Oh, man, I feel dirty just having typed that. For those of you who don't get the reference, and are currently sharpening blades intended for my duodenum, allow me to assure you that I am not an actual racist. That's a quote from Daniel Carver, the former KKK leader who appears regularly as the subject of scorn and ridicule on The Howard Stern Show.
But the reference is here for a very good reason. A Las Vegas weatherman has been fired for referring to Martin Luther King as a coon on the air:
Rob Blair of KTNV-TV was delivering the extended forecast Saturday morning when he said: "For tomorrow, 60 degrees, Martin Luther Coon King Jr. Day, gonna see some temperatures in the mid-60s."
Ouch. That's bad. That's even worse than the scene in Anchorman where Will Ferrell accidentally tells the city of San Diego to go fuck itself. What could have possibly possessed the man? I mean, if that's a Freudian slip, it doesn't reflect well on Mr. Blair's attitude towards our black friends. And King and coon don't even sound very much alike, really. Just embarrassing, hideously, hideously embarrassing.
But what do you think? Should this guy's life be ruined because of a moment's error? He's apologized profusely and says he didn't intend to offend anyone. Here's his quote:
"On a weather report earlier this morning, I made an accidental slip of the tongue when talking about the Martin Luther King holiday, and what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive. For that I offer my deepest apology. I in no way intended to offend anyone. I'm very sorry."
It's kind of an odd apology. He says "what I said was interpreted by many viewers as highly offensive." Well, of course it was offensive. You said "coon" in referring to arguably the greatest Black American of the 20th Century. A better apology would have been "my uttering a racial slur this morning was horribly offensive, and I deeply apologize." You know, something that reflects his knowledge of how bad the incident was, rather than place the blame for the situation on easily-offended viewers.
maybe you should actually hear a tape before you start going all crazy.
ReplyDeletehe said "martin luther koo uh er king" which sounds to me like he got king and junior mixed up. its as if he almost said kunior. oh wow maybe he didnt mean to offend people.
He should have said, "OK, I'm A racist! I don't like Martin Luther King! But I will give you an accurate forecast of the weather."
ReplyDelete"Arguably the greatest Black American of the 20th Century"??? No doubt that tag has been pinned on King by many, many Americans, which is simply outrageous.
ReplyDeleteThe man was an immoral phoney! It is hard to fathom as to why he was not put on trial for his misuse of the Southern Baptist Convention's funds (he blew mucho dinero on whores and booze)and as to why his doctorate was not revoked, as you will find no clearer example of a blatant plagiarist. But then again, I guess that whore-mongering and plagiarizing are okay if you become a cultural icon that many misguided souls take to be the symbol of high morality.
Not only is King's personal history dubious, at best, but important records about him have been sealed under court order until about 2020 or so. What could be so damning in there that it's been withheld from public view? That his "nonviolence" wasn't maybe as nonviolent as we've been told? That he traveled in Communist orbits? Who knows what else. Yet we have the "whitewashed" sanitized version to honor, instead of a real inventor like George Washington Carver, or even early abolitionists like Fredrick Douglas.
ReplyDeleteI saw the video too. He simply slipped in the order of the names, and in correcting, uttered a sound that could have been interpreted, by those who wanted to hear it as such, as "coon." Yes, MLK was a real piece of work. Why a federal holiday was named after him is beyond my comprehension. It took repeated threats of extreme monetary sanctions for the State of New Hampshire to finally yield and "celebrate" MLK day! Read the minutes of the New Hampshire state legislature, a real eye opener!
ReplyDeleteI think the guy was a fan of Howard Stern and heard Daniel Carver use that name for MLK on Howard's show, and it just came out (partially) inadvertently.
ReplyDeleteWhats wrong with you white people..stand together...words are only words and nothing more.
ReplyDelete