October 21, 201015 yr Is being nervous now bigotry? Apparently. You are suppose to think the best about everyone and assume that everyone means no harm.
October 21, 201015 yr A few thoughts: Williams was fired because NPR didn't believe his statements were consistent with their "editorial standards" and "undermined his credibility." That's fair enough for me. Despite the conservative stigma that NPR is a paragon of liberalism, I think they do a pretty good job of fair-minded reporting. Having one of their analysts expressing prejudiced beliefs is anathema to that. It's not political correctness gone wild, it makes sense from a business standpoint. The short soundbite of what Williams said is certainly prejudiced. However, in full context I believe his message was that most people have prejudices that they need to work to overcome. I think that is a strong and positive message. With all of that in mind, either NPR acted far too brazenly without getting all of the facts, or this was their excuse to get rid of Williams. From what I've read today it appears there was some tension over his work at Fox News before this kerfuffle. At the end of the day, I don't really think it's a big deal, but it certainly appears to be for partisans digging for a "gotchya" moment.
October 21, 201015 yr A few thoughts: Williams was fired because NPR didn't believe his statements were consistent with their "editorial standards" and "undermined his credibility." That's fair enough for me. Despite the conservative stigma that NPR is a paragon of liberalism, I think they do a pretty good job of fair-minded reporting. Having one of their analysts expressing prejudiced beliefs is anathema to that. It's not political correctness gone wild, it makes sense from a business standpoint. He was fired because he said something that was to his reality and expressing his own opinion. How can you call it prejudice? He was just expressing what a lot of Americans think. This is a prime example of how liberals think when it comes to being "open minded. The short soundbite of what Williams said is certainly prejudiced. However, in full context I believe his message was that most people have prejudices that they need to work to overcome. I think that is a strong and positive message. No, its understandable where people are getting fear of things such as flying, its a common human instinct to be scared considering what just happened 9 years ago. If anything, people need to realize who it is that is trying to attack us. You can't just wave it off. Muslim extremists agenda hasn't calmed in the slightest, what makes you think people shouldn't be worried that an attack might happen again? Who are you to say that "NO, How dare you think like that!" But I can totally see where you get that its a strong and positive message. "Don't you dare express your fear, if you do, you are a bigot." Yes, certainly a strong and positive message.
October 21, 201015 yr "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." ... 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?' Personally, I think Andrew Sullivan is exactly right in the sense that there would be outrage had Williams made a similar comment about black people on the subway. I suspect some of the people defending Williams here and/or criticizing NPR's decision might take a different tack about it had Williams been referring to black people and not Muslims. What's the difference here? None. For expressing that sentiment, even Fox would fire him.
October 21, 201015 yr Besides, I find the mention of "Muslim garb" was also just a shorthand for Williams for skirting around race directly. I don't even want to acknowledge that that particular verbal jujitsu holds any merit. He just meant Muslims. For the record, dudes dressed in flowing robes and turbans and women in burqas didn't hijack planes on 9/11. They looked as American as apple pie. He just meant "When I see people of Middle Eastern descent."
October 21, 201015 yr None. For expressing that sentiment, even Fox would fire him. Really? Cause Bill O'Reilly wasn't.
October 21, 201015 yr Besides, I find the mention of "Muslim garb" was also just a shorthand for Williams for skirting around race directly. I don't even want to acknowledge that that particular verbal jujitsu holds any merit. He just meant Muslims. For the record, dudes dressed in flowing robes and turbans and women in burqas didn't hijack planes on 9/11. They looked as American as apple pie. He just meant "When I see people of Middle Eastern descent." That is a good point. So what should we do to try and stop it? What can we do?
October 21, 201015 yr Really? Cause Bill O'Reilly wasn't. I don't understand what you're saying. Do you mean that O'Reilly wasn't fired? I meant that anyone on Fox would have been fired if he'd made similar statements about African Americans.
October 21, 201015 yr That is a good point. So what should we do to try and stop it? What can we do? What we can't do is start assuming that every time we're on a plane with someone who looks different from us, that they plan to murder thousands of people.
October 21, 201015 yr Is being nervous now bigotry? Any cultural diversity training I've ever had starts out talking about we are predisposed to notice differences from ourselves and to be nervous about those differences. Would you say that people in the not-so-distant past were bigots or prejudiced because they would walk on the other side of the street if they saw a black man walking toward them on the other side of the street? Would you say a person was bigoted if they were nervous when a group of black teenagers with saggy pants were walking toward them? Would you say they were bigoted if they were nervous at a county fair and there were a bunch of skin heads with Nazi tattoos? Is "nervousness" bigotry? I think those are all hard questions to ask. But what I think Juan Williams needs to ask himself is, if this were 50 years ago and people were nervous that he was near them, would he feel this was bigotry? EVERY Muslim is not responsible for the actions of the radical fringe...then or now. Neither were ALL people of Middle Eastern descent, with Middle Eastern skin tone or facial features. Is he nervous when Bosnian Muslims are seated next to him on a plane? What about a Black Muslim? The bigotry, albeit most likely unintentional, is in singling out the ethnicity of a group of people who happen to be followers of a certain faith. If he truly feels nervous of Muslims, he shouldn't make a distinction based on ethnicity. Now, as to whether NPR should have fired him. In my opinion...no. It's National Public Radio. It is a bastion of free-thought. And I do agree that as such, his opinion should be allowed to be expressed. But I do feel a guest issuing a rebuttal and pointing out why they thought his opinion was wrong would have been in order. NPR should be a place that both sides of the coin can be examined.
October 21, 201015 yr Shoot I don't trust anyone. The ginger looking guy down the aisle from me could be just as likely to blow the plane up as the guy walking on board with a Koran in one hand and a turban on his head.
October 21, 201015 yr What we can't do is start assuming that every time we're on a plane with someone who looks different from us, that they plan to murder thousands of people. That is not what I asked. What Juan Williams said and what you are implying are two totally different things. Juan said he gets scared, which is okay cause its HUMAN instinct to get scared when your memory recollects what happened 9 years ago. I do not care to say that yes, indeed when I am at on a plane, I think the worst may happen because when I'm up in the air 30,000 feet, I have very little options of what I can do if something were to happen. You know what one of my first thoughts would be, terrorist attack. You know whose fault it is that I have to think a terrorist attack may happen and as to who may attempt to do so....Not mine.
October 21, 201015 yr Juan's OK. FOX just signed him to a $2 million deal. http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2010/10/fox-news-channel-signs-juan-williams-to-expanded-role.html
October 22, 201015 yr Would you say that people in the not-so-distant past were bigots or prejudiced because they would walk on the other side of the street if they saw a black man walking toward them on the other side of the street? Would you say a person was bigoted if they were nervous when a group of black teenagers with saggy pants were walking toward them? Would you say they were bigoted if they were nervous at a county fair and there were a bunch of skin heads with Nazi tattoos? Is "nervousness" bigotry? I think those are all hard questions to ask. But what I think Juan Williams needs to ask himself is, if this were 50 years ago and people were nervous that he was near them, would he feel this was bigotry? EVERY Muslim is not responsible for the actions of the radical fringe...then or now. Neither were ALL people of Middle Eastern descent, with Middle Eastern skin tone or facial features. Is he nervous when Bosnian Muslims are seated next to him on a plane? What about a Black Muslim? The bigotry, albeit most likely unintentional, is in singling out the ethnicity of a group of people who happen to be followers of a certain faith. If he truly feels nervous of Muslims, he shouldn't make a distinction based on ethnicity. Now, as to whether NPR should have fired him. In my opinion...no. It's National Public Radio. It is a bastion of free-thought. And I do agree that as such, his opinion should be allowed to be expressed. But I do feel a guest issuing a rebuttal and pointing out why they thought his opinion was wrong would have been in order. NPR should be a place that both sides of the coin can be examined. No.
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