Bigotry- Confronting Our Demons by Acknowledging Them (Updated)

Recently we witnessed two incidents of bigotry perpetrated by public figures. Mel Gibson blamed the "f--king Jews" for starting "all the wars in the world," and Virginia Senator George Allen, Jr. called an Indian-American "macaca."

A few points about both:

1. Mel Gibson: alcohol doesn't create bigotry out of whole cloth. Alcohol merely amplifies someone's personality. A normal person doesn't say 'f--king Jews started all the wars in the world,' no matter how much that person had to drink. The alcohol didn't create the anti-Semitic thoughts. The alcohol simply let those thoughts out into the open. I will be selling my DVDs with Mel Gibson.

Having said that, however, Mel Gibson perhaps wants to make amends. Time will tell, but his (second) apology seemed sincere, so perhaps there's hope for him. Perhaps.

2. Senator George Allen, Jr.: no matter what explanations emanate from his campaign, his remarks were not friendly. Watch the video and decide for yourself. Senator Allen has yet to personally apologize to Mr. Sidarth for his remarks (see update), and has yet to admit that his comments were racist. I think they were.

Some facts:
- "Macaca" (or macaque)is a French slur against North Africans, and is frequently used on white supremacists' websites.
- George Allen's mother is a native French Tunisian (that's in North Africa), and George Allen speaks French.
- Mr. Sidarth was apparently the only non-white in the audience when George Allen called him "macaca."
- Despite being born and raised in California, George Allen has been strongly supportive of Confederate heritage. He wore a Confederate Flag lapel pin, drove a car with Confederate flag memorabilia, keeps a Confederate flag in his home, kept a noose in his law office, and he has even played the role of a Confederate soldier in a Civil War movie.

Some questions:
- Given that California is not exactly a hotbed of Confederate history and seeing that George Allen has no familial or geographic roots to the Confederacy, what attracted him to the Confederacy and its heritage in the first place?
- George Allen's campaign staff claims that he was just combining the nickname "mohawk" with the word "caca" (or s--t) to uniquely identify Mr. Sidarth as a "s--thead," and there was no racist intent. If that's the case, however, wouldn't a more proper combination be "cacamo" or "cacahawk?" Why did the word combination coincidentally land on a racial slur?
- A man with no ties to the Confederacy who has strongly expressed his fascination with the Confederacy has made an unfriendly remark to the only non-white in the audience. Is it really just a coincidence that the unfriendly remark happened to be a racial slur his mother would have been familiar with?

I think it's safe to say that this was a racist remark made by a man with racist tendencies.

Both gaffes, having exposed the bigoted perspective that lies underneath each of them, provide us with an opportunity to discuss bigoted tendencies. We all have them, each and every one of us. I still like Tony's little rant in "Saturday Night Fever" to summarize:

"Everybody has to dump on somebody! Nobody can do it straight, right?
My pa gets dumped on at work, so he dumps on my mother.
The spics dump on us, so we have to dump on them.
Everybody's dumping on everybody."

We must hear our better angels and suppress those darker urges in order to avoid 'dumping' on anyone. In order to do that, however, we must admit to having those darker urges in the first place. Thus, in order for Mel Gibson or George Allen to overcome their bigotry, they must acknowledge that the bigotry exists in the first place. Of the two, Mel Gibson has come closer to recognition, but I don't think he's there yet.

There is a pragmatic and a (liberal) ideological reason to overcome our bigoted tendencies. From a pragmatic perspective, Jews and Indians (and Arabs, Hispanics, Gays, Asians, et all) are here to stay. Fearing and resenting them won't change that, so it's best to just get along with your fellow man. Furthermore, harboring prejudices against anyone won't make you any happier (I'm sure scientists proved that at some point).

Ideologically, overcoming bigotry is a place where liberalism and conservatism diverge: responsibility to your fellow Americans. Conservatives strongly believe in personal responsibility, as opposed to milking the community for help. Conservatives thus feel no obligation to help minorities- after all, it should be up to those minorities to help themselves. Overcoming bigotry, while desirable, is not a high priority for conservatives, because it would sacrifice the spirit of personal responsibility.

Liberals, on the other hand, strongly believe in improving the community by helping one another. Liberals believe that we are all in this together. To a liberal, Jews, Indians, Arabs, etc. are part of our team, and when we hurt them (through insults or discrimination), we hurt ourselves. Only by protecting and helping everyone can we ensure that same protection and help for ourselves.

Denial is also a big impediment to overcoming bigotry, as Stephen Colbert aptly demonstrates with "his black friend Allan." Bigotry won't go away if everyone believes "I'm not prejudiced because I have a black/asian/hispanic/gay/arab friend." That statement says nothing about how you deal with the black/asian/hispanic/gay/arab stranger on the street. That statement says nothing about how you talk about blacks/asians/hispanics/gays/arabs to your white friends.

Only when you admit that (like everybody else) you have bigoted tendencies will you be able to deal with, or suppress, those tendencies. The South is better than this, and the South is better than George Allen and Mel Gibson.

Update: Senator Allen has now directly apologized to S.R. Sidarth. I can't tell from the article whether Senator Allen has acknowledged that this was a racist remark.