The late, great George Carlin once said, “There’s a different group to get pissed off at you in this country for everything you’re not supposed to say.” To illustrate, he unleashed a torrent of racial slurs that would make the most staunch Klansman blush.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with any of those words in and of themselves. They are only words,” he said. Up to this point, Carlin’s argument would seem to stand in support of the much-maligned Dr. Laura Schlessinger, who has come under fire for using racial epithets on her program. But then Carlin continued, adding a section she really should have listened to.

“It’s the context that counts. It’s the user. It’s the intention behind the words that makes words good or bad. The words are completely neutral. The words are innocent. I get tired of people talking about ‘bad words’ and ‘bad language.’ It’s the context that makes words good or bad.”

It is not the words she said that put Schlessinger in the situation she’s in. It is a genuine lack of understanding and of comprehension. And so it continues, in the days since.

On Aug. 10, Schlessinger took a call from a woman going by the name of “Jade.” The caller, who is African-American, was asking about a situation that had arisen with her white husband’s friends and family. They would often say uncomfortable things about race in her presence, including racial slurs.

Schlessinger did not let the listener complete her story before cutting her off and stating that she didn’t find the actions of her husband’s friends racist. “ … listen, without giving much thought, a lot of blacks voted for Obama simply ’cause he was half-black,” Schlessinger said, in a statement that had no relevance to the conversation.

“How about the n-word?” Jade said. “So, the n-word’s been thrown around, and … ” Once more, Schlessinger cut her off.

“Black guys use it all the time. Turn on HBO, listen to a black comic, and all you hear is n*****, n*****, n*****.”

The call continued, and Jade, who was becoming increasingly uncomfortable, said she couldn’t believe Schlessinger would use that word on the air. Schlessinger then continued to use it in response, blaming Jade for focusing on the use of it, and, hilariously, chastising Jade for not letting her finish a sentence.

“There is absolutely nothing wrong with the word n***** in and of itself,” Carlin continued in his monologue. “It’s the racist using it you oughta be concerned about. We don’t mind the word when Eddie Murphy or Richard Pryor uses it. Why? Because we know they’re not racist.”

Schlessinger gave her audience no such context before spewing her ill-conceived diatribe. Her use of “the n-word” was the least troubling part of it. She had already contributed a questionable remark even before the “n-word” was used, with her sudden pronouncement that all African-Americans voted for Obama without thinking, that it was “a black thing.” And her lack of comprehension about how wounding Jade’s situation was — proclaiming “I don’t think that’s racist” before she was even finished — didn’t help matters.

She then blamed her caller — indeed, all African American people — for being oversensitive to racism, calling it “black-think,” which is what made her diatribe more offensive than anything. This included her advice to Jade: “If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry out of your race.”

Schlessinger’s conduct in previous years does not do wonders to the context she brought to that conversation. Other comments demonstrate a consistently skewed worldview. Her rants about homosexuality, including her infamous statement about how it was a “biological error that inhibits you from relating normally to the opposite sex;” Her rallying against feminists, including stating in a 1998 Vanity Fair article, “They nauseate and sicken me … They’ve destroyed the sanctity of motherhood;” Her claims that women are partially to blame when their husbands commit adultery. Statements like these help color everything Schlessinger has said since.

Her statements in the days since have only deepened her trouble. Public criticism has intensified. Schlessinger has announced that she is leaving her radio show in what she says is an effort to regain her “First Amendment rights.”

No. You exercised your First Amendment rights quite well. It guarantees us the right to freedom of speech, free from government intervention. It does not guarantee us freedom from criticism, nor freedom from consequence. Others have the right to speak out against your comments, Schlessinger. That’s part of free speech, too. You’d think a doctor would have figured that out by now.

Link to full call audio and transcript, which has apparently been excised from Schlessinger’s official website: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201008120045.

E-mail Jeff at PopGoesJeff@gmail.com.

Tags: Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Jeff McGinnis, Pop Goes the Culture

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 24th, 2010 at 11:57 am and is filed under Pop Goes the Culture, Star.
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