Juan Williams calls Michelle Obama "Stokely Carmichael in a dress," thus proving he knows very little about Michelle Obama and even less about Stokely Carmichael. I have the urge to say something really nasty right now. But I never like those blog posts when I read them a week later. I don't know how to begin to address this dude. I can only say the following--It's a dangerous, dangerous thing to make a living running your mouth.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2010 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
You can take comfort in the fact that Williams is generally an idiot. Which obviously doesn't preclude a national platform.
Knock 'em out the box, Coates. Knock 'em out, Coates...
The many DC court eunuchs get a lot of benefits from their service in the Forbidden City, but telling the truth and preserving their dignity aren't among them.
I've heard Juan Williams say many ridiculous things, like telling Bush at the end of an interview on NPR a couple of years back, "We're all pulling for you." and saying on one of his commentaries on NPR that McCain's campaign tactics in late October were "working for him" and then noting after follow-up questions from the reporter that there was no increase in poll standings in any way.
I think it's pretty fucked when O'Reilly is the voice of reason concerning Michelle Obama.
Juan Williams is a good house negro and he knows what's expected of him. Curse him, and every other handkerchief head ass mofucka just like him.
You're exactly right about Juan Williams. At no time during the campaign did First Lady Obama go on a rant about how she and her family were the vicitms of any injustice. Throughout the campaign, the First Lady talked about shared values that anyone in America could relate too. Perhaps its time for Mr. Williams to step out of his right wing dream world and face the reality of the situation, the biggest threat to the world is not the Obamas, but his massive ego complex.
Chips and salsa flying all over my computer! Thanks!
That was pretty nutty. Even O'Reilly seemed to think it was ridiculous.
I wonder if Juan Williams ever described Condi Rice as William F Buckley or Pat Buchanan in a dress.
Even if Juan Williams was once a decent pundit, years on Fox News have melted his brain.
TNC,
I think this is something worth talking about -- not Williams' ridiculous pronouncement, but how to deal with people like this. Do you think that he gets to have a national platform to say these things because he's a black neocon bush supporter or do you think he's a neocon bush supporter who just 'happens to be black,' as it were.
I just can't gage where he is coming from at all. Is he from mars?
WTF?
WTF, I ask again.
STOKELEY CARMICHAEL?
You know what?
He needs his ass beat. Plain and simple. Ray Ray and Junebug need to beat his ass.
He has no PROOF whatsoever for the f-ing lies he sprouts about Michelle Obama.
Nobody has followed The First Lady the way that I have, and I wanna see his proof. I wanna see what he's basing his lies upon.
BEAT. HIS.ASS.
Add to that he is a shill on Fox and you can expect a regular outpouring of drivel and crap. While it can't be easy to make money for a token "liberal" on Fox, one would think he would jealously hold onto what self-respect he does have after giving up a healthy dose of it to even be on Fox. I think I just feel sorry for him.
Juan Williams needs to have his vision checked also. I have seen our lovely First Lady on television in form-fitting dresses, and the last person she reminded me of is Stokely Carmichael.
Juan is crazy...but he is not alone
http://www.alternet.org/story/19331/
He gets to say these things because he occupies an otherwise empty category "black neocon bush supporter" and all media want (as part f the cretinous he said she said mindset) to hear from time to time from representatives of each category. N
deva,
I tend to think that he's so out of bounds that the best thing you can do, is just let him talk. Just let it be heard. Most people know that calling the first black First Lady "Stokely Carmichael in a dress" says more about the speaker than the target.
Maybe...it's because Stokely was married to Miriam Makeba and went to live in Africa for a while? Ah the postracial society, eh? Talking head with a Fox TV designer mouth. Or perhaps it's just too many years in the ring with hard thinkers like Brett Hume and Bill Kristol, too many cucumber sandwiches on the set, too much sugar in the kool aid. Ah wither Juan, when Bill O'Reilly seems more reasonable.
I second that emotion.
Between the Statten Island kid and this guy and Clarence Thomas sleeping at the inauguration -- somebody needs to put together a posse (metaphor!) that can do some real damage. Who the hell are these people? Really?
Fox News is all about countering the truth with spin, so, yes, Williams is serious.
Dragnet and Tray I thought it was crazy too that O'Riley was like, umm WTH to Williams. Williams has lost his mind and his soul.
Wow...that's some ignent shit..."the victim"?? He lost me on the stokely carmichael reference though...someone care to explain?
Wow. I don't think I have ever heard Michelle Obama play the victim about anything. In fact, during the campaign it seems to me that the women most often playing the victim were Cindy McCain and Sarah Palin.
Beyond just being wrong, what is really irritating about William's statement is how lazy it is. He can't or won't make the effort to actually look at Michelle as an individual in a specific circumstance. He has to fall back on an easy (albeit incorrect) analogy. There is nothing thoughtful or thought provoking about such punditry.
"Dragnet and Tray I thought it was crazy too that O'Riley was like, umm WTH to Williams."
I haven't watched much O'Reilly lately, but I tried to catch him during the election season. I think he's become a lot more reasonable. I really do. I actually think he really likes Obama on a personal level. It comes through in his "analysis."
I have decided to channel all my righteous indignation from last week's threads to ask the question: ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS, JUAN WILLIAMS????
I am not in the camp that think Juan Williams in the same boat as Thomas Sowell or Peter Kirsanow or Ward Connerly. Nor do I think it’s fair to paint him as a neo-con, because frankly, he’s not. I think people here need to avoid the impulse to brand any black man who sits on the right, or criticizes the Obama’s on Fox as some sort of Uncle Tom.
That said, this is beyond stupid, and like TNC says, shows a disturbingly poor understanding of both Carmichael and Obama. I don’t know what his motives are, but surely they can’t be pure.
This is a hole ‘nother thread, I am particularly disturbed by what a lot of the reaction to Michelle Obama says about America and it’s perception of black women. The main criticisms I’ve heard from the press and the blogosphere go like this: “She’s a hateful lady,” “She’s unappreciative of America,” “She’s a nasty woman,” “Why can’t she smile more” “She’s peddling victimhood.”
Those statements are often supported by cut and past jobs of her F-ing COLLEGE THESIS. Anyone here want to be judged by what they wrote at age 21 when they are in their late 40’s? Shit, I don’t want to be judged by half the shit I wrote YESTERDAY.
I’m convinced there’s a large portion of America (which unfortunately, seems to include Juan) that still have major hang-ups with black women. Either you smile and be sexed up (Insert black actresses or singers) or you surrender your sexuality in hopes that you can be taken seriously by white men who will joke that you look like the cleaning lady. If you do get a platform to speak, it better be sunny and nice, and better not to anything short of worship America. Otherwise, we throw you into our third favorite bin: Black Bitch.
One only need to peep reality show central casting to see what I mean. The black girl that speaks too much too often and swivels her head when she says it. America assigned poor Michelle Obama an attitude and a head swivel before the woman even did an interview. She’ll have to drink a nice GALLON of sunshine every day to appease these A-holes.
This is disheartening on a million levels.
les: You can take comfort in the fact that Williams is generally an idiot. Which obviously doesn't preclude a national platform.
I don't think there's anything general at all about Juan William's idiocy; I think he's very specifically stupid! And don't pretend you're not amazed that a black man named "Juan" is even allowed on Fox News. Surely this man is a pioneer on two levels - which means he's practically a unicorn. (Or "eunuchorn," if you believe Pesto.) What's a little cognitive dissonance and collateral brain damage among pioneers?
What does the Fox audience know about Stokely Carmichael? Do they have some vague association of his name with Black Power and the Black Panthers?
My guess is the answer is in Juan Williams home. I bet the current of former Mrs. Williams has a strongbox where she keeps Juan's cohones. This is just his way of expressing fear of a strong african-american woman.
Please don't forget that now that Colmes is gone, Juan's bitch ass is now "teh librul" at FoxNews. What a muthafuckin clown. That ass whuppin NEEDS to happen and or every black columnist should throw his ass squarely under the bus. Not excepting white columnists, they can fee free to do so as well. It would be nice if for once people could actually mobilize a damn phone in AGAINST FoxNews and demand an apology just like they do to businesses they don't like. Maybe we can get his punk ass pulled like Luda with the Pepsi commercial.
I heart you, wb44. Don't have your wife come and get me though. Let's just keep it on the interwebs. LOL!!!
As an old guy (56), I have to ask, how many people today even know who Mr.Carmichael (who shed that name) even is?
What a crab.
"Even if Juan Williams was once a decent pundit, years on Fox News have melted his brain.
Posted by gaucho | January 27, 2009 3:49 PM "
Nail, meet hammer. ON a lot of levels, I feel bad for the guy because he knows his audience and what they want to hear. But no excuse on this one
This is a hole ‘nother thread, I am particularly disturbed by what a lot of the reaction to Michelle Obama says about America and it’s perception of black women. The main criticisms I’ve heard from the press and the blogosphere go like this: “She’s a hateful lady,” “She’s unappreciative of America,” “She’s a nasty woman,” “Why can’t she smile more” “She’s peddling victimhood.”
You are indeed correct about those who strike against The First Lady, and use a college thesis to back up their points. Never mind that I think Michelle Obama was absolutely correct in her thesis. Remember that Princeton was the last of the Ivy League to integrate. The very last. No, I don't think it was a hospitable place for a Black student during the time that she went. That she was honest about it; how dare she?
But, Michelle Obama doesn't fit the stereotype, so folks try and shove her into it, and she just won't go. They've never had to deal with a Black, and I do mean BLACK woman like Michelle Obama. They want to dismiss her, but there she is.
Tiffany,
I won't tell if you don't ;)
Thanks...
There's such a market for this shit: women who will say "I'm a feminist, but..." and explain that they know women are all gold-diggers because that's what they are; aging former hippies who say, "I'm a liberal, but..." and defend torture and government secrecy in the name of keeping us safe; and people of color who will trash their own (or the close cousin, people of color who will feed the idea that blacks hate asians, latinos hate blacks, etc.)
I know we're joking guys, but lets avoid the threats. Williams's comment was classless. Let's let him have that plane all to himself.
rikyrah...
She's the first lady, wife, of a VERY popular president. Juan Williams and others could spout this crap for days, they're still just preaching to the choir. There are not converts in this case. The more people see her, the more they have to face their own stereotypes...IMHO...
I also have to wonder if Juan would be saying these things about a light-skinned black woman or even a white woman.
Talk about self-hate.
This is the kind of blog post that I absolutely love from you, TNC. You are a fundamentally decent guy, and I appreciate it.
The problem with trying to be a pundit is that someone who acts with decency, who gives people with other viewpoints the benefit of the doubt, and is thoughtful and deliberate just isn't entertaining enough to do anything except show up on Jim Lehrer's show once a month. And you can't make a living that way. They are so busy making splashes that they forget to swim.
But to engage them at that level just invokes the rule about never arguing with a fool. You did well.
And NPR should be ashamed to have their name on that screen with those comments.
"I have the urge to say something really nasty right now"
I'll say it - douchebag in a suit.
TNC,
Why don't you do Juan a favor and forward him your wonderful Atlantic piece. It would probably do a him a wonderful service...
BEAT. HIS.ASS.
Posted by rikyrah | January 27, 2009 3:52 PM
Now I have that MARTA girl video in my head: "Beat dat ass! Beat dat ass!" Totally appropriate here.
This is kind of my question from above and although I agree with TNC that there's no point getting publicly worked-up about it and that most people know crazy when they hear it, I guess I am just kind of wondering what one would have to do to be considered an Uncle Tom and entirely written off as KKKrazy out of love with the whole idea of blackness to the point of serious self-loathing pathology.
I, for one, feel a visceral dislike of this display that goes beyond mere political disavowal and straight to Negro Have You Lost Your Damn Mind?! Who Is Your Mama and Where Were You Raised?!
It's something I honestly would not feel about a white commenter on Fox. But I always feel it about blacks on the right (excepting Colin Powell who is consistent and reasonable man whether I agree with him or not). I wonder if it's intellectually dishonest to feel betrayed by this coming out of the mouth of a black conservative commenter, but being able to just shrug off the nutty with a white one.
Why is anyone paying attention to these fools? I'm sick of articles about house negroes insulting the Obama's because they're the only ones who can say totally racist things about them without inviting a protest at the crappy propaganda network they work for.
I'm tired of reading about psychotic stick figures who will even insult 9/11 widows if it will sell books.
I'm sick of hearing about republicans whose solution to every economic problem is tax cuts. Can't we just ignore these people? Please?
But, please allow me to concur that Ray Ray and Junebug need to administer a good, old fashioned, ghetto ass whipping to this fool. Then he'll be the next loudmouth to get his jaw wired shut and I won't have to beg for him to be ignored.
Good lord. I love NPR, but their political contributors like Juan Williams and Cokie Roberts are such garbage. Every time I hear them come on Morning Edition I know I'm about to hear some DC tire swing conventional wisdom bullshit. Their only value is letting us know what memes have taken hold amongst the brain dead circles they hang out in.
As I said in the last thread about Williams, he is nothing but an overpaid concern troll.
Coates,
The thing about this, who cares if you know who Stokeley is?
He's calling The First Lady ---- A MAN IN A DRESS?
How come he couldn't say she's a ' latter day Angela Davis?'
How about an ' undercover Betty Shabazz'?
Why does he have to compare a Michelle Obama TO A MAN?
This is but another way to dehumanize Michelle Obama. She's not even a WOMAN now?
I stick by what I said - call Junebug.
In these circumstances, the best thing to do is to look Williams sternly in the eye and say: "You, sir, are no Roland Burris! Retract your witless smears this instant!"
Juan Williams is regularly suspect.
*I have the urge to say something really nasty right now*
I'll do it for you: Juan Williams is a P.A.M.
It's not Mrs. Williams who has custody of Juan's testicles, it's Rupert Murdoch.
Sadly, for a half a million bucks per year, the guy who wrote the companion book to the magnificent "Eyes on the Prize" documentary is now willing to say just about anything to make his bossman happy.
And no, I won't blame you at all if you delete this comment.
Juan Williams stands on the shoulders of Roland Burris.
By the way I didn't know Michelle Obama was actually a tall man in drag............I had my suspicions based on the terrorist fist bump and that whole Harvard Law thang.........what woman is capable of graduating from Harvard Law?
(this is satire folks, perhaps bad satire, please do not send Rikyrah to remove one of my testicles. I couldn't live with just two.)
I'm with rikyrah on this one...dialing up Junebug & nem now...
I personally don't understand the outrage here; this is a dude who truly wanna be respected, accepted, and socially invited by the Washington "Meet the Press Catel." This dude is more like a prostitute auditioning for screenplay. He is no different than a big ass woman appearing almost nake in a hip-hop video. He is working for NPR--an unfairly disrespected organization. Please don't elevate this vulture1
As far as Williams is concerned, mocking frequently and as hard as possible. "If she's Stokely Carmichael in a dress, then who's Juan Williams in a dress? (Um, maybe the ugliest person you can imagine?).
And would they say things like that about a lighter skinned woman or a white woman? Hell, yes! Remember what they said aboul Hilary and Chelsea?
Juan Williams has been disrespecting women for a long time. His career should have ended back in 1991 when the Post disciplined him for sexual harassment.
Right along with Amookie, I also want to express my deep disdain for someone who would bad mouth someone who is now deceased. Kwame Ture (as he preferred) has done no wrong to be treated thusly in death.
QT
Every day for the next 8 years (and yes, I'm saying 8), Michelle Obama will wake up as The First Lady of the United States. And for the next 8 years Juan Williams will be Juan Williams, "pundit" on Faux News. 'Nuff said because Juan, our First Lady is head and shoulders--figuratively and possibly literally--way out of your *bush* league.
Get 'um Coates! And don't hold anything back!
I've heard people say drag queen.
If only it was a dangerous thing to make a living running one's mouth. Sadly, in the world of political commentary, like the world of high finance, being head-slappingly wrong isn't a barrier to success. Ask Tom Friedman. As long as you are willing to say shocking (but not too shocking!) things, ignorance or dishonesty are no barriers to punditry. Williams isn't even near the top of the heap when it comes to egregious crap, though this comment makes him a strong contender.
wb44: "I think people here need to avoid the impulse to brand any black man who sits on the right, or criticizes the Obama’s on Fox as some sort of Uncle Tom."
In general, this is true, but in this case, it fits. Williams is a clown, and has been for a while; he's essentially reduced himself to a sniveling child since Obama took the national stage over a year ago, and he's still at it now.
To address your overall point, I don't think black conservatives--particularly the ones that get TV time-- are taken seriously because they're cartoons. Seriously, has a Juan Williams, or a Larry Elder, ever said anything genuinely thought-provoking on air? Williams plays the token black on FOX and fills the "he's black, so he knows what he's talking about" role; Elder plays a similar one to his audience as well. Last time I checked, their belief systems aren't that beyond the pale for your run of the mill conservative, so it's really not what they say that gets them attention.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that guys like Williams are dismissed because it's their role, as opposed to their actual merits, that defines them. Are all black conservatives Uncle Toms? Of course not. However, I think that for blacks, seeing guys like Williams being propped up by white audiences--and thus not having to answer to or even address their black counterparts--is a slap in the face.
Juan Williams was absolutely classless - but there's this other thing going on here. Just like with the New Yorker cover, in a real subtle way pundits are trying to insult the President and First Lady by connecting them with black figures in our past who demand a certain amount of respect. Most people probably don't know who Stokely is, (Howard alumni, one of the cats that was in the sit ins at Woolworth, I mean this cat was about his business)dont know this cat was president of SNCC.
I'm saying, there is a lesson in the way we fall into attacking an idiot for one idiotic move but not the other. I feel like we talking trash about the first head fake when Williams done pulled a Barry Sanders and is already running to the end zone. Cause no matter what, I don't think I heard anyone add to the outrage of having him compare her to a man (which on its own isn't demeaning rikrah - he wasn't insulted her femininity but her politics) to the real outrage of him making a false analysis that doesnt fit and even if it did fit wouldn't necessarily be something to be ashamed of.
And Stokely Carmichael is Kwame Ture, he shouldn't gotten screamed on for not knowing his name.
I like how that one Weekly Standard shill warns that Michelle Obama might end up like Hillary Clinton.
Is she implying that M. Obama might become Secretary of State in the Russ Feingold administration?
Is that so bad?
I did not know who Stokely Carmichael was. Now I do.
Thank you, Juan Williams. What a jerk.
Meanwhile, just from reading Wikipedia, it seems like if you're gonna go the victimhood route, Stokley Carmichael is perhaps not the best comparison.
I probably over-identify with Obama, but I swear it hits me in the gut whenever people talk shit about her. Cause you know, all she had to do was sit there and be dark skinned. And the insults just fly. Assholes.
Finally, rikyrah, you crack my shit up.
Juan has a PhD for the University of MSU (Making Sh.. Up)!!!!
I believe someone stepping in to give Juan a big "STFU!" would be totally appropriate.
This punk ass. After the First Lady spoke at the DNC, Juan was damn near is tears. He will say anything for a check.
Juan Williams is usually a thoughtful person with interesting insights. He's someone whose opinions I like to listen to. I also gather that he is a respected student of the Civil Rights era and knows more about Stokely Carmichael than most of your readers ("Eyes on the Prize," the Thurgood Marshall book). I think people on this site are interpreting his comments in a way that he did not intend. Just a guess.
TNC, you should call/write him and get his reaction to the uproar. It's unfair for him to be bashed here relentlessly without having a chance to defend himself. He's no Limbaugh, Hannity, Coulter, or Malkin. You were good enough to use your new media superstar status to get us readers access to the Oxford English Dictionary guy for the epic "conversate" post. Least you could do for a leading African American journalist and writer being chewed up by your community of readers/commenters because of a stupid comment.
A more charitable reading of Williams: His quip about our First Lady as a potential liability for President Obama was presented in the context of the other guest raising the "for the first time in my life, I'm proud to be an American" line that unquestionably injured the campaign in 2008. "IF" she allows herself to fall into this rightwing caricature of her as a Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress during the Obama Presidency, THEN she WOULD be a liability. Particularly because the rightwingers are on a hair-trigger sensitivity about black grievance politics.
I didn't hear Juan Williams say that this caricature was the truth about Michelle.
I beg you guys to give Juan Williams the benefit of the doubt. If for nothing else than that it will make you feel good to be so magnanimous.
Here's his bio as presented on the NPR website:
Williams is the author of the critically acclaimed biography Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, which was released in paperback in February 2000. He is also the author of the nonfiction bestseller Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965, the companion volume to the critically acclaimed television series. This Far by Faith: Stories from the African American Religious Experience appeared in February 2003. This book was the basis for a six-part public broadcasting TV documentary that aired in June 2003. In 2004, Williams became involved with AARP's Voices of Civil Rights project, leading a veteran team of reporters and editors in the production of My Soul Looks Back in Wonder: Voices of the Civil Rights Experience. The book presents the harrowing and haunting eyewitness accounts of some 50 activists who served as foot soldiers and field generals in the Civil Rights Movement. In his 2006 book, Enough, Williams makes the case that while there is still racism, it is way past time for black Americans to open their eyes to the "culture of failure" that exists within their community.
During his 21-year career at The Washington Post, Williams served as an editorial writer, op-ed columnist, and White House reporter. He has won an Emmy award for TV documentary writing and won widespread critical acclaim for a series of documentaries including "Politics - The New Black Power." Articles by Williams have appeared in magazines ranging from Newsweek, Fortune, and The Atlantic Monthly to Ebony, Gentlemen's Quarterly, and The New Republic.
Williams continues to be a contributing political analyst for the Fox News Channel and a regular panelist on Fox News Sunday. He has also appeared on numerous television programs, including Nightline, Washington Week in Review, Oprah, CNN's Crossfire (where he frequently served as co-host), and Capitol Gang Sunday.
A graduate of Haverford College, Williams received a B.A. in philosophy in 1976. Currently, he sits on a number of boards, including the Haverford College Board of Trustees, the Aspen Institute of Communications and Society Program, Washington Journalism Center and the New York Civil Rights Coalition.
Aubrey, I'm sorry, you might be right about Juan Williams in other situations, but you're off-base here.
The woman commentator says, "She has to be careful not to drop soundbites like she did during the campaign that weren't helpful to her husband." Then JW jumps in, un-asked, mind you (O'R didn't ask his opinion on this particular point), saying that Michelle is a liability to her husband, more so than Biden, that she's a Stokley Carmichael in a dress, that her instinct is to blame America and cry victim. Then he says, "And if this comes out, people will go bananas." He never, ever implies that this is simply a rightwing caricature MO has to guard against.
No, this is his opinion of Michelle Obama, and there's no way to be charitable about it. He deserves our collective middle finger.
Are you Juan's publicist? Defend him with your own thoughts about what he said (as you already have); don't peddle his resume like that means something in this context.
BTW, I attended a different Ivy League U. in the 1980's. Michelle's thesis? The content and themes were constant topics of discussion among the black students there: what does it mean to be black? What does it mean to be black at a predominantly white university? What do we owe the black community? Etc. None of it was about blaming America or being a victim; it was about figuring out our place in America and what and how we should give back to our communities.
Amazingly, that NPR bio quoted above leaves out the part where Juan Williams was disciplined for harassing several female colleagues at the Washington Post in 1991. A NY Times article from 1991 includes the following fun facts:
'The 37-year-old journalist, Juan Williams, said in an open letter to The Post's newsroom on Friday that his conduct had been "wrong" and "inappropriate."
Several female employees had complained that Mr. Williams had harassed them with sexually explicit and hostile comments, and the newspaper investigated those complaints.
The newspaper's executive editor, Leonard Downie Jr., also issued a letter to the staff. "The complaints were found to be serious," it said, "and, as Juan acknowledges, he was disciplined for his conduct and intends to apologize to women he offended." '
Juan Williams is about the last man on earth to be saying anything about Michelle Obama.
Mr. Maturin:
Alas, all that Williams' professional bio demonstrates is that the middlebrow media is a place where mediocre minds can do well. Those of us who did the kind of work that allowed us to listen to NPR's Talk of the Nation back in the Ray Suarez era know all too well how limited a thinker Williams is; NPR tried giving Williams the old Suarez slot, and it exposed his basic stupidity all too clearly.
Add intolerance for dissent from his buddies' opinions and a desperate desire to be treated as an Important Person, and you get an ugly, ugly picture. I wish I were surprised at his latest, but I'm not; he's one of the reasons why I won't go back to NPR at all.
I remember reading Juan Williams in the Washington Post during the 1980's. Back then, William Raspberry, Juan Williams, and Michael Wilbon were three razor sharp, bold African American writers on the Post's staff that captured my imagination. I read Raspberry's columns and sought out Williams' and Wilbon's bylines (and I admit, I devoured Kornheiser and Norman Chad's awful yet diverting columns as well). TNC dismisses J. Williams' knowledge about the First Lady or about Carmichael because Williams made a silly comment in an outlet rabidly hostile to liberal views. I think his biography bears out that he has been researching, thinking, writing and speaking about the Civil Rights era for a long time.
People have been laying into Juan Williams suggesting that his comments dehumanize the wonderful new First Lady. And his 1991 sexual harassment episode is shameful and ugly. But I also remember his thrilled reaction to Michelle Obama's 2008 DNC speech. His voice breaking with emotion, he expressed how deeply he was moved to see an intelligent, loving African American woman so prominent in America. It's worth a youtube viewing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2MKvkx82uM).
I noted his biography because this blog's comments are drawing a one-dimensional caricature of the man that ignores so much. I just think the guy is not that bad a person. He led the writing of the companion book for the landmark PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize. He spoke with feeling and deep knowledge about John Lewis and Barack Obama's interaction at the Inauguration, walking the viewers through the momentous occasion in an openly personal way.
And I'm not his publicist. I don't know the guy. I just have a soft spot for all the old WashPost writers from the 80's.
@Aubrey Maturin:
I respect your soft spot, but Williams was plainly wrong and disrespectful and above all, untruthful in his comment. To pass it off as merely a "silly" aberration in accordance with the media outlet where he is speaking is without excuse. In fact, in makes those tears he shed at her speech suspect, craven and insincere, merely there for effect. If he held her abilities in such high regard at that moment, what makes him speak so ill of her now? It can't be facts because she has not blamed America. She has not ever portrayed herself, or indeed, her race as victim. It is not equivalent but there is nothing Carmichaelesque in our First Lady's expression, particularly since her speech at the convention, which is your counterpoint. For all the wonders you point out that Williams has performed, his mean pandering comment is then nauseating all the more. He should apologize.
And then get his ass beat. I'd pay good money to see President Barack Obama do it, preferably on a basketball court.
Speaking purely for myself, I'd rather be Stokely Carmichael in a dress than Ann Coulter in blackface.
Nice of you to join us, Mr. Juan Maturin.
Damn you again Irish - I had my cell phone out to call Junebug per Rikyrah's request and you completely threw me out of my "beat Juan's ass" mode.
Deep breath, steady, focus, and...I'm back
Junebug is set, but RayRay and Peanut won't wake up til bout 12, 1 o'clock good for everybody?
*This* guy wrote Eyes on the Prize?
When did the dementia start setting in?
Can we please stop the "house negro" stuff? Seriously???
Civil disobedience is needed. Boycott Fox news, the sponsors, and the affiliates. Write letters, many, many letters expressing the disgust with baseless commentary. If President Obama's ground organization and foot soldiers (of which I am one) was successful enough to win him the Presidency certainly those skills can be used to oust Juan Williams.
Aubrey, it's a nice thing to carry respect for writers you've enjoyed in the past. But any evidence from recent years just shows Juan Williams to be an utter fool, there's no way around it. His NPR interviews in the lead up to the Iraq war were just simpering acts of fellatio, completely empty of real inquiry.
I don't doubt that he has occasionally been moved by the Obamas' journey to the White House, obviously anyone that familiar with the history of the movement would be. But if his thinking ever had any heft (I don't know), it has become bankrupt. He is performing for a certain set of people, and he knows what will garner reward from those people.
This is not a rare thing in middle-aged pundits. Tom Friedman, for example, who was an excellent reporter when he was young. Now - a gasbag.
Juan Williams just irritates me. It would be intellectually dishonest if individuals of any race did not speak up for what they truly believed in order to placate others in their own demographic. But Juan Williams works for one of the most dishonest, muckraking institutions of our time, Fox News. Since when was Michelle Obama a radical? This all goes back to the hypocrisy of the Reverend Wright controversy. As a white women I believe that nothing Reverend Wright said was wrong. The problem for many of us was that no one wanted to acknowledge the truth of his words. Nor do I believe that the First lady's observations have been out of line. Williams is also implying that she is some fool who is going to mouth off and undermine her husband. Only on FOX News would they imply that an intelligent, educated woman was a liability to the President.
Next time your local NPR (Nice Polite Republicans) station asks for money, call up the hotline and tell them to get it from Juan.
Everytime he starts to let his Fox "news" panel membership seep out, I send the NPR omsbudsman a nice email about exactly why I no longer support NPR.
Why is the public, through taxes and donations, supposed to support the false liberal credentials of this lying hack?
Remind me not to piss you guys off. I don't want Junebug and Ray Ray heading to my spot.
Williams is pretty hard to watch sometimes, especially since I hear his familiar brand of yack from my twin brother a lot. I've also read Jill Nelson's "Volunteer Slavery", so nothing that he does really surprises me.
But I think that Michelle Obama will be the winner on this one. She should just practice the "ignore him and he'll go away" strategy.
Besides, comparing someone to a person who did as much for his people as Kwame Toure is a blessing, not a curse. Although I do agree that Williams didn't have to turn the First Lady into a man to compare her to a radical. Angela Davis? Joanne Chesimard?
I do wish that NPR didn't subject me to him on Morning Edition, though. 6 a.m. is too early to curse at your radio. Between Williams and Cokie Roberts, I haven't written a check to my public radio station in about 10 years.
"Speaking purely for myself, I'd rather be Stokely Carmichael in a dress than Ann Coulter in blackface"
Double SNAP!
@wb44
You know there is nothing wrong with that thesis that Michelle Robinson wrote for her degree in Sociology. I still have it on my computer, I hope; in any case, she did a survey of former Grads at Princeton who are African-American -- and another poster said it here earlier: Princeton as a town was a very prejudiced place.
Not to mention how things were on campus; but they are notorious for several attitude problems from individuals or cliques as far as the "eating clubs" and one young woman who was not considered acceptable. She sued and won; she had after all paid for food service along with her tuition and I don't think she even requested Kosher.
In contrast to groups who feel privileged, there was one guy who thought the atmosphere should not change by allowing people who hadn't been there before(women obviously had not been there) when he was attending. He was somebody that Bush appointed to the Supreme Court despite the fact of the articles this alumnus had written for the alumni magazine; he had forgotten that he wrote those things.
Michelle basically wanted to determine how grads interacted and did they become more integrated and less concerned about home community back in their home towns, or did they become community organizers like the eventual husband she was yet to meet.
But it wasn't Williams who started this line,because he got it from a cover on The New Yorker where Michelle is wearing camouflage fatiques in a fictitious painting. I'm sure everybody knows that. The outraged public had been told at the time that this was intended to be humorous.
Then I ran into my first dude at Salon who thought Michelle wrote that thesis because she should not have gone to Princeton if it was going to give her an inferiority complex. That was his interpretation but I didn't believe this poster hadn't made up a negative, so that was the first time that I ever wrote a post in reply at Salon.
Although I arrived in town five years after Michelle Robinson, I was there when Cornel West was on board as Prof.of Religion and was doing a fine job of outreach to the youth of the State capital down the road who often came to hear him speak (at a book signing for instance). Before I left, Toni Morrison had arrived; but, I know, from how Michelle Obama has occasionally described her experiences and her pattern of activities, more or less why she did the things she did and why she gravitated to certain places rather than others, because I knew the town. She was fortunate to have her brother on campus at the time on an athletic scholarship. Enough said.
Deleted. Dude you need help. Seriously.
Juan Williams is a tiny sack of dog crap.