"These guys are looking for a diversion from the horrendous laws that are separating people, I will not respond in kind."

Said Jesse Jackson. What he was refusing to respond to "in kind" was Florida Governor Rick Scott's demand that Jesse Jackson apologize. Apologize for what? For saying that Florida is the "Selma of our time" and calling for an economic boycott to "isolate Florida as a kind of apartheid state given this whole stand your ground laws."

Now, clearly, Jackson was engaging in over-the-top hyperbole,  seeking active and damaging discord, and stirring up anxieties about racism. This was his deliberate choice to go extreme, and yet he says, when asked for an apology, that he will not respond "in kind." But it was Rick Scott who refrained from responding "in kind" to Jackson.

What would Scott have said if he had decided to use rhetoric at the level of "Selma of our time" and "a kind of apartheid state"? Jackson's "respond in kind" is, I think, a giveaway that he'd hoped people would respond in kind. He is seeking discord and hot discourse. He's disappointed that his fighting words aren't provoking a fight.

If you watch the video at the link, at 0:57, you'll see Jackson, instantly upon making the Selma/apartheid remark, display a classic tell: He puts a finger to his lower eyelid and pulls it down. I'd say he knows he's way over the top, but there it is, it's said, and he's not backing down. As they say in Florida: Stand Your Ground.