Trading Spaces - Andrew Young Plays the Gibson Race Card

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! The only thing overrunning our precious national security faster than undocumented workers (and that is the only PC statement you’ll get in this piece) is media coverage hypocrisy. Let me see if I can drum up some race-bating like my fellow media brethren. Trying to get these guys to connect the dots is like trying to draw a perfect circle on an Etch-A-Sketch. In a statement earlier in the week, former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young responded to questions about Wal-Mart running mom and pop out of town with this little gem, “But you see, those are the people [talking `bout Mama] who have been overcharging us – selling stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables…First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it’s Arabs; very few black people own these stores.” Let me paraphrase for Brother Young. “The Jews, Koreans and Arabs are responsible for a lot of the world’s worst capitalistic greed at the expense of the poor working man”. How about this one. “The Jews are responsible for all of the world’s worst wars”. Sound familiar? It should since we as a people have spent the last few weeks running to pell Mel Gibson into oblivion. The difference is, Young retracts his statements and it’s hardly mentioned in the news until after he’s made penitence. When it is, it shows up buried on the bottom of Section G under a specialty story in the AJC Business section. Apparently Gibson was important enough for general issues coverage. What’s more, whether Gibson was sincere in his comments or not, the world does not turn on the words of a filmmaker. But a former U.N. ambassador? Should not anti-Semitism have higher stakes for those charged with representing the U.S. to the world community? Instead, Young gets to pawn off anti-Semitism in the name of propping up the race card. Sounds like a double-whammy to me. And no, I won’t mention the Muslim terrorist on a shooting rampage in Seattle christening the day of Gibson’s comment. Nor will I draw attention to the Iranian-sponsored exhibit of over 200 anti-Semitic art pieces that premiered in Tehran the next week. Why should I? My fellow gate-keeper media types didn’t see the newsworthiness. Why run from the fray? Still, that nagging question surfaces, “When did racist comments trump physical aggression in the name of anti-Semitism (a la Hezbollah)?” “When did the opinions of former politicians with a real direct impact on national security fall under less scrutiny than a Hollywood entertainer?” And perhaps the most sinister and incriminating, “Whether Mel Gibson felt sincere remorse or not, would PC America ever allow itself to lay its head to rest without hearing an apology from him? Is this an earnest thirst for justice or a ploy to resolve our own discomfort with the world around us? A desire for truth to prevail or a result of social conditioning? Give the pundits a rest. You be the judge for a change.