Born and raised in Brooklyn, and community office at the National Action Network (NAN) in Harlem, the Reverend Al Sharpton began preaching at age four. Since then, his role has expanded to include civil-rights activist, author, presidential candidate—and now host of MSNBC’s nightly news program Politics Nation.
George Wayne: I’m sitting here looking at you, Reverend, and can’t help but think that Reverend Al and Karl Lagerfeld must be following the same diet regimen. You both were chubs, but are now skinnier than Wilt Chamberlain was.
Al Sharpton: First of all, I was not a chub—I used to be fat. Ten years ago I went to lead a protest in Vieques, Puerto Rico, at the navy base there, and was given a 90-day jail sentence. While in jail I called for a hunger strike, and I lost weight and started liking the way I looked. In 2003 when I ran for president my weight blew back up. It was about two years ago that I finally decided to take all the weight off again, and so I cut the starches, the meat, and I even gave up chicken. I was a chicken junkie. I used to eat chicken three times a day. I have gone from a weight of 214 pounds to my current weight of 167 pounds.
G.W. Your full name is Alfred Charles Sharpton, but it actually should have been Al “Precocious Bravado” Sharpton. That heightened self-confidence can only come from the fact that you were a child prodigy. You have been a licensed, ordained minister from the age of 10.
A.S. I knew from the age of four that I wanted to preach. I didn’t even consider it strange that grown people were listening to this kid preaching until I was around 13 years old. I have never believed in limitations.
G.W. Talk to me about this signature coiffe of yours, and have you ever considered a line of wigs?
A.S. In 1982, I was going to the White House with James Brown to meet with President Reagan to discuss a Martin Luther King holiday. So we took a Delta flight from Augusta to Atlanta to Washington, D.C., and while we were on the plane James Brown turned to me and said, “Reverend, I want you to start wearing your hair like mine, and I have arranged for you to have it done as soon as we land.” He said, “When we walk into the White House, I want everyone to see that you are like my son. And I want you to keep this hairstyle as long as I am alive.” I could never say no to James Brown. I never thought about a wig company, though.
G.W. Have you ever popped Viagra, Reverend Al?
A.S. That would be a no.
G.W. Thank you, Reverend Al—you keep walking the walk, and talking the talk.
Submit your newstip or news photos
Before you know anything about me, you know that I am black. You see my beautiful black skin. My people have been enslaved and suffered horrific crimes against humanity because of their beautiful black skin. They continue to suffer Racism, Poverty and Violence because of the beauty of their black skin.
Because of my beautiful black skin I can’t blend in. I stand out!. I am judged by the color of my beautiful black skin. For anyone to compare their struggle to that of the struggle of those who are born with beautiful black skin such as I is an insult to our history.
For those that are wrapped in beautiful black skin and for those who have turned a blind eye and want to equate any struggle to that of my people, shame on you and how foolish of you because no matter how you try to claim our history as being the same as your struggle or the struggle of another, the blood that cries out from the waters of the middle passage, the blood that cries out from river waters that run deep, the blood that cries out from slave quarters; mothers and daughters being raped and fathers and brothers being forced to watch, the blood that cries out from the bloody backs that were beaten with the severity of the slave masters whip; the blood that cries out from the barrels filled with hot oil and a black slave burned being burned alive, the blood that cries out from the many trees that bore strange fruit, the blood that cries out from the wounds of those that were bitten by the dogs, the blood that cries out from those beaten with the mighty billy clubs of the police, the blood that cries out from the grave yard of the martyrs of the Civil Rights like Emmett Louis Till, Rev. George Lee, Lamar Smith, John Earl Reese, Willie Edwards Jr, Mack Charles Parker, Herbert Lee, Medgar Evers, and thousands of others say it is not so.
The blood says it is not the same or equal to. There are sufferings that you will never know and have never known. There are tears that you will never shed or understand why they flow. There are bowed heads and broken hearts filled with sorrow and pain that you will never comprehend or appreciate. You say that you are like me and can’t change.
When you walk down the street you are not profiled because of the color or your skin. When you turn on the TV or go to the movies, you still see more people that look like the majority and less that look like the minority wrapped in beautiful black skin.
When you look at the sea of faces that surrounds you, that are in power, there are less people that are wrapped in beautiful black skin. The beauty of my black skin shines forth. I can’t hide it. I can’t dress it down. I can’t make-up it away. It is to glorious and so powerful. It is something that no matter how hard I try (not that I want to), I can’t change.
Hmmm, there is nothing that I can ever do to stop or change my being wrapped in beautiful black skin. You on the other hand can all ways make a choice where you will lay and who you will lay with. You do have a choice!