Nor did Sharpton spare the Republicans in his speech Monday.
He accused President Bush and the Republican party of being “inflicted with political lyin’-gitis.”
“These are the only people I’ve seen using a shovel instead of a rope to get out of a hole,” he quipped.
Sharpton specifically criticized Bush’s role in the possible conflict with Iraq, accusing him of rushing into pre-emptive attack in order to gain control of Iraq’s oil reserves.
“We found out that North Korea had weapons and that they lied to us about it, but Bush wants to talk civilized with them,” he said. “Maybe it’s not about weapons. Maybe it’s about oil.”
Sharpton said he opposes a war because the U.S. government has not provided evidence of Iraqis weapons of mass destruction.
“Bush is playing three-card motley with these weapons,” he said. “We’ve got cameras that could shoot the other side of Jupiter, but they can’t show us one photograph of a weapon in Iraq.”
Sharpton also said that the current Republican leadership only serves to disenfranchise African-Americans, despite the fact that two blacks, Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell, hold Cabinet positions.
“There is a difference between black leadership and leading blacks,” he said. “They used to buy them and now they run with them.”
He referenced the comments of legendary musician and activist Harry Belafonte, who, in a recent public appearance, equated Powell’s political position with that of a slave in the house of his master.
“Bush says that civil rights is giving two blacks a big job,” Sharpton aid. “How can he challenge what Harry Belafonte said in Ebonics when he said the same thing in Washingtonian, Texan English?”
Sharpton said the race for the presidency has traditionally been composed of white, male millionaires. His presence in the upcoming race is important, Sharpton said, because he can better understand the plight of average Americans.
“They studied welfare, but I grew up on welfare,” he said.
Sharpton said that he would be the voice of the disenfranchised—a group he later identified as including racial minorities, women and members of the working class.
“Somebody has to stand up for the real Americans and they’re not just black or Latino or white,” he said.
—Staff writer Ebonie D. Hazle can be reached at hazle@fas.harvard.edu.