Jesse Jackson enters ‘Duck Dynasty’ fray, compares Phil Robertson to Rosa Parks bus driver

Just when you thought all of the headlines surrounding “Duck Dynasty” were starting to quiet down in the wake of the holiday season, they are now roaring back courtesy of reverend / activist Jesse Jackson, who chose to go after a different part of Phil Robertson’s GQ interview than the part where he discussed homosexuality in the Bible.

Instead, Jackson’s disdain comes from the following excerpt of the interview, where Robertson explains his sentiment regarding the state of racism in the south at an early age:

“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once … Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy … Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”

In his response to this statement to ABC News, Jackson chose to compare this situation to one of the most famous in the history of the Civil Rights Movement:

“These statements uttered by Robertson are more offensive than the bus driver in Montgomery, Alabama, more than 59 years ago. At least the bus driver, who ordered Rosa Parks to surrender her seat to a white person, was following state law. Robertson’s statements were uttered freely and openly without cover of the law, within a context of what he seemed to believe was ‘white privilege.'”

Robertson’s response to this would probably be something close to what it has been throughout this entire ordeal: That he loves everyone equally, and he continues to stand by what he believes just as he has ever since first adopting Christianity as his faith. He has not apologized for anything, and there has since been no movement of any sort between the family and A&E on the future of the franchise. Personally, we still believe that this is a relationship that will probably not end well, given there is such a difference of opinion at the core of the argument here.

What do you think about these comments by Jackson, and do you think that they hold any sort of particular significance during what has been a pretty heated battle over what was once a pretty silly show? Share your thoughts with a comment below.