Juan Williams, as everybody knows by now, was fired by National Public Radio for admitting when boarding a plane he gets nervous when he sees obviously Muslim-looking men boarding.
The fact he then thoughtfully disected his own prejudice and lamented it, counts for nothing with the hyper-PC crowd at NPR.
I like Juan Williams. He’s the kind of liberal I grew up with, before the name was hijacked by Hard Left America-hating loonies. He’s always thoughtful and disagrees like a gentleman. I think FOX will be richer for having him on board as a full-timer.
Some have noted that hey, PC trumps black!
For me the fact Williams is black evoked an ironic memory from decades ago when the civil rights struggle was still heroic. Doubly ironic since Williams has written extensively about the struggle.
Back then the late John W. Campbell, legendary science fiction editor of Astounding/Analog magazine, coined the term “The Elsa Effect.”
He postulated, you’re on the African veldt and suddenly you see a lioness charging at you! You raise your trusty rifle and shoot her dead.
Oops! Turns out it was Elsa, the lioness from “Born Free,” running up to give you a hug and a kiss.
You’ve committed a terrible injustice – but would anybody blame you?
So, said Campbell, is the reaction many white people have to black people on the street. Fear. Avoidance. A general desire to be somewhere else.
Unjust? Sort of.
Look, we know by far most black people aren’t going to mug you – but enough are willing to to make that fear more than mindless bigotry. (Depends on context of course.)
For Christ’s sake, Jessie Jackson admitted as much back in the days he still had occasional flashes of honesty!
Jackson said when he’s walking down a dark street, hears someone behind him, when he turns around and see’s they’re white, he feels relieved. Then ashamed.
What was ironic about that was, I heard about Jackson’s remarks and the controversy they engendered when I was living in Warsaw.
What struck me at the time was, when I walk down a dark street in Poland and I hear someone behind me, if he’s black I feel relieved. Because I know he’s an African student or businessman and not out to mug me for beer money. If it’s a Pole I don’t know that.
But that’s nothing compared to the side-splittingly funny irony coming from moderate muslims. Turns out they get just as nervous when they see muslims in traditional/medieval dress getting on planes.