Why is it that people make racist comment, then cry out that they aren’t racist?
The latest “I’m not racist” guy is a police officer from Boston who CNN says sent an e-mail calling Henry Louis Gates a “banana-eating jungle monkey.”
Cue the apology.
Officer Justin Barrett, 36, told a Boston television station Wednesday night that he was sorry about the e-mail, a copy of which he also sent to The Boston Globe. He repeated his apology Thursday night on CNN’s “Larry King Live.”
“I would like to take this opportunity to offer fellow police officers, soldiers and citizens my sincerest apology over the controversial e-mail I authored,” Barrett said on CNN. “I am not a racist. I did not intend any racial bigotry, harm or prejudice in my words. I sincerely apologize that these words have been received as such. I truly apologize to all.”
To say you’re not racist after calling a black man a monkey, knowing the history of comparing blacks to monkeys, is like saying I’m not a killer while standing over a dead body with a gun in your hand.
Barrett says that he was upset about a column written in the Boston Globe. It seemed biased, he said.
Columns are the opinion of the columnist — so it’s not supposed to be fair and balanced. Maybe he’s not racist, but stupid.
Asked what led him to choose to use such language, he said, “I don’t know. I couldn’t tell you. I have no idea.”
He added, in response to a question, that he had never used such language before.
Sounds like Mark Furhman and his use of the N word during the O.J. Simpson trial. A person doesn’t use such language if they hadn’t thought about it or used it with their friends. If your first thought is to make racial statements when you’re angry, then you’re probably a racist.
Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham, who wrote the editorial that sparked Barrett’s e-mail, supported Gates’ actions, asking readers, “Would you stand for this kind of treatment, in your own home, by a police officer who by now clearly has no right to be there?”
Watch Blogger Bunch: Is race discussion possible? »
In Barrett’s e-mail, which was posted on a Boston television station’s Web site, he declared that if he had “been the officer he verbally assaulted like a banana-eating jungle monkey, I would have sprayed him in the face with OC (oleorosin capsicum, or pepper spray) deserving of his belligerent non-compliance.”
Barrett used the “jungle monkey” phrase four times, three times referring to Gates and once referring to Abraham’s writing as “jungle monkey gibberish.”
He also declared that he was “not a racist but I am prejudice [sic] towards people who are stupid and pretend to stand up and preach for something they say is freedom but it is merely attention because you do not get enough of it in your little fear-dwelling circle of on-the-bandwagon followers.”
Whatever this guy is, he’s not fit to be a cop.
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 4, 2009.
Hey Frank, I found this for you online:
A columnist is someone who regularly prepares brief essays and commentaries for publication. Columnists may work for broadcast media in radio and television, but they are more commonly associated with the print media, in the form of newspapers and magazines. A columnist is a type of journalist, but he or she is not required to adhere to expected journalistic ethics of neutrality, and a column does not necessarily contain news.
http://www.wisegeek.com
“Whatever this guy is, he’s not fit to be a cop.”
— no, he fits right in with alot of the police, not most but alot of them.
Many police take offense to someone who, while not committing any violent or property crime, refuse to be talked to just any kind of way by the police.
It’s a sad thing but its reality.
Barret is not racist and Larry Craig is not gay. They just act that way. City of Boston needs to fire him and the Guard needs to discharge this POS, now.
Yes, it is true there are some racist policemen. It is also true there are some racist columnist. My feeling is that the racism falls more from the african american community right now. The officer who was originally called a racist has an excellent record, marred now because some guy was tired from a long trip and aggravated at being locked out of his home by a jammed door. It’s ok he insulted the officer, right? Perhaps we should go to Gates classroom and insult his mother. Do you think we’d get a rise? Crowley didn’t follow Gates home. The cops were sent there to protect the property of the homeowner. Why didn’t he just get his id out? It’s what I do when I get pulled over. And I say Yes, sir and Yes, ma’am.
As for the cop who insulted Gates in a personal email, that is something different, too. Yes, he made some very racist, nasty remarks. I definitely wouldn’t choose him for my friend. He should be fired for plain stupity and ignorance, because what he said reflected on people who did their jobs professionally. Everytime someone(indifferent of color) uses racist language, they make the whole human race look bad. Shame on him.
yeah fire him …after all these years on the force…fire him. It’s because he said one sentence therefore his entire life will forever be ruined because we Americans are so freaking sensitive about words. According to everyones comments, the police officer is bad for the human race, the police force, America,the kitchen sink, all because of one sentence that after about a minute delegated itself to obscurity in the long scheme of things. Get a life.He could have saved the world for all we know byt because of this one sentence its all negated.really?!?
Everyone that has listened to this one sentence, and all that have read it are now needing therapy to get over it, counseling, money (of course), and sniff sniff closure because this one sentence apparently ruined the world.Seriously, move along, nothing to see here. Go bait somewhere else.
WTFE
1. Frank Griffin- a “good” columnist does not have to write fair or balanced columns. They get paid for their opinions. Besides the term “good” is subjective.
2. I don’t care who you are and what race you are, if an officer came into YOUR house and questioned if you lived there and then wanted to arrest you AFTER he KNOWS you live there- you would be pissed. POINT BLANK
3. How about we look at the situation a different way- at a sporting event, referees get yelled at and haggled all the time. If they blew up or threw out everyone who questioned them, there would most likely be nobody left in the gym. They learn to just shrug off the insults. Police officers also get insults hurled at them and most learn to just ignore them or how about this…. The officer could have LEFT THE HOUSE!
4. If you are a police chief and it is 2009 and you are referring to people as “porch monkeys” in an e-mail…you are dumb. When will closet racists learn, don’t send out your racist, homophobic, sexist, etc comments out in e-mail form. Obviously everyone you send it to WILL NOT think you are funny/witty/clever/justified so please learn to keep that stuff to yourself and your other ignorant friends. Should he be fired? yes, but I think that maybe he should go be an officer someplace in like Montana. He vowed to PROTECT AND SERVE his community and if he does not like “porch monkeys” how can he be expected to uphold that vow?