Noted commentator Michael Eric Dyson, discussing the issue on "The Today Show" this morning, observed how both Jackson and Obama have each advocated for greater social responsibility and for the need for government to address the key issues that hold people in the Black community back--high unemployment, lack of quality education and healthcare, and the need for financial literacy.

To see Dyson's comments, click here.

What Happened?

Jackson, unaware his microphone was on after an interview on FOX News Sunday, criticized Obama's recent lectures to the Black community, saying he "really talks down to Black people," adding, "I wanna cut his nuts out."

To see video of Jackson's comments, click here.

Once he was made aware that FOX captured the remarks and intended to air them, Jackson made a hasty public apology, saying, "For any harm or hurt that this hot mic conversation may have caused, I apologize." He added that he still fully supports the Obama campaign.

To see the Rev. Jackson's apology to Obama, click here.

In a statement, Jackson said: "My appeal was for the moral content of his message to not only deal with the personal and moral responsibility of Black males but to deal with the collective moral responsibility of government and the public policy, which would be a corrective action for the lack of good choices that often led to their irresponsibility."

Jackson, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988, paved the way for Obama to become the first Black candidate to stand at the precipice of the White House. In a recent interview on ABC News, Jackson said Obama is "running the last lap of a marathon … and I was part of that race."

The Obama camp offered a statement accepting Jackson's apology but said Obama will continue speaking directly about personal responsibility. "He will continue to speak out about our responsibilities to ourselves and each other, and he of course accepts Rev. Jackson's apology," Obama campaign spokesperson Bill Burton said.

But some, including Jackson's son, Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., who serves as an Obama campaign co-chairman, weren't so quick to turn the other cheek. Jackson Jr. issued a statement saying, "His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee--and I believe the next president of the United States--contradict his inspiring and courageous career."

Jackson Jr. added, "Rev. Jackson is my dad and I'll always love him. He should know how hard I've worked for the last year and a half as a national co-chair of Barack Obama's presidential campaign. So I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric. He should keep hope alive and any personal attacks and insults to himself."

At the heart of Jackson's rebuke appear to be comments Obama directed to Black males about being more engaged in raising their children. While speaking from a pulpit at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago on Father's Day, he said, "If we are honest with ourselves, we'll admit that too many fathers are missing …You and I know how true this is in the African-American community. We know that more than half of all Black children live in single-parent households, a number that has doubled since we were children."

To read a full transcript of Barack Obama's Father's Day speech, click here.

It's not the first time comments such as Obama's have stoked controversy. Bill Cosby made similar remarks when he spoke before the NAACP in 2004. In that speech, Cosby blamed disproportionately high dropout rates, crime and teen pregnancy on the Black community itself.

"I'm talking about these people who cry when their son is standing there in an orange suit," Cosby said. "Where were you when he was 2? Where were you when he was 12? Where were you when he was 18, and how come you don't know he had a pistol? And where is the father?"

To read or listen to Cosby's speech on AmericanRhetoric.com, click here.