NAACP Comes Under Fire Over Upcoming Image Award Honor to Former Green Czar Van Jones

The NAACP comes under fire for upcoming Image Award honor to former Obama administration Green Czar Van Jones over his "extremist" past.

Former White House Special Advisor for Green Jobs Van Jones will be awarded one of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's (NAACP) highest honors, the President's Image Award. This has sparked some controversy because, Jones resigned under a cloud of suspicion over his history with extremist groups and the website 911Truth.org rallied a conservative movement that cost him his job in the Obama administration despite his stellar track record as an advocate for the environment. Jones, who is the founder of Green For All, was literally thrown to a pack of rabid conservatives by the White House. You would think that the vetting process would have uncovered his so-called extremist associations. The White House was slow to react and the right wing, led by Fox News nutjob Glenn Beck, hammered away incessantly, until Jones was forced out of his job. The right wing painted him as an evil mastermind, who conspired to make the United States a communist country.

Well, the NAACP hasn't exactly shied away from controversy in recent years, so I am not terribly surprised that they would honor Van Jones. Todd Jealous, NAACP President, said Jones deserves the award and "may be the most misunderstood man in America." Really? I have no doubts about Jones' body of work, but it seems that the extra baggage he has been carrying around is a real problem for many. Todd Jealous calls Jones a "national treasure." Wow. That will certainly rub the right wing the wrong way.

Van Jones also may be the most misunderstood man in America. He resigned from the White House last year after some sought to discredit him for missteps, such as political statements made years ago. However, we can never afford to forget that a defining trait of our country is our collective capacity to practice forgiveness and celebrate redemption. This is a nation built on second chances.

In America, we ultimately judge people on what they are doing today for tomorrow, not for what they did yesterday. When former Alabama Governor George Wallace embraced integration, we forgave him for having championed segregation. When West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd embraced civil rights legislation, we forgave him for having defended racist organizations. Source: CNN

To be fair, this is a country of second chances and shouldn't Van Jones be afforded the same treatment? Yes, the decision by the NAACP to honor this man may be a controversial one, but hasn't he done enough to redeem himself in the eyes of his critics? He has fought tirelessly for the environment and didn't become the "father" of the green jobs movement by accident. He did so through hard work, tenacity and dedication to a cause he believed in. He helped to initiate the Oakland Green Jobs Corps, which was one of the first job training programs in the nation that targeted low-income people for work in the solar and green industries. The reality is that this program has become a model that has been emulated across the United States.

Gee, let's see. Did Glenn Beck ever do something in his youth that he wouldn't do as an adult? He was a drug addict and an alcoholic. I bet he has some Kodak moments from his drug and alcohol binges. I bet he would have done things differently if he had the chance. I don't hear anyone castigating him because of his missteps or even for comments he has made in the past and still continues to this very day. He has made a name for himself demonizing people. The same holds true for Rush Limbaugh, who found himself in a scandal involving doctor-shopping and Viagra.

Pat Buchanan, who was reportedly suspended from college for punching a police officer over a traffic ticket, is another person who comes to mind. He played an integral role in the administration of President Richard Nixon. It has been said that he was involved in Nixon's "dirty tricks," including -- his suggestion to use IRS audits as a weapon against peace activists, left-leaning organizations and other Nixon enemies. I have often wondered how he emerged from the Watergate scandal unscathed. It has been said he frantically urged President Nixon, as the scandal intensified, to burn secret White House tapes, which were later found to have an inexplicable 18-minute gap. There's more on Buchanan. His tenure in the Reagan administration came to an end after he urged the president to pay his respects at a German military cemetery where Nazi soldiers were buried. Oh no, all that gets swept under a rug and Pat Buchanan's political analysis is often sought after by the media.

Don't get me wrong, Van Jones isn't above admonishment for his past associations or comments, but when should the criticisms end? It will be very interesting to see how the NAACP wades through the rising waters of criticism and fierce opposition to this honoree and if they will buckle under the weight of this controversy. It is a controversial choice, but the NAACP's Image Awards have made some controversial choices in the past.  For example, in 1994, Tupac Shakur was a nominee for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture for the movie "Poetic Justice," even though he had been charged in December 1993 with sexually abusing a woman. Singer R. Kelly's "Chocolate Factory" was nominated for Outstanding Album even though he was under indictment for charges related to child pornography. So, where was the outrage at the NAACP then? Seems a little disingenuous.