Althouse: The Juan Williams moment.

November 5, 2008

The Juan Williams moment.

40 comments:

Lisa said...: A black MAN could be elected...

The sexism was so prevalent this year that will be another 24 years before we see a woman running to be our executive again and no one seems to have noticed.; 11/5/08, 8:14 AM
Darcy said...: Amen, Lisa.

Women lost big time. And they voted themselves losers.

But that was a nice moment for Juan Williams. I'm personally happy for that guy.; 11/5/08, 8:20 AM
X said...: America is the least racist nation on Earth. Is there another multi-racial country that has elected a minority as Executive?; 11/5/08, 8:24 AM
Jason said...: "I can't think of another country in the world where yo could have a significant minority that was once so maligned and so oppressed finally have one of its sons rise to this level."

South Africa.

Is there no stupidity beyond the reach of liberal commentators?; 11/5/08, 8:27 AM
Jason said...: I am so proud to be a loyal citizen of a country where a black man can be elected president.

Too bad it had to be this man.; 11/5/08, 8:28 AM
Expat(ish) said...: I'm proud to be in a country where a black man can outspend a white man 6:1 or more and be elected president.

Now if he will just hurry up and socialize our health care system maybe i could get a doctor to look at this hangover.

-XC; 11/5/08, 8:32 AM
Henry said...: Jason, in South Africa, the oppressed population was a majority. Categorical difference.

Juan Williams is a class act. A point always in his favor is his defense of Clarence Thomas.; 11/5/08, 8:41 AM
hawkeyedjb said...: "South Africa"

Black people were never a minority in South Africa.; 11/5/08, 8:42 AM
X said...: sorry jason, but an oppressed minority never won in South Africa. An oppresive minority did, and later an oppressed majority won.; 11/5/08, 8:44 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Okay Juan, you have got me choked up too. Good point.; 11/5/08, 8:46 AM
I'm Full of Soup said...: I respect and like Juan Williams. I am very happy for him.; 11/5/08, 8:46 AM
Kevin said...: Well said by Juan Williams. He is liberal, but I have always found him to be thoughtful and respectful.; 11/5/08, 8:47 AM
Mark said...: X, possibly being pedantic, but Peru elected Alberto Fujimori (Peruvian born of Japanese immigrants) in 1990.

But more to your point, yes, we've come a long way 50 years. MLK would be proud. I'm not happy it's this particular African American either, but I have to say I'm proud too.

Nice country you got there, Barack. Don't screw it up.; 11/5/08, 9:00 AM
Jason said...: Ok, point taken. You are correct, South Africa was always a black majority country. I categorically withdraw my 8:27 comment.; 11/5/08, 9:01 AM
Balfegor said...: America is the least racist nation on Earth. Is there another multi-racial country that has elected a minority as Executive?

Sure. Fujimori in Peru -- he was from the Japanese minority population there, but was elected in 1990. And K.R. Narayanan, a Dalit (untouchable), was elected president of India in 1997. And throughout South-East Asia, I think a number of Presidents have been overseas Chinese. Thaksin Sinawatra, in Thailand, was part Chinese, if I recall correctly. And anti-Chinese sentiment can get pretty violent in South-East Asia.; 11/5/08, 9:08 AM
X said...: I can buy the Fujimori example, but as far as Indians electing Indians and Asians electing Asians, America elected an Irish Catholic in 1960, which is about the same difference.; 11/5/08, 9:14 AM
Balfegor said...: I can buy the Fujimori example, but as far as Indians electing Indians and Asians electing Asians, America elected an Irish Catholic in 1960, which is about the same difference.

I think the gap between WASPs and Irishmen was rather smaller than the gap between ordinary Indians (from the various races inhabiting India today) and untouchables. But more generally, to say "Indians electing Indians" and "Asians electing Asians" is to force everything into the American paradigm, where it's Whites, Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians, and then South Asians fitting in somewhere awkwardly, perhaps as a subset of Asians. That's certainly not how it's seen elsewhere. The ethnic and cultural diversity within India dwarfs anything in the United States, after all, even if to an American they may all "look alike."

I also forgot the most famous example of all -- Disraeli. (haha); 11/5/08, 9:23 AM
Balfegor said...: I should probably note, I guess, that I don't think any of this invalidates the notion that America is the least racist country on Earth -- it is, in my experience. Indeed, in my experienced, the idea that "racism is wrong," doesn't seem to be all that widespread in most other countries (however you draw the lines between races). It's just that election of a President doesn't actually say all that much about it, given that other countries manage that kind of thing all the time. It's not actually all that difficult to think a man (or woman) may be the best man for the job, even if you're prejudiced against his people/tribe/sex/whatever. Or even him personally. I mean, in a world where "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him. is a winning campaign slogan, a bit of racism hardly even registers on the scales.; 11/5/08, 9:46 AM
David said...: Williams and Krauthammer are the two best commentators on television. I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that each of them has had major obstacles to overcome.; 11/5/08, 9:56 AM
knox said...: I like Juan Williams; 11/5/08, 9:59 AM
Lorelei Leigh said...: Juan Williams is a class act. A point always in his favor is his defense of Clarence Thomas.

Agreed. I posted on my own blog how much Williams' comments stood out last night. He was obviously emotional, but was also remarkably even. I thought he showed commendable restraint and managed to look and sound professional and serious.

It was a nice contrast to the silly, pointless gushing flowing from Chris Matthews' lips last night.; 11/5/08, 10:09 AM
Palladian said...: "It was a nice contrast to the silly, pointless gushing flowing from Chris Matthews' lips last night."

I'm sure that tingle in his legs became a full-fledged hard-on last night. Hopefully he shot his load and will pass out like most men. That should shut him up for a while.; 11/5/08, 10:33 AM
Cedarford said...: X said...
America is the least racist nation on Earth. Is there another multi-racial country that has elected a minority as Executive?

Well, yes, on top of Fujimori and overseas Chinese being in charge of some nations - if you add in minorities in non-democratic systems who were "elected" by Party peers to top dog.

The most famous, and popular with the masses was Joe Stalin, a Georgian. Who fought off and sometimes even killed Jewish rivals like Kerensky, Bhukarin, and Polish Jew Lev Bronstein (Trotsky) also seeking power to run the Russian masses.

Stalin also installed Jews to run several of his E European satellites after WWII, rather than native ethnics.

Josep Broz Tito was a minority running the proud symbol of multiethnic harmony and peaceful coexistence that was Yugoslavia for so many decades...

And of course, the Godfather of multiculti theory was the minority French-Canadian democratically elected as PM there - Pierre Eliot Trudeau.

The Assads of Syria are part of the Alewite minority.
Disraeli, a Jew, was PM of Britain in the 19th Century.
France had a non-radical, non-communist Jewish President prior to WWII.

More recently, Sarkozy, of Hungarian ancestry and some Jewish, was elected President of France.; 11/5/08, 10:44 AM
Freder Frederson said...: Actually, the correct answer is Bolivia, where Evo Morales is the first indigenous head of state in a country where the native peoples have been an oppressed minority for well 400 years.; 11/5/08, 10:45 AM
Skyler said...: I'll be contrarian. I'm not at all impressed. A black man was elected. So? We're still highlighting that he's black. That's bad enough.

What's even worse is that black people feel a need to support OJ Simpson and Obama for the reason that they are black and not because of what they have done or think.

I think this is appalling.

When a black man or woman wins and is supported by the black population in roughly similar percentages as whites and other races and ethnicities then I will consider it a great event. This election? Not so great in that regard. Blacks have further solidified themselves as useful pawns to white and now black politicians. The race of the president isn't as important as having blacks no longer think of their race as their one defining trait.; 11/5/08, 10:57 AM
Shanna said...: A black MAN could be elected...

I actually got a little emotional this morning listening to the local urban morning show (or maybe it was a national one) and the happiness of people calling in…and talking to my boss and hearing how happy he was.

But then I thought about how set back women were this election and how we SHOULD have been in the white house somehow this year and would have been if Barack had chosen Hillary…well then I got a little sad again.; 11/5/08, 11:30 AM
dbp said...: I'm not buying the, "Who would have thought even a year ago..." bull.

Who wouldn't have expected a landslide 8 years ago if Powell had been the Republican candidate?; 11/5/08, 11:33 AM
holdfast said...: I am happy for Williams - he actually has a bit of class, unlike the rest of the Dems/MSM who go out of their way to flay alive any minority conservatives.; 11/5/08, 11:35 AM
blogless said...: Skyler, you've articulated my concern.

I was at the store yesterday, and customers were saying congratulatory things to the black guy who worked the doors. My first reaction was that if I were him, I would look at them and be very angry and ask them why they would assume I wanted Obama to win.

Granted, I am not black, and I have never been treated differently because of the color of my skin, but I don't think we've made "progress" until color doesn't matter - and it still does.

"When a black man or woman wins and is supported by the black population in roughly similar percentages as whites and other races and ethnicities then I will consider it a great event."

Yes. But maybe that will start happening.

"The sexism was so prevalent this year that will be another 24 years before we see a woman running to be our executive again and no one seems to have noticed."

Yes.; 11/5/08, 11:43 AM
former law student said...: how we SHOULD have been in the white house somehow this year and would have been if Barack had chosen Hillary

Selecting Hillary as his No. 2 would have been rubbing her nose in her loss. Every campaign stop where she would have had to laud Obama would have been ashes in her mouth. By not selecting her, Obama preserved her freedom to run in 2012, if either his campaign failed or his first term been a disaster. Not naming HRC as his VP was a courtesy.; 11/5/08, 12:39 PM
Icepick said...: This isn't some big set-back for women. It's a hard blow to Hillary, sure. But Palin looks to be in good position on the Republican side, Pelosi is the second most powerful person in Washington, and there isn't any question that Hillary could have (probably would have) won if she had beaten Obama in the primaries.; 11/5/08, 1:14 PM
Charles Purvis said...: I truly respect and admire Juan Williams, and found this to be incredibly moving.

I proudly voted for McCain, and wish that he had won, but there is no denying the symbolic power of what happened with this election.; 11/5/08, 2:13 PM
Anonymous said...: In spite of my support for McCain, I found this incredibly moving, as well as seeing Jesse Jackson with tears running down his face.

These guys lived in the bad old days and it must really mean a lot to them.

Dean; 11/5/08, 2:52 PM
Ken Begg said...: "The sexism was so prevalent this year that will be another 24 years before we see a woman running to be our executive again..."

Sarah Palin will be running for President in four years, and it's not altogether unlikely that she'll win.; 11/5/08, 3:32 PM
veni vidi vici said...: Williams' getting choked up was a great moment and very moving.

Put yourself in Jesse Jackson's shoes for a moment: his emotional reaction sent chills up my spine. After all, he was on the fucking balcony with MLK when he was murdered, and 40 years later, this!

Greatness of America, indeed.

I felt badly for Obama that his gram missed by a day seeing him elected president. What a gift that would've been to her!; 11/5/08, 5:09 PM
lowercase said...: Thanks Lisa and Darcy for saying it. The misogyny dripped throughout this election. If it were just Hillary or just Palin, I could maybe pretend that it was merely partisanship, but it was both of them. Really takes the edge of any kind of celebratory mood for me. The only backhanded consolation I find is that women did do it to themselves - over and over again.

It was sort of bittersweet last night, but I awoke far more miserable and deeply angry today than I ever would have expected. It's not Obama so much as the deep deep misogyny his supporters and the media constantly accepted -- at the very least on a tactical level.; 11/5/08, 5:38 PM
lowercase said...: And I want to give another shout out to the conservatives who were so vocal in their support for Palin - men and women - you guys were one of the only bright spots for me. I never would have expected it.; 11/5/08, 5:41 PM
rcocean said...: Could we please stop partronizing Black people?

Yes, lets give ourselves a collective pat on the back and smug self-congratulatory hug for electing a black man. Aren't we special.

Frankly, the POTUS is too important for feel good politics. Obama deserves it on his own merits. And he should be critised on his own merits.; 11/5/08, 5:44 PM
Cedarford said...: thoughtfulconservative said...
In spite of my support for McCain, I found this incredibly moving, as well as seeing Jesse Jackson with tears running down his face.

Jesse was only crying because the little bastard whose nuts he wanted to cut off was standing in the spot in history Jesse thought whitey owed him.; 11/5/08, 6:19 PM
veni vidi vici said...: "Jesse was only crying because the little bastard whose nuts he wanted to cut off was standing in the spot in history Jesse thought whitey owed him."

That was funny in a cynical way (the same thought, albeit more mildly stated, crossed my mind at first glance last night too), but I think you've gotta take Jackson's reaction within the context of what he's seen in his life -- the legitimate real things he was on the frontlines of back in the 60's, before he became self-parodying in the 90's. It was a humbling moment.; 11/5/08, 6:32 PM