Conservative writer Kevin D. Williamson defended a passage he wrote in a recent issue of National Review in which he described a young African-American boy he estimated to be about 9 years old making the “gesture of primate territorial challenge.”
In a piece that is otherwise about the decrepit nature of Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn’s (D) hometown, East St. Louis, Ill., Williamson opens with some local color:
‘Hey, hey craaaaaacka! Cracka!White devil! F*** you, white devil!” The guy looks remarkably like Snoop Dogg: skinny enough for a Vogue advertisement, lean-faced with a wry expression, long braids. He glances slyly from side to side, making sure his audience is taking all this in, before raising his palms to his clavicles, elbows akimbo, in the universal gesture of primate territorial challenge. Luckily for me, he’s more like a three-fifths-scale Snoop Dogg, a few inches shy of four feet high, probably about nine years old, and his mom — I assume she’s his mom — is looking at me with an expression that is a complex blend of embarrassment, pity, and amusement, as though to say: “Kids say the darnedest things, do they not, white devil?”
Williamson’s piece received a great deal of blowback, including from New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait and Slate’s Jamelle Bouie. Williamson defended his piece, arguing that humans are “primates” so the reference wasn’t offensive.
I want to hear how it’s cool to compare little black kids to primates, but my hunch is I’ll get lame insults. https://t.co/YFYy7MGA6B
— Jamelle Bouie (@jbouie) August 11, 2014
I am kindof stunned to read Kevin Williamson’s @NRO piece from East St. Louis. https://t.co/D5bBTGkjbi It’s astonishingly offensive.
— Harold Pollack (@haroldpollack) August 13, 2014
Wow 3/5 shoutout RT @jbouie: I want you to read this lede and rate it on a scale of racist, from 1 to 10 Bull Connors pic.twitter.com/PJMtQUpmjS
— Elias Isquith (@eliasisquith) August 11, 2014
I am kindof stunned to read Kevin Williamson’s @NRO piece from East St. Louis. https://t.co/D5bBTGkjbi It’s astonishingly offensive.
— Harold Pollack (@haroldpollack) August 13, 2014
@jonathanchait Funny, I didn’t write anything about monkeys. Interesting where your mind goes.
— Kevin D. Williamson (@KevinNR) August 13, 2014
Race-relations is something that National Review has had trouble grappling with at times. In July, the magazine’s John Fund devoted a piece to highlighting the Democratic Party’s history of supporting Jim Crow. But the column did not acknowledge that National Review also supported segregation.
Williamson was also the author of a long feature piece in the magazine that argued that women should support Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama because of how much money he had in his bank account and how many male offspring he’s had.
(Photo credit: Twitter)
Obviously taken out of context.
He obviously meant that the 9-year-old was an Archbishop within the Anglican Communion.
The Reagan administration used an executive order easing immigration standards for 200,000 Nicaraguan exiles fleeing communism in 1987.
Bachmann and King and Cruz legislation -
“Kick them all out” passes the house.
Obama orders executive action on immigration last week of August - similar to Reagan’s 1987 order.
Republicans heads explode with calls to sue and impeach.
Killing the GOP among swing voters.
The McClatchy-Marist College poll shows political moderates oppose the impeachment of Obama 79 percent to 15 percent. Not only that,
if the House GOP did initiate impeachment proceedings, moderates say it would turn them off so much that they would be pulled toward the Democrats.
By 49-27, moderates say impeachment would make them more likely to vote Democratic than Republican in 2014.
Americans say 58 percent to 34 percent that the GOP should not sue Obama, and moderates agree 67-22.
Moderates also say by a 50-25 margin that the lawsuit makes them more likely to back Democrats in 2014.
Just in time for the 2014 Midterms.
Perfect.
“I’M NOT A RACIST but WATCH ME LYNCH THIS NIGRA!”
In a scientific sense, we are all primates. Somehow, I doubt that’s the context that the writer had in mind.