Thread: The hypocrisy of repeating the 'w-word'

Mr ignoramus is at it again, send CNN your disgust for giving him a platform to spew his race baiting crap, again.

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Commentary: The hypocrisy of repeating the 'w-word'
By Ruben Navarrette Jr.
Special to CNN
SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- Now that media giants have pulled the plug on Don Imus, the debate has moved to rap lyrics and the limits of free speech. But what we should really address is the hypocrisy of those who blasted Imus for insulting comments about African-Americans and then proceeded to repeat insulting comments about Mexican-Americans.

It's time for a national dialogue on the "w-word." I'll give you a hint: It's an offensive term that is meant to imply that all Mexican-Americans arrived in the United States by swimming across a river -- something that comes across as doubly offensive to immigrants who came to the country legally or those whose families have been here for generations.

You know about the "n-word." And what my gay friends call the "f-word." Most people in the public eye wouldn't dare utter those words in full. In fact, when entertainers have done so, they've paid for it.

And so it's surprising that, lately, there seems to be a rash of media types tossing around the w-word. It's also disappointing given that all this is happening in the aftermath of the Imus affair.

New York Times columnist Frank Rich wasn't all that careful. In arguing that offensive speech shouldn't be censored, Rich wrote that we should "let Bill O'Reilly talk about 'wetbacks.' ..."

Oh, hello. That is exactly how Rich wrote it -- wetbacks. So what that he was quoting someone else. That's no excuse. If that someone else had used the long version of the n-word, you had better believe that Rich would never have printed it in his column.

Howard Kurtz picked up on the thread. The Washington Post media critic and host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" recently said on his television show that "Bill O'Reilly once referred to Mexicans as wetbacks."

Hello again. Would Kurtz have used the n-word on morning television? No way. So why use the w-word?

And it wasn't just journalists who used the word. Rosie O'Donnell, co-host of ABC's "The View," likewise insisted to Barbara Walters and her other co-hosts that O'Reilly was a racist because he "calls Mexicans wetbacks."

All these jabs got O'Reilly's attention. The TV talker used his own show to make a lame attempt at defending himself. He said that he had misspoken and that the word he was looking for was "coyote."

Speaking of offensive. It's offensive when someone thinks you're dumb enough to fall for a line like that. So what if O'Reilly meant to say something else? The w-word still came out of his potty mouth.

But just because O'Reilly acts like a jerk doesn't mean that Rich, Kurtz and O'Donnell should get a pass to follow suit. Here's a tip for liberals and those who play them on TV: If you're trying to come off as more enlightened than the next guy, it helps not to mimic the very behavior you're going out of your way to condemn.

Or else people might question your sincerity and conclude you're not really progressive -- as much as pretending.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/04/24/navarr ... eref=yahoo

Oh brother!

If we called illegal aliens cute little pink bunnies, they would get upset not because of what we called them but because they don't want us talking about them or their bad deeds. They don't want to be pointed at and classified as the wrong doers.

Offended and racial discrimination are thrown around so much now that no one believes anyone that claims they are offended. They have "cried wolf" so much that no one is listening. What a shame because I'm sure there are people out there that have truly been offended but we can't help them or acknowledge them because of all the frauds.

Dixie

repellent, malevolent, exploitative, grandstanding race-baiting McCarthyites

Ruben Navarrette and Al Sharpton, two peas in a pod, both reprehensible and far more racist than Imus ever thought of being.

Personally, I sent CNN a nasty Email, again, I hope everyone does.

But Ruben Navarrette has no problem calling Americans lazy, racists, vigilantes or anything else. I guess only white people can be racists, his ilk can call people whatever he likes without any consequences. But then again he never refers to his beloved lawbreaking invaders from Mexi-hole as illegal aliens, he always calls them 'undocumented workers'.

This clown makes me sick, I cannot believe how this moron gets any print space anywhere, he only has one subject: How all white Americans are wothless, slovenly racists and how every single last illegal alien is a law abiding, honest, wonderful angel and are are America's only hope of surviving into the future. How if not for them, we would all be unwashed and starving, all our lawns would be unmowed and overgrown, how every American child would be uncared for and dirty. How every American would be walking around in a dumfounded daze without anyway of preparing a meal for themselves, with filthy homes, clothes and streets. How if not for his incredibly hard working amigos, the country would collapse and Social Security would already be bankrupt.

Give me a friggin' break.

Ruben Navarrette Jr. is the Mexican equivalent of Al Sharpton.

hummmmmmmm....what about GRINGO

What about ....not drinking from the WHITE MANS WELL?!!!

I guess you don't consider those racist comments!!

I guess we IGNORE those!!

The name Ruben Navarrette Jr. offends me, I demand that the name be banned along with the person behind.

Talking about hypicritical Racists!

He just had to stick the mexicans into the game or he would have been offended.
I could puke!!

I'm so tired of all this pc crap!
I've been called a gringo many times by my Mexican friends, it's not a bad word in fact nobody really knows what it means it's just a slang term for Americans just as the w-word, I've caught many illegals in my time and I usually ask them "estas mojado?" and they nod their head yes, the word in itself it not a bad word and I mean no disrespect when I ask them this, it's simply a slange term. You can take just about any word and use it to call someone something bad, it just depends on how you use it.

MountainDog wrote:

I've been called a gringo many times by my Mexican friends, it's not a bad word in fact nobody really knows what it means it's just a slang term for Americans

Some would disagree.

grin·go(grngg)
n. pl. grin·gos Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gringo

Originally Posted by MW

MountainDog wrote:

I've been called a gringo many times by my Mexican friends, it's not a bad word in fact nobody really knows what it means it's just a slang term for Americans

Some would disagree.

[quote:35o4dx8z]grin·go(grngg)
n. pl. grin·gos Offensive Slang
Used as a disparaging term for a foreigner in Latin America, especially an American or English person.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/gringo[/quote:35o4dx8z]
Yeah, I guess its all about context. In South America, I have heard that the term is not used as disparaging to Americans. But every time I have heard a Mexican use the word, malice is definitely behind it. Of course, most South American countries aren't full of people who dislike and disrespect Americans--unlike Mexico (according to a Zogby poll).