Religious right groups seem to be engaged in shark-like frenzy in attempts to defend the supposed free speech of Dynasty Duck star Phil Robertson. Robertson was put on indefinite filming hiatus after homophobic and racially insensitive comments he made in a GQ magazine interview.
All day, Americans have been bombarded with tweets, columns, and interviews from such personalities as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Fox News personalities, Sarah Palin, the Family Research Council, the National Association of Marriage, and various other entities who have been outdoing each other with the weeping towel over supposed attack on Robertson's "right to free speech" and how lgbts are intolerant to those who oppose us.
But through all of the talking is something I noticed. Very few, if any of these folks, even bothered to mention the racially insensitive comment. Either eager to paint the lgbt community as an intolerant mafia or craftly sidestepping the issue, while these folks have been very vocal about "standing with Phil Robertson" in regards to his anti-gay comments, they have been silent regarding racist comments.
And what were those comments? According to Robertson, black people were happy during pre-integration America:
I refuse to think that the right-wing and religious right avoidance of talking about this comment is accidental. Jindal is the governor of Louisiana. He, of all people, should be addressing Robertson's inaccurate comments about race.
Palin is a useless con artist. I could care less what she says. I feel the same way about Fox News personalities. However religious right groups, particularly the National Organization for Marriage, reveal a stunning degree of hypocrisy by not coming out against Robertson's racist comments.
After all, wasn't it these groups, especially NOM, who claimed that gays were attempting to "highjack" the African-American civil rights movement? And wasn't it NOM who came up with the "wedge strategy" of hiring African-American spokesmen to say that lgbt equality cannot be compared to African-American equality?
So why aren't NOM and other religious right groups making a statement against Robertson's comments regarding Jim Crow America, which is a larger slap in the face than anything they claim lgbts can do. He is implying that the Civil Rights Movement was a mistake.
Religious right groups are not fooling anyone by evading this issue. Rather, they are proving that they never really cared about the Civil Rights Movement or African-Americans in general. Unless they can use them as pawns to bash the lgbt community.
All day, Americans have been bombarded with tweets, columns, and interviews from such personalities as Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, Fox News personalities, Sarah Palin, the Family Research Council, the National Association of Marriage, and various other entities who have been outdoing each other with the weeping towel over supposed attack on Robertson's "right to free speech" and how lgbts are intolerant to those who oppose us.
But through all of the talking is something I noticed. Very few, if any of these folks, even bothered to mention the racially insensitive comment. Either eager to paint the lgbt community as an intolerant mafia or craftly sidestepping the issue, while these folks have been very vocal about "standing with Phil Robertson" in regards to his anti-gay comments, they have been silent regarding racist comments.
And what were those comments? According to Robertson, black people were happy during pre-integration America:
“I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person," Robertson is quoted in GQ. "Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field.... They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!... Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
I refuse to think that the right-wing and religious right avoidance of talking about this comment is accidental. Jindal is the governor of Louisiana. He, of all people, should be addressing Robertson's inaccurate comments about race.
Palin is a useless con artist. I could care less what she says. I feel the same way about Fox News personalities. However religious right groups, particularly the National Organization for Marriage, reveal a stunning degree of hypocrisy by not coming out against Robertson's racist comments.
After all, wasn't it these groups, especially NOM, who claimed that gays were attempting to "highjack" the African-American civil rights movement? And wasn't it NOM who came up with the "wedge strategy" of hiring African-American spokesmen to say that lgbt equality cannot be compared to African-American equality?
So why aren't NOM and other religious right groups making a statement against Robertson's comments regarding Jim Crow America, which is a larger slap in the face than anything they claim lgbts can do. He is implying that the Civil Rights Movement was a mistake.
Religious right groups are not fooling anyone by evading this issue. Rather, they are proving that they never really cared about the Civil Rights Movement or African-Americans in general. Unless they can use them as pawns to bash the lgbt community.
2 comments:
"They were godly, they were happy,
in other words, they knew their place.
Had Phil Robertson only made the comment about African Americans being happier hoeing cotton fields, he would have suffered the same fate as Paula Dean... show cancelled, all merchandise immediately pulled off store shelves, an end to all endorsements, etc.
That said, I'm guessing someone intentionally drove the narrative towards his anti-gay comments instead as a distraction... before the GQ issue hit the newsstands and his racist comments made headlines instead.
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