Disturbed that Duck Dynasty Phil's *racism* is getting overlooked

In My Humble Opinion
161

Word to that, and also what BigT said just above.

Are you also a listener of Pop Culture Happy Hour? I enjoy both (though I do get what you are saying); and it was PCHH that talked about Duck Dynasty months ago, with SCG doing so much more recently. PCHH, I thought, treated them with kid gloves, not wanting, it seemed, to sound like snobs. SCG was much more willing to sneer at the show, I thought.

I’ve heard versions of this defense repeatedly (another corollary is “he’s from the Deep South, what did you expect?”). First of all, what I expect from a nationally televised entertainer, whose gig is not ordinarily based around being a “shock jock” or politically polarising figure like Rush, is that they keep views that any halfwit would know are going to offend huge swaths of the public to themselves or a close circle. (Had this been surreptitiously recorded in a more private setting, I would see it differently.)

Secondly, though, there is an implicit premise, or rather two closely related premises, behind these defenses that I think are worth unpacking and examining:

(1) People on the far right wing are all bigots.

(2) People from the South, at least white older men from the Deep South, are all bigots.

I feel pretty comfortable with those premises, admittedly; but I feel like if I had asserted those on their own, I would have gotten plenty of pushback. On the first, from Ayn Rand fans and others who would point to figures like Allan West; on the second, from Deep South residents (like those I’ve heard from before on IMHO threads) insisting I was painting with too broad a brush.

162

I didn’t think the WBC would ever agree with anybody.

163

Thanks to the poster who mentioned the historical ignorance being disseminated by revisionists regarding the Civil War, race relations in general, feminism, etc.

That makes me wonder why nobody mentioned the other deeply ignorant statements made by Robinson regarding history. The Nazis were mostly not atheists. The vast majority of them were either Lutheran or Catholic, with a few pagans and atheists among them. Also, who defeated the Nazis, and their mostly Catholic Fascist cronies from other countries? The godless Soviets (and other atheist Reds from other countries, like Tito and Hoxha), whom Robinson also lambastes.

I can’t let that kind of thing go. As for free speech, for the millionth time, he wasn’t suppressed by the state. That would be a 1st Amendment violation. I am under no obligation to tolerate bigotry, and towards that end I endorse the points of unity of Anti-Racist Action:

Anti-Racist Action has four points of unity to which all chapters must agree.

  1. We go where they go. Whenever fascists are organizing or active in public, we’re there. We don’t believe in ignoring them or staying away from them. Never let the Nazis have the street!
    2. We don’t rely on the cops or courts to do our work for us. This doesn’t mean we never go to court, but the cops uphold white supremacy and the status quo. They attack us and everyone who resists oppression. We must rely on ourselves to protect ourselves and stop the fascists.
    3. Non-sectarian defense of other anti-fascists. In ARA, we have a lot of different groups and individuals. We don’t agree about everything and we have a right to differ openly. But in this movement an attack on one is an attack on us all. We stand behind each other.
    4. We support abortion rights and reproductive freedom. ARA intends to do the hard work necessary to build a broad, strong movement against racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, transphobia, discrimination against the disabled, the oldest, the youngest, and the most oppressed people. We want a classless, free society. We intend to win!

My only disagreement is with the reference to Islamophobia. Somewhere above somebody mentioned not tolerating negative stances towards religious minorities. Religion is not inborn. It’s a choice, unlike race/ethnicity/sexual orientation/sex/gender/disability/etc., and should be fair game. I don’t think it’s a tangent at all, considering how Robinson and his supporters hide behind religion.

164

Great post, OLP, including specifically the last part.

165

In this case, I think A&E should hire a couple of gay comedians to go on the show and comment on Phil’s statements, going more for humor. I believe that a funny retort inflicts more damage on the bigot instead of the target of the bigot’s comments. It would be interesting to see the fallout if this would occur. What say you all?

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That idea could have some potential, depending on how it was executed.

167

Ah yes, I do listen to both, so it’s quite possible I’ve confused them. I may lift the SCG ban long enough to hear them sneer at DD.