Tufts Prof: Obama Needs to Invite Jesse Jackson to White House

Tufts University History professor Peniel Joseph declared that President Obama “has a lot of soul-searching to do” because he won’t allow Jesse Jackson into the White House on Thurday’s “HuffPost Live.”

Joseph began by talking about Erin Burnett’s interview with Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes over the use of the word “thug,” stating, “Erin Burnett…is an example of white privilege and white supremacy, as is CNN…she has a bully pulpit to basically call all of us n*ggers on national television,” and in the course of his comments on Burnett, also criticized the president for saying “thugs” well. He stated, “that’s a president who hasn’t allowed Jesse Jackson to be in the White House. So, any president who won’t allow Jesse Jackson — who, no matter what his flaws, has been a champion for racial justice historically — into the White House, has a lot of soul-searching to do. So, I’m not surprised that he’s going to call these young black boys and girls in the street ‘thugs.'”