This Week’s Non-Racist: A Knuckle-Dragging Commentator

Fox News commentator John Gibson has been raising some eyebrows. In the context of attacking Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) on his radio show on April 23, Gibson referred to Iraqis as “knuckle-dragging savages from the 10^th Century” and blamed them for the continual killings in Iraq. While this comment has gotten some attention, we are interested in the phrase that preceded the racist comment. What Gibson said was this: “If you're saying it's our fault that we unmasked them as knuckle-dragging savages from the 10th century, fine. I'll take credit.”

That the U.S. “unmasked” Iraqis suggests that the Iraqi people have been attempting to hide the fact of what they really are. Perhaps they have been hiding this for 1,100 years? There is power in the imagery that the U.S. is such the proponent of truth, wisdom and goodness that rather than instigate hostility and violence, we – as super heroes or, more accurately, Scooby Doo, might do – revealed the latent tendencies of these imposters of civilization and exposed them for what they really are. The level of arrogance is astonishing, but what’s more astonishing is that while the language Gibson used was met with criticism, the sentiments behind those words are far less frequently scrutinized. The nationalistic concern of the deaths of American lives being more newsworthy (read, “more troublesome”; read, “worth more”) than the lives of Iraqi soldiers or civilians illustrates this trend in reasoning. While Gibson’s comments are bigoted (that is, overt), the sentiments that most of us consciously or unconsciously share are racist.

This isn’t the first time that Gibson has revealed his bigotry. Last year, Gibson addressed a report that Hispanic Americans are having more babies than white non-Hispanic Americans by arguing that white people should have more babies. The tone is light, suggesting the bit was tongue-in-cheek, but humor is often an opportunity to “unmask” (to use Gibson’s metaphor) beliefs. It is clear from his tone that the remarks were not meant to be ironic (that is, to poke fun of someone who would actually call for whites to have more babies to offset Hispanic births). While Gibson reportedly backtracked when pressed to say that he intended to encourage all Americans to have more babies, his facetious “Hispanics can’t carry the whole load” remark undermines that claim and plays into stereotypical images of Hispanics having more children than they can support. In the midst of a debate on immigration that centers most heavily on Mexicans (which is the case now, as well as when Gibson made the comments), such sentiments are disturbing, to say the least. But, like so much other public language we cover here each week, the sentiments are revealing, as well.

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U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama (D-IL) has had his security increased as a result of his rising popularity and (corresponding?) racist “chatter” made on white supremacist websites, as well as a general concern about having a prominent black candidate in the presidential race. We hope to have more on this in next week’s blog.