Comments on: ATWG Answers: Is Juan Williams a Bigot?

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 16:32:19 +0000

Mr. Williams is a troubled man. I think his fears of persons on a plane wearing Moslem garb, as he phrased it, reflects his confusion about terrorism and Islam. During the Civil Rights era that he wrote about and which I lived through. There was no way of identifying the terrorists who were blowing up churches, butchering human rights workers, setting attack dogs on women and children, burning crosses or shooting at us with high-powered rifles, handguns and whatever was available. Anyone with a skin was dressed in the garb of terror. We learned who our enemies were and more importantly who our freinds were by what they did in support of justice.

Mr. Williams and I met in the doorway of a suburban Maryland supermarket of couple of years back. I greeted him and said something positive about his journalism. The look on his face was one of abject fear. To this day I don’t know why given that we were both African American, casually dressed in shirts and slacks (no Moslem garb, thank you) and the excahnge, such as it was, was civil. This goes deeper this what appears to be his pandering to the right or disdain of the left. Brother Juan, please seek professional help. More media exposure is not the answer to what is troubling you.

with compassion,

Khalid Moussa Foster.
M.Div. student

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 13:09:20 +0000

JMO: He WAS being honest and he WAS being a BIGOT…identifies the work that we ALL have to be doing, and the behaviors that we all have to be alert to! In his position – playing two sides of the fence for $$$ he was deserving of the severed relationship with NPR. My friend calls that talking out of both sides of your neck! :) You get what you ask for. And Juan, DO NOT fall back on the “I am black so I’m not a racist” game. We’re all racist/biased to an extent: the glory lies in introspection and THINKING before we act and before we speak. No matter how much money we’ll be making! Suck it up, pal, and own it.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 13:01:32 +0000

Hello Luke and Readers. I read DiversityInc on a regular (several times a week). I often find the articles engaging, as I do your commentary on current diversity happenings around the US and globe. As a Native American (Osage) gay guy, I am deeply fascinated by this line of discussion, particularly because I also teach multicultural education. I don’t find Juan William’s comments troubling because I see it as an honest reflection of his feelings, which were describing a momentary and visceral reaction he would have while getting on a plane if he were to experience people he perceived to be Muslim. I agree with some of the other writers here who suggested that his feelings weren’t matched up with a behavior: he wasn’t suggesting that Muslims be required to undergo additional security checks or be denied access to the plane or even that he would treat them differently if he were to interact with them (we don’t know how he would respond to them in person). In my view, real diversity is about an open dialogue. One of the things I tell my students is that they can express *any* idea in class as long as it does not devolve into a personal attack (your exchange with Darius seems to be personally attacking — suggesting his comments are foolish and that he has a serious problem since he doesn’t agree with you — seems to be lacking in civility). I create a safe place in my classroom so students can be open about their prejudice…and then we can begin to deconstruct them. Helping people become more accepting doesn’t happen when we silence them.

It is a good goal to examine one’s prejudices…so how do we do that in a public forum if we are told that we cannot express them? (I agree that FOX news is very closed minded, but so is NPR) I see William’s comments as a wonderful opportunity to explore a diversity of feelings and thoughts about difference. We all have prejudices, Luke…even you (and me too).
Thanks for reading my comments. Warmly, Matt.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 12:43:14 +0000

Wow. Can everyone take a chill pill here and have some honest dialog without slinging the slime all over the place. Humans have many types of fears built in and that is why we survive by choosing fight or flight. And if anyone tells me they never stereotype, i know they are being less then truthful.

Also, don’t forget, those of us who live in the United States of America, are free to express ourselves through speech and trying to silence those with differing views does nothing more than breed hate that leads to a “I’ll punch you in your face” discourse, which benefits no one.

And as a note of interest, I listen to NPR, Fox, ABC, NBC, MSNBC, CNN and others to get both sides of the story, and frankly, I am rarely swayed by any of them, as I have learned a long time ago to investigate and decide on my own.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 11:04:53 +0000

Juan Williams is not a bigot nor is he a racists. He is however naive if he bellieves he can express hing honest feelings given his position with two of the new works. His comments could not have come at a worst time given the anger unleashed upon the Muslim communities throughout the U.S.A. On the otherhand his comments have opened up an opportunity fir him to have dialogue/focus groups to talk openly an honest about this issue and a lot of other issues regarding race, ethnicities and gender.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 15:56:02 +0000

Juan Williams is now out of the closet. He was probably always a bigot. No question about it. If you or I were on Bill O’s show telling him that we feel get nervous around black people, then we would be bigots.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:36:26 +0000

I wasn’t trying to compare Fox to Muslim and whites. It was an example of how experiences from all sources form opinions. For the fake address, it was a typo. Maybe your tech team can add a validation check.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 22:22:01 +0000

Luke, you keep saying that you don’t know Juan so you can’t judge him to be bigoted, but you sure label Fox News and their viewers. People are human and have fear and stereotypes. That’s how humans work. There are too many examples in the Muslim communities and countries on how they treat women, gays, non-Muslims. Of course not all and not most I know, but come on. If a group of mostly whites got together, your and your readers comments on this website label them as racist with out knowing them.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 19:29:29 +0000

Honestly, the man was being paid by NPR to be an appropriate host on their program. When he is a guest on another program, and maybe after a couple of glasses of wine, the inhibitions come off. I believe in NPR’s decision, and this just proves that we can’t change our hardwiring just because we are told to. This is not a simple act of bigotry, it is a deep-seated culture of many people. He should have indicated that his opinions and experiences are not that of NPR, and maybe he still would have been fired. NPR has to remain squeaky clean. This was not a case taken out of context as we have seen before, specifically in political cases. This was the truth spoken by a man of color, and could have been said by anyone of us. Unfortunately for Mr. Williams, his personal opinion was not shared by his “at will” employer, and maybe next time he will share his opinion without the representation of his emplopyer. My employer would have fired me too, tenure or no tenure.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 17:13:59 +0000

And one more thing, people need to stop constructing this as if bigotry is the opposite of honesty. One can be an honest bigot. Just because Williams shared what he purports are his “honest” feelings, does not exclude them for being bigoted.