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Ann Coulter is all over the blogosphere for saying that Jews need to be “perfected” by becoming Christians, and that America would be better off if everyone were Christian. In fact, The National Jewish Democratic Council has called on the media to stop booking Coulter.
“While Ann Coulter has freedom of speech, news outlets should exercise their freedom to use better judgment,” said NJDC Executive Director Ira N. Forman. “Just as media outlets don’t invite those who believe that Martians walk the earth to frequently comment on science stories, it’s time they stop inviting Ann Coulter to comment on politics.”
The text of Coulter’s interview can be found here. It is ugly. The ugliest word in it is “we”, the repeated use of the word “we” by Coulter implying assent, suggesting that she is in understanding company, and speaks for the masses.
This is a stance I call “Assumptive Bigotry” – it assumes that because we share something (like Christianity), the bigot assumes we share his or her bigotry.
I am reminded of the time I went to Atlanta on a business trip in the 1990’s and was having lunch with a colleague I had only known over the telephone before. We relaxed over lunch and began to chat with the easy familiarity of women getting to know each other. Soon she had a criticism of the waitress, and couched it to me in disgusting racist terms as though the fact that I was white would automatically mean that I agreed with her. She had no sense that what she said was wrong, and was stunned when I found it objectionable.
Coulter did the same thing – she just assumed she was speaking for everyone Christian.
While Anne Coulter seems to make a career out of loathing, contributions to the mounds of Assumptive Bigotry come in from all fronts.
You may recall reports of recent filming of students on the University of Louisiana campus at Monroe, their faces daubed in mud to simulate blackface, acting out their version of the Jena 6, with racist epithets being called out in the background. The Washington Post says: The Washington Post says:
Shot on the banks of the Ouachita River, the minute-long video was posted on the Facebook page of Kristy Smith, though her page has since been made private and footage pulled after she received a number of complaints. However, The Smoking Gun has obtained a copy of the video as well as a number of photos of the white students covered in mud and showing the number "6" with their fingers.
While Smith is quoted saying "I'm not racist," but things "got a lil out of hand," the video was posted days later and is entitled "The Jena 6 on the River," fueling speculation that it was not inspired just by inebriated spontaneity.
Isaac Washington, formerly of Grey’s Anatomy can derisively call a fellow gay actor a fag and also say that he has no anti-gay bias.
Rosie O’Donnell can make her “ching chong” remark and be stunned that any Chinese American could be offended.
Smith is not racist and Coulter is not anti-Semitic and Washington respects gay people and Rosie has no negative Asian assumptions and if you’d like some beachfront land I know someone with a few swampy acres to sell right after you buy the Brooklyn Bridge.
What is this magic switch that people flip in their brains somewhere between saying something dreadful and denying its implications? It is as though saying “I am not racist or sexist or homophobic or anti-semitic” would erase any biased act I may commit. I mean after all, WE are good people, right?
And how does this flourish? OK everyone, look in the mirror for part of the answer. Every single one of us, if we are honest, can find a moment, an instant, an occasion we regretted later, when we were silent because it was easier.
Someone around us said something about African Americans, or all men, or all women, or Jews, or Moslems or all white people. They insulted Asians, people from Arab countries, GLBT people. They even sent us emails of jokes with punch lines designed to hurt a particular group, designed to flex the false musculature of assumed superiority.
And whoever said that or did that in our presence assumed that we would agree.
And we didn’t always stop them.
There is only one way to stop hate speech. That is to stop it. To say “STOP”. Out loud.
I am Polish.
