![Al Sharpton, Newt Gingrich and Arne Duncan on their education reform tour at a school in Philadelphia. [Photo courtesy US Dept. of Education]](http://www.edgovblogs.org/duncan/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/09-118-AD-at-Sharpton-Gingrich-Tour-Philadelphia-PA-72.jpg "Sharpton, Gingrich, Duncan")
Al Sharpton, Newt Gingrich and Arne Duncan on their education reform tour at a school in Philadelphia. Photo courtesy US Dept. of Education
Let me start with what is probably obvious–I have no interest in watching professional wrestling. Even as a kid when my siblings and cousins piled into the car to go see Rowdy Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan pretend to beat each other up at the Convention Center, I stayed home. That was a long time ago, but WWE is still holding on strong, and it caught my ear last week when when I heard a commercial mention that Al Sharpton would be on as a guest host. Um, exsqueeze me?
Sharpton’s reason for going on the show was to increase awareness of the education achievement gap–turns out he is on a nationwide tour with Newt Gingrich and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to promote the education reform movement. Great cause, and WWE is just the venue to reach those most needing to hear this message. I didn’t see the episode, but I did watch this video on the WWE site to learn more. From what I read though, the subject of education only came up once, and the rest of the time Rev. Sharpton was the target of misidentification (someone called him Don King) and gentle character barbs.
Out of the three names on the tour, Sharpton was clearly the best of the bunch to go on RAW. He’s the most controversial, and as he said in the video, he’s even an old school wrestling fan! Unfortunately, his personal history was probably enough to keep his message from having much credibility, even though his cause is an honorable one. And when the issue only comes up briefly, who knows if the crowd got anything out of it at all.
That is always an issue with “celebrity” spokespeople. Its hard to know how a message will be received until its out there. You can prepare people to the ends of the earth, but in the end you just have to pray that a spokesperson a) knows that they’re talking about when speaking for a cause or organization, and b) doesn’t commit any past, present or future sin that will take the focus off the words and put it on the individual. Since no one is perfect though, this is hard to do. There are so few spotless celebs and they are always in demand to lend their name to a cause.
Its also important for a celebrity to make sure their appearances don’t impact their own reputations. As a civil rights leader, it raised plenty of eyebrows when Sharpton agreed to go on RAW, considering WWE’s history of racial denigration. After the show his publicist released a statement: “In order to raise awareness and actually do something about the devastating achievement gap in education between kids of color and their white peers the viewership of WWE events is precisely the group of people who need to be reached and involved. Reverend Sharpton has stated repeatedly that all of us must take extraordinary steps to reverse the current trend in education and that unlikely alliances (like with Newt Gingrich) and forums like the WWE should be utilized if they help close the gap.”
I’m all for extraordinary measures–sometimes its those big moves that shake people into action. I’ll be interested to see what some of the other stops on this “tour” are. Maybe we can get Newt Gingrich on an episode of “Real Housewives of Atlanta” to spread the education gospel?
