming. Instead, political pundits heaped praise on Clinton. New York Times writer Gwen Ifill wrote, “There is no question that the Clinton campaign is quite satisfied with the outcome of the Sister Souljah episode, and that it may become a blueprint for future risky missions to rescue the campaign’s flagging fortunes.”

DES MOINES REGISTER ARTICLE

December 11, 2007

U of I prof heckles Clinton

JASON CLAYWORTH
REGISTER STAFF WRITER

Iowa City, Ia. -- A University of Iowa professor dressed as a robot interrupted Bill Clinton at a campaign stop here late Monday, screaming for an apology before security escorted him from the building.

The professor, Kembrew McLeod, stood on a chair and screamed several statements, including: “Robots of the world want you to apologize.”

The audience erupted into loud boos.

McLeod, before security officers could reach him, tossed hundreds of cards into the audience of about 400 people in protest of statements the former president made in 1992 of Sister Souljah, a member of the musical group Public Enemy.

“I like to talk in a way that, you know, will draw attention to these serious issues,” McLeod said after the event. “And maybe the way that I draw attention to them is an absurd way but it was the only way that I could draw attention to the particular issue of Sister Souljah, which is an issue that’s been swept under the carpet.”

The cards included an Internet address for a group that calls itself “Mad Robots In Favor of Bill Clinton Apologizing.”

The site tells how Sister Souljah made statements to the Washington Post about the 1992 Los Angeles riots sparked when an all-white jury acquitted the white police officers who were captured on tape beating a black man, Rodney King.

Her statement focused on how society largely ignores black-on-black violence. It included the quote: “If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?”

That quote has largely been picked up on its own, without the larger context. Clinton, in June of 1992, gave a speech at the Rainbow Coalition, which compared Sister Souljah’s quote to David Duke, a former white supremist.

"If you took the words ‘white’ and ‘black’ and you reversed them, you might think David Duke was giving that speech,” Bill Clinton said in 1992.

Volunteers picked up most of the cards soon after the incident. Bill Clinton, who was for appearing for his wife U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, did not apologize.

McLeod said he is the Iowa chapter president of the group, which calls themselves Mr-IFOBCA, or RB-1 for short. The group also has chapters in New York, California, Virginia and Georgia, he said.

McLeod is an associate professor in the department of communication studies. He said he has tenure. He was not arrested.

“This is Iowa so they were polite and I was polite. When they told me I had to leave, I did,” McLeod said.

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* NOTE: MR. IFOBCA (Mad Robots In Favor Of Bill Clinton Apologizing) IS NOT RELATED TO, OR ENDORSED BY, MR. ROBOTO.

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