What I find interesting about Williams' comments is that he was at least trying to be honest. He did not think he was being derogatory. There are few honest conversations about race, religion and bigotry and national TV. There is plenty of talk about race, religion and bigotry, but almost all of it is posturing - carefully positioned talking points or homogenized statements that go down easy. The hard truths are rarely discussed - what people think. And there is a reason for this, what people think about other races is often pretty awful, uninformed, short sighted, and diluted with myth and stereotypes...bigoted perhaps. But how do we get past this if we are not even allowed to express our anxieties?
Of course Juan Williams was allowed to express his anxieties. He was fired from one job, but kept in another. Unfairly, some Fox commentators are lionizing the guy - a new hero for the angry white Christian set. Except... oh yes, he's not White and he has since made the point that we should not demonize Muslims for 9-11 no more than we should demonize W.A.S.P.s for Timothy McVeigh's Oklahoma City bombing. And he's right.
NPR claims that his firing was a matter of journalistic integrity:
The news and media world is changing swiftly and radically; traditional standards and practices are under siege. This requires us to redouble our attention to how we interpret and live up to our values and standards. We are confident that NPR’s integrity and dedication to the highest values in journalism and our commitment to serving as a national forum for the respectful discussion of diverse ideas will continue to earn the support of a growing audience.
This above is from the network's CEO, Vivian Schiller. She claims simply that NPR doesn't want its news reporters to make personal comments in the national media. A fair point. While I obviously support personal dialogue in the national media, there is an argument to be made that reporters should be reporters. News people should report the news and not be constant (and, in some cases, very eager) commentators. Schiller claims that Williams' firing was due to several miscues and not just this one. The CEO said that the timing was just poor. Of course, timing is everything and, in this case, fairly transparent.
Should we call attention to Williams' comment. Is it honest? Probably. Is it fair? I'm not sure. Would I react if someone was reading the Koran next to me on a commercial flight? I would definitely be intrigued. Recently I sat in the plane next to a man who read both The Bible and Ammo magazines. That was peculiar. Was I nervous? No. Would I be nervous if he had been reading the Koran? Probably not. Effective Terrorists succeed by surprising folks, not by calling attention to themselves. I might be nervous if I were sitting next to Juan Williams. One, because I can't afford to sit in first class and, two, because, who knows, he might be a target now.
If we are going to live with each other - different races, different cultures, different religions - we have to be rational and fair. We are never going to agree on everything. We are never going to all "just get along." At least not in every sense. We may even be suspicious of each other, but I can't see the value in hiding these feelings.
Years ago, a high school friend of mine flew with his mother to Belgium. She was from the "old country" and needed an escort. Before the flight took off she nearly went into hysterics. She told her son, "there is a nun on the plane." This very Catholic woman explained to her son that nuns were bad omens. Planes with nuns aboard mysteriously crash. She insisted that they get off the plane. It took a lot of work to convince her otherwise. She stayed on the flight, nervous as she was. In the end, the nun did not bring the plane down.
Most flights land safely no matter who is aboard. On the other hand, comments on national TV, in the papers, and in blogs don't always have such an easy landing. Someone is always willing to blow them out of porportion.
dwo
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