I ride a lot of planes now that I live in North Carolina, away from all my friends and family back north, so I was pretty interested to hear NPR in the news for firing Juan Williams after he told Bill O’Reilly that
“…when I[Juan Williams] 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.”
It’s a classy statement, especially coming from a guy who is a staunch supporter of civil rights. By the by, I’m being sarcastic. After being let go, Williams endeared himself further by penning a column on FOX News.com stating that “NPR fired me for telling the truth.” He then signed a three-year, $2 million contract with FOX. Because, hey, even if unemployment in this country is still obscenely high, a bigot like Juan Williams still deserves a job, right?
Douchebag
And Juan Williams is a bigot, even if he denies his statement was bigoted. Here’s how “bigot” is defined by Wiktionary (OED wanted me to subscribe): “one who is obstinately or intolerantly devoted to his or her own opinions and prejudices.” If you follow the link to “prejudices” you get the following definition for “prejudice”: (3) An irrational hostile attitude, fear or hatred towards a particular group, race or religion.”
Now, you might be asking, “What’s so irrational about Juan Williams fearing Muslims? They did attack the World Trade Center!” And you’d be perfectly correct. But here’s the thing: the 9/11 Hijackers were not dressed in “Muslim garb.” They were dressed like people who lived in the West, in the European mode, in part because they were Westerners (they’d lived in Germany before the United States), but also because men in robes tend to draw a lot of attention in airports. If you see a person in Muslim garb in an airport, you can almost be guaranteed they’re not a terrorist, because sticking out like a sore thumb is not something most people committing a crime want to do.
Pictured: Someone who will stand out in a witness' memory
No, if Juan Williams were exerting some rational thought, he’d be forced to come to the following thought: In the nine years since 9/11, there have been two attempts to bring down a plane already in flight, conducted by passengers: Richard Reid, the shoe bomber; and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber. Both men share their religion, Islam, with the 9/11 hijackers. However, neither man was dressed in “Muslim garb” when they attempted to bring down their flights. However, both men also share a visual characteristic in common with Juan Williams: they’re black.
L to R: Three black men who ride airplanes; Juan Williams, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, and Richard Reid
Now, according the Juan Williams twisted logic, the sensible thing to do is report any black man you see in the airport to the Transportation Security Administration personnel immediately, unless you want them to try and blow up your plane. Oh, and if Chicky has fired me from HipsterJew.com tomorrow, it’s because I told the truth. I hope you’re reading this, FOX News.
kevin
10/24/2010
everything you write is true but i don’t really agree that williams should have been fired or that he was entirely wrong in his statement. anyone who tries to claim we are immune to implicit biases against various groups, whether it be muslims, blacks, jews, women, etc. is more at risk to take part in discriminatory behaviors. they fail to acknowledge that the media and other aspects of American society have such a huge impact on what kinds of material we are subject to actually do have an effect, regardless of how much people claim to not see color etc. the real problem here is not in williams’ words, but the lack of real self-examination when it comes to these sorts of issues in this country and why they still exist.
Alex - Resident Goy Writer
10/24/2010
I definitely agree, Kevin. I believe that deep down, in their subconscious, everyone’s at least a little bit prejudice. People can overcome it by saying “and this isn’t based on logic; this is pure, irrational, dislike/fear of other people based on an arbitrary feature” and not indulging their prejudice, or apologizing when they do. And as the decades gather between modern day and the Civil Rights Era, we’re willing to do that less and less. Williams’ sin is not that he has an opinion and that’s its prejudice, but that he knows better than to voice a bigoted statement (as indicated by his preface “Look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But…”) without sandwiching it between a lot of conditional statements that would highlight that he condemns his own gut reaction as a negative one.
As for whether or not Williams should have been fired, I buy NPR’s statement that his firing wasn’t just about the “Muslims scare me” comment, and instead was simply “the straw that broke the camel’s back” in Williams’ violation of NPR’s policy that its News Analysts refrain from taking personal positions on contentious issues. Now, whether or not it’s realistic that NPR have such a policy is another matter, but if they’re going to at least try for objective journalism, they’re gonna need to crack the whip from time to time in order to keep their journalists objective.