Now that I can get instant traffic reports on my iPhone, I much prefer John Dankosky's Where We Live in the morning to wading throught the pitiful, non-tempered "libertarian" (read: conservative lunatic fringe) musings of hatemonger Jim Vicevich, and his herd of birther and flat-earther caller/listeners on WTIC-AM while waiting for a traffic report.
Vicevich, who makes a great, florid show of outrage if anyone accuses him of racism, demonstrated Tuesday that he is, in fact, a racist.
On a late morning drive, I listened in long enough to hear Vicevich condemn Barack Obama for chastizing the Cambridge Police Department's Sargeant James Crowley as "acting stupidly" for arresting Harvard University professor Henry Louis Gates for disorderly conduct when the cops tried to arrest Gates for breaking into his own house.
Sounds pretty damned stupid to me (and racist - a good essay on the topic here). What's stupider is that Obama apologized. Stupider still is Vicevich's implication that Obama himself is somehow racist for calling stupid, "stupid".
Meanwhile, acting the peacemaker, Obama has invited Gates and Crowley to the White House to hash out the problem over a few beers.
One of Vicevich's callers, a self-proclaimed "Irishman" was appalled that Obama would offer beers to a cop of obvious Irish descent, claiming that such an invitation was insulting and somehow anti-Celtic. Vicevich hooted, and agreed heartily with the caller.
The caller went on to say that if the invitation went the other way, Obama should be offered "fried chicken and watermelon."
Oh. Doesn't take a genius to sniff a bigot at work.
Vicevich just laughed. No scold. No disclaimer. No rebuke. No condemnation. No indication that the caller had just crossed a line into old-fashioned, xenophobic, tiny-minded racism.Vicevich just laughed.
Which, in my book, makes Vicevich a racist. A radio host who encourages outright bigotry is, undeniably, himself, a bigot.
But that's no surprise from a man who regularly calls Barack Obama "the young president." Someone should remind Jim that constantly and consistently reminding his listeners that the president is "youthful" and "inexperienced" is tantamount to calling him "boy." And, Vicevich probably doesn't have to be reminded that calling a person of color "boy" has been a time-honored method of diminishing the worth of a person because of their race. If Vicevich doesn't intend the insult, he should refrain from using the "young president" tag, but my guess is that, in this case, he means what he says.
3 comments:
Vicevich is, certainly, not alone on the airwaves. Laura Ingraham, whose show can be heard Monday-Friday on WMRD-AM, has been skirting the boundaries of good taste concerning race and racial issues since before the Jan. 20 inauguration. Her frequent comments on Michele Obama are ridiculous, misogynistic, and border on fanatic jealousy. Sad, sad, sad.
Ed -- I thought you were anti-torture? Yes?
Then why are you still subjecting yourself to WTIC radio?? Are you doing doing the honorable thing and listening in the name of research?
Or do you have a Suck-O-Meter on your car radio and you just enjoy watching the LCD make the pretty red colors?
What a pathetic blog Ed! Surely you might serve a more fruitful purpose on this earth even if you simply took on a job retreading tires or working in an adult bookstore?
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