by Daniel Nardini
National Public Radio’s interview with white supremacist Richard Spencer made me want to throw up. Since when does it become acceptable, even fashionable, to give quality air-time to a white racist who wants to make the United States a “white country?” Somehow, for some strange reason, the election of Donald Trump has jolted various sections of the new media to interview white racists, neo-nazis, Ku Klux Klan individuals, and whatever idiot fascists there are out there. Even if Trump has put someone like Steve Bannon, an extreme right wing conspiracist, into a prominent position in the White House, this does not legitimize in my opinion the people in what is being called the alt(ernative) Right. In my view, they are still deplorable for everything the United States is not.
America is not a “white country.” America was not just “founded or built by Europeans.” America is not just a “Christian country.” White people are not superior to everyone else, and it is a sick joke to state that all races in this country, or anywhere else, cannot get along and need to be “separated.” Despite all of the racial problems this country has, the most obvious fact is that African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, and Native Americans get along far, far better than anything else. Despite what differences many people, whose ancestry came from many parts of the world, may have, this country is in so many ways a success story of integration. For mainstream media to give these white supremacists a voice is to provide legitimacy for their vile poison. These vile white racists have their own private voice—their own websites, their own newspapers, their own chat rooms, their own mailing lists to reach people. Do we need to give them any greater publicity?
This is the wrong way to do things to put it mildly. These white racist nut jobs believe in ideas and theories that have been long ago discredited. Anthropology proved a long time ago that skin color does not determine intelligence nor superiority. Science has proven that DNA does not determine any civilization to be superior to another. Finally, there are groups of people we do not give air time or credence in the news media because they do NOT deserve it. We do not give equal time to people who believe that the world is flat. We do not give equal time to people who believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that the dinosaurs were killed off in the biblical flood. I now ask the question why news media did not give equal time to the Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who had a legitimate campaign of bringing America together and trying to give his vision of what American can be?! The Libertarian Party tried, and I do mean TRIED, to get Gary Johnson the publicity that he should have had as a legitimate third party presidential candidate. It is telling me that a great deal of the news media these days has its priorities thoroughly wrong; just like so many guessed the election thoroughly wrong.
Giving Alt Right Equal Time?
by Daniel Nardini
National Public Radio’s interview with white supremacist Richard Spencer made me want to throw up. Since when does it become acceptable, even fashionable, to give quality air-time to a white racist who wants to make the United States a “white country?” Somehow, for some strange reason, the election of Donald Trump has jolted various sections of the new media to interview white racists, neo-nazis, Ku Klux Klan individuals, and whatever idiot fascists there are out there. Even if Trump has put someone like Steve Bannon, an extreme right wing conspiracist, into a prominent position in the White House, this does not legitimize in my opinion the people in what is being called the alt(ernative) Right. In my view, they are still deplorable for everything the United States is not.
America is not a “white country.” America was not just “founded or built by Europeans.” America is not just a “Christian country.” White people are not superior to everyone else, and it is a sick joke to state that all races in this country, or anywhere else, cannot get along and need to be “separated.” Despite all of the racial problems this country has, the most obvious fact is that African Americans, Asian Americans, European Americans, and Native Americans get along far, far better than anything else. Despite what differences many people, whose ancestry came from many parts of the world, may have, this country is in so many ways a success story of integration. For mainstream media to give these white supremacists a voice is to provide legitimacy for their vile poison. These vile white racists have their own private voice—their own websites, their own newspapers, their own chat rooms, their own mailing lists to reach people. Do we need to give them any greater publicity?
This is the wrong way to do things to put it mildly. These white racist nut jobs believe in ideas and theories that have been long ago discredited. Anthropology proved a long time ago that skin color does not determine intelligence nor superiority. Science has proven that DNA does not determine any civilization to be superior to another. Finally, there are groups of people we do not give air time or credence in the news media because they do NOT deserve it. We do not give equal time to people who believe that the world is flat. We do not give equal time to people who believe that the Earth is only 6,000 years old and that the dinosaurs were killed off in the biblical flood. I now ask the question why news media did not give equal time to the Libertarian Party presidential candidate Gary Johnson, who had a legitimate campaign of bringing America together and trying to give his vision of what American can be?! The Libertarian Party tried, and I do mean TRIED, to get Gary Johnson the publicity that he should have had as a legitimate third party presidential candidate. It is telling me that a great deal of the news media these days has its priorities thoroughly wrong; just like so many guessed the election thoroughly wrong.