"Why did Clinton pick on a twisting her statements in
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The Washington Post? And why did Bush make Ice-T into public enemy number one of American society?" "Are you going to send some of these killer cops to jail?" -Ice-T. 20 SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 1992 law enforcement officers."
The campaign against Ice-T was launched by the Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas. They threatened Time Warner, the company that had produced and distributed the album, with a national boycott of its stores. This was brought up again by 60 members of Congress, New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, and a large part of the media. Oliver North himself called for sedition charges.
Why did Clinton pick on a little-known rapper, grotesquely twisting her statements in The Washington Post? And why did Bush make Ice-T into Public Enemy Number One of American society?
Sister Souljah had never called for killing white people, contrary to what Clinton said about her. In Rolling Stone Magazine, Clinton's act is explained as a way for him to maintain some distance from Jesse Jackson and pressure groups inside the Rainbow Coalition. In addition, it gave Clinton a macho look in the eyes of conservative whites. But that explanation doesn't go quite far enough.
The major reason is simple: It was a classical maneuver aimed at turning public attention away from what Clinton understood about the Los Angeles uprising. As James Bernard said about this method: "We end up debating whether Sister Souljah is a