This is nowhere as horrifying as the article below, but it's still sad.
I just can't understand what would posses Juan Williams to publicly say something so stupid. It seems that we have lost any sense of empathy or the ability to climb into anyone else's skin. It seems to me we could all benefit from a national reading day of To Kill a Mockingbird.
It also seems to me that this is just another example of the culture of extremes we live in. If you don't believe me, just listen to a Bill O'Reilly show and try not to get a headache as his guests argue back and forth - without either bothering to listen to one another.
As I was reading this story and came to this line from Williams -
"I mean, look, Bill, I'm not a bigot," Williams continued. "You know the kind of books I've written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."
I couldn't help but think . . . Okay, what happens if someone were to say I get really nervous every time I am in the store and an African American walks in with a do-rag on their head, their pants hanging off their ass, tattoos up and down their arms and neck, a white tank top on, and instantly think, "Oh God, I hope he doesn't rob the place. He is most certainly in a gang and looking for somehow to support his five kids from five different women!"
Of course, that is ludicrous. A person's appearance doesn't guarantee any of that (and I'm reminded of my father always scolding me for judging someone for their appearance by stating, "That could be Jesus testing you!"), but if someone were to go on national TV and say that, what would happen? How would Williams like that?
And then I came across this argument in the same story --
The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan wrote Wednesday morning that Williams' statement about fearing Muslims on planes is an example of bigotry. "What if someone said that they saw a black man walking down the street in classic thug get-up," Sullivan wrote. "Would a white person be a bigot [if] he assumed he was going to mug him?'
And that's right.
2 comments:
I think that it is important to note that Juan Williams was subsequently fired by NPR.
I think Juan's statement was innocuous. He merely stated what most of us would feel in the setting of a Muslim in an airplane. Honesty of expression, I'd say.
Juan has proven himself in the past and is not a bigot. Indeed, he qualified that statement, with several other statements at the time which are not being considered.
Our self-protection mechanism makes us fearful in certain situations - a guy looking like a thug, whatever the color or religion, puts us on guard. Unfortunately the Muslim garb has thug or terrorist connotations because of past events. It is too bad, but that's how it is.
Is this firing only because Juan appears on FOX? How much does Sorros' huge donation to NPR have to do with this?
Can we now be fired from our jobs for merely expressing quietly that we become nervous in certain settings?
Is this America?
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