Juan Williams firing

NPR: The Diane Rehm Show
Juan Williams
October 26
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-10-26/juan-williams?page=7


First, THE comments:

Williams responded: "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 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."

Williams also warned O'Reilly against blaming all Muslims for "extremists," saying Christians shouldn't be blamed for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130712737



I have a few different things I'm thinking. Two that differ quite a bit and one that is not too important.

I'll start with the superficial one. Muslim garb. Tee hee. That makes me want to giggle. Maybe not so superficial when you consider stereotypes and how they play into prejudice...

With that out of the way, lets move onto a few things that stick out to me.

Ok. I'm going to start with a defense of sorts, then move to the other direction, hoping that all these things that popped into my head can make some sort of sense.

One might say he's brave for stating that he's afraid of people dressed in traditional dress. It's not really PC to judge a book by its cover, but really he can't be wrong necessarily for stating his opinion. That's how he feels. He either wasn't thinking or bravely opened himself up to criticism.

In the clip that was played, he did say that this opinion doesn't justify profiling or denying mosque building. It appears as he says- he was trying to reign in O'Reilly. Now, reigning that guy in at all means you're probably still in the abyss, but slightly less so, but he makes a point.

Having said all that, I don't think he should have stated his fear on the air. On The Diane Rehm Show, she tries to get him to examine his roles as journalist for NPR and commentator for Fox and he kind of talks around it. I think he was in a precarious situation balancing those two roles and failed.

Another reason he shouldn't have gone there, even with the disclaimer that his fear doesn't justify discrimination, is that people DO use this fear as the basis for discrimination, especially lately. The Park 51 mosque thing and Quran burning and the infamous survey was educational in this regard. I also learned what some people I know thought about Muslims that I wish I didn't.

I mean, just think. When or if you hear that a white person is afraid of black people, what do we think? It isn't PC. We might not think a lot of them. We might think they need to be educated and talk to black people so that they can see that people are people and there are common threads among us all. I have this same reaction as I do to people afraid of black people as I do people afraid of Muslims or "Muslim garb." ( Jeans and scarves--ooooh. Scary. :( )

This fear of black people has been used to discriminate and that's not ok. Same for Muslims. Unfortunately, it seems it will take us a bit longer to figure that out. It seems people are more accepting of judging Muslims by the small percentage of extremists who use religion to recruit to fulfill their political ambitions than to judge all black people or all Jews by whatever stereotype comes to mind.

His comments in the times we live in now are inflammatory and are just going to feed the fear and give it more of a voice and higher profile. The comments about not using the fear for discrimination are irrelevant in the present time given how the majority of Americans feel (and know) about Muslims. See the polls below.

I guess it's not really the fear of the group that's really wrong. I mean, that's your feeling. What you do with that fear and your feelings is the really important thing. Do you ask questions and find out about this group? Do you talk to them despite your fear to find out what is prejudice and what is real? Or do you retreat and believe all of the junk email forwards, Fox News commentators and movie stereotypes and freely spew them forth as though you are an expert on the topic?


***Links to the polls I mention or reasons why I think Americans think it's PC to hate Muslims:

Poll: Americans think "Muslim" means someone they dislike
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/08/19/obama_muslim_poll

Poll shows more Americans think Obama is a Muslim
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081806913.html

TIME Poll: Majority Oppose Mosque, Many Distrust Muslims

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2011799,00.html

NPR: Diane Rehm Show: Perspectives on the U.S.- Israel Rift

Perspectives on the U.S.- Israel Rift


This was a more interesting show. At least the Israel love fest was tempered a bit.


I'll just comment on some callers, here:


Dave in MA- I thought he had a very valid concern. 25%, though? Cut it all!

“Insults don’t get any worse than what Israel did to us last week. Israel has done this before. They continue to do it because they know there are no ramifications to its actions. This has to change. President Obama should withdraw 25% of Israel’s massive foreign aid immediately.”

Guest Ziad Asali: The US has to make clear what the interests are and it has an obligation to defend those interests. We need to assert the leadership of the President which is being challenged. Israel needs to be part of the solution and rearrange the political situation and be a player in the region with Arab states.

David Makovsky: That would be true if Israel didn’t want to negotiate, but they do. It was an unfortunate result of a perfect storm that they have to be sure it never happens again.


But it does happen! All the time! Israel may well want to negotiate, but it’s actions always make this impossible to see!


Eddie in MD is on the other side…

"I feel, as an American Jewish person, that Israel has made many concessions and continues to do so. Israel has had its back pushed to the waters, to the sea. I think it wants to have peace talks, but I think its made concessions and I don’t think the United States or anybody else should bully them into giving up what they feel they need. And I think somebody ought to think about the little guy, and that’s Israel, who’s trying to fight for its life in this world."

Israel is the little guy. (???) I'm glad he clarified, because I wouldn't have guessed that. Fourth largest (or best?) military in the world and attached at the hip to the world's superpower doesn't exactly scream little guy.

"what they feel they need" ??? What about the law? Jewish national aspirations have always been respected and supported. What about Palestinian national aspirations? Are Jews the only ones allowed to fight "for what they feel they need?" For Palestinians, now, it is less about what they feel they need and more about basics- water, food, shelter, employment.

And, really, who's pushing whom into the sea these days? When was the last time Palestinians were condemned for creating life threatening poverty, demolishing Jewish homes as government policy, occupying Jewish land and moving and building such that it can claim it outside of negotiation? When you can talk about ethnic cleansing openly and speak of another population's birth rate as a threatening to you as a bomb, you have truly arrived. You are no little guy. Actually, you are quite the bully by that point.


Ann in Washigton DC mentioned- Israel bringing extreme Jewish settler groups to worship at al Aqsa- a guest said that had stopped – he does admit it happened, though, so to call it conspiracy theory may not be truthful.

A guest called it conspiracy theory fueled by Rabbo, Dahlan when it isn’t true… ?
--I need to check this out..more research needed on this thing to see who is remembering incorrectly or stretching the truth.