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Jon Stewart has thumped with the folks over at Fox News before, both on "The Daily Show" and on occasion, to their faces. (Last week, Stewart went on "Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace" and mockingly, but pointedly, went in on the conservative-leaning network.)
Now Bernie Goldberg, a frequent contributor to the network, has fired back at Stewart in a FoxNews.com blogpost titled "Is Jon Stewart Racist?" In it, Goldberg argues that liberals and conservatives are held to different standards when it comes to issues of race, and when criticizing black politicians in particular. Goldberg accused Jon Stewart of impersonating Herman Cain, the Republican presidential candidate, in an "exaggerated 'Amos & Andy' 'black voice.'"
"But why isn't Jon Stewart a bigot, when Limbaugh and Hannity and O'Reilly would be tagged as racists if they had done the very same thing?" Goldberg asks. "That's easy. Because Jon Stewart is a liberal and liberals aren't racists. Only conservatives are."
Here's video that has Goldberg so incensed. (The Cain bit starts at the 1:50 mark.)
Cain has said that Stewart doesn't like him because he's a black conservative, and that he's often mocked for his political leanings. "I have been called "Uncle Tom," "sell out," "Oreo," "shameless," he said at a recent campaign event. "So the fact that he wants to mock me because I happen to be a black conservative, in the words of my grandfather, "I does not care. I does not care."
Alex Alvarez has been watching this whole kerfuffle, and laments what he sees as the cynical way charges of racism are employed in American politics. "In the long term, it serves only to reduce matters of race and ethnicity to trump cards held, at the ready, in the back pockets of pundits and politicians on either side of the aisle, to be pulled out whenever it suits either side," he writes.
To spiral off Alvarez's point, Incidents like this --- hurling allegations of racism at an ideological opponent, and then the obligatory hand-wringing over whether that person or their behavior was in fact, racist --- reaffirm the idea that being called a racist is worse than actually experiencing racism. Goldberg isn't so much concerned with discrimination so much as he's mad that he feels that his fellow conservatives get a bad rap for perpetuating it.
This brouhaha also speaks to how Cain has made his blackness a major part of to his pitch to be president. (In 2008, Obama resorted to dogwhistling to black people, but his campaign assiduously avoided talking too explicitly or too long about race.) Cain is pitching himself as a familiar type --- the aggrieved conservative dogged by the media --- but with a racialized twist. Maybe it's because he needs to find some way to differentiate himself from a field of Republican candidates that's ideologically more or less the same. But part of it is because Republicans, like Goldberg, are clamoring for cover from charges of being the party of racists (see: the selection of Michael Steele as head of the Republican National Committee).
And who better to do that for them than an actual black man? Even if he's just a fringe candidate with no shot of winning anything?
Comments: (30)
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By: StevenCee on 6/29/2011 1:39PM
That Cain is so quick to use the race card is only one of the many reasons most thinking adults don't like him much. His views & policy positions, including his unabashed self-proclamation of being a bigot, as well advocating bucking the constitution (he says he loves & supports) by calling for special "loyalty tests" only for those of Islamic faith, are plenty reason enough to "not like" Cain.
And Bernie Goldberg's charge of racism is just another right wing canard. The reason Stewart can impersonate Cain using an "exaggerated black voice" while Hannity or O'Reilly would be criticized, is not because he's a liberal, it's because HE'S A COMEDIAN! In fact, just last night he did a whole segment showing clips of his use of "exaggerated" impersonations of the voices of many other public figures, both conservatives & liberals, and most of them white...
It's too bad that we can no longer tell the difference between satirists & "news commentators", or even "news anchors/reporters", that is the problem.
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By: Deb on 6/29/2011 2:13PM
I LOVE Jon Stewart. He says what I think about politicians. His Barry White singer while discussing sex scandals had me rolling on the floor and on Oprah he should up with luggage and said "I want to know where we're going (after Australia giveaway)?"
Oh they know the difference! The problem is Jon's rising popularity over "serious" news anchors has them upset and taking aim. Signed another Obama Mama (Michele on Daily Show)
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By: marcus on 6/30/2011 11:15PM
I actually like this guy Cain. Here's a guy who ran a branch of the Fed reserve, took a company near bankruptcy and made it profitable again and is a mathematician. I think we might be able to use a guy like that in Washington for a change.
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By: David1 on 7/02/2011 8:10AM
I could care less about the opinions of Jon Stewart or FoxNews. Stewart is just another entitled Jew just like Rush Limbaugh anointed by Jewish dominated mainstream media to tell us what we should think. Whether it's conservative or liberal they are all the same. Black people need to stop putting so much credence on what white people have to say about us as a race.
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By: Largo Lagg on 7/02/2011 6:52PM
you mean a comedian like Freeman Gosden and Charles Correll were comedians?
They were the voices of Amos 'n' Andy!
Would the blackface be ok too?
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By: Ron on 6/29/2011 2:16PM
Listen folks, I have lived in America for over 58 years. I am an African American.
One thing I have learned is that White folks in in America (in general) do not take us seriously; nor do they respect us. Neither do they think us intelligent.
They are only comfortable with us if we "act, think, and believe" as they do. In some cases, if we look like them. (I am talking about Black folk changing their hair color and style to look White; or even bleaching their skin. In case many of you have not noticed, there has been a subtle shift in the media, TV, and film to cast a disproportionate number of light-skinned Blacks as opposed to dark-skinned Blacks.)
Back to Jon Stewart: People like him, Limbaugh, Hannity, and O'Reilly exist because there is a demand and market for them. Many White people like this stuff and they subscribe to it and believe it.
If Black folk had such nationwide programming that came across a bigoted, White folks have a fit.
I remember the outspokeness of such men as Muhammad Ali, Louis Farrakhan, and now Herman Cain.
White people do not like outspoken Black people. It makes them uncomfortable. Historically, they are used to seeing us in positions as "followers" and not "leaders." A Master/Slave relationship. They expect us to "be quiet" and follow their so-called "intelligent" lead in life.
Rather than deal with intelligent and thinking Black men and women in an intelligent and respectful manner, persons like Jon Stewart resort to this sort of tactic to further make us as a people appear disreputable before the whole world.
It is all by design.
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By: Yvonne on 6/29/2011 4:25PM
While I agree with this premise, one needs to watch The Daily Show, and understand satire, in order to make an intelligent comment. Jon Stewart CANNOT be lumped in the category of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, etc. Jon is NOT a bigot and has a lot to say regarding politicians and politics. As an African American I thoroughly enjoy this show and appreciate Jon's humor.
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By: mark on 6/29/2011 7:17PM
who cares if white people validate you?
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By: ghostwriter on 6/30/2011 8:41PM
Your comments are ridiculous. Not the parts about actual racism; I don;t deny that it exists, nor do I deny that you can find examples of it on television.
What I AM denying -and vehemently so- is that you have found any racism here, from Jon Stewart. The worst thing one could say about him (if one were inclined to want to say something bad about him) is that he is an equal-opportunity offender. Now, I happen to not be easily offended by obvious comedy, so I don't find Stewart's brand of satire offensive; I do, in fact, find much of it to be brilliant.
If there's anything "offensive" at work here, it's comments like yours, where you are clearly speaking from a position of ignorance. (I use the term "ignorance" in the strictest of dictionary definitions: you are CLEARLY not speaking about Jon Stewart from a position of knowledge).
I find it quite offensive that you would disparage a man, and basically accuse him of considering, as you put it, "black folk," to be unintelligent or in any way incapable. Perhaps you could discuss this matter with one of the Daily Show's funniest "correspondents," Wyatt Cynac, who also happens to be African-American, and see how he feels about the subject.
I don't care what race you are; bandying about unfounded accusations of racism is clearly "offensive," and I suggest that you gather more information about the people you choose to disparage before making such accusations.
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By: bobsducky on 6/29/2011 3:22PM
Ron, one of the reasons that so many white people don't take black people seriously stems from an underlying tendency of blacks to believe themselves experts on matters of race and also as being completely unprejudiced in racial matters. The sad fact is that racism is just as rampant among blacks, and many blacks have no clue about just how racist they are.
My friend Kalim is an African immigrant to America, thus making him a true African American. Your words indicate that you have no knowledge or experience about being African. Hence, you would be better suited to calling yourself a black American.
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