NPR Fires Juan Williams Over Muslim Comments on Bill O’Reilly Show

When I once said that most right-minded Americans (especially blacks) should be afraid of black males on some level, I caught a lot of grief from some folks (here). But saying it on my blog and in the context of black male violence statistics is not the same as saying it on Bill O’Reilly’s rag of a show. On my blog, I can create a context for my boldness to be understood, as well as challenged. Juan afforded his comments about Muslims no such opportunity and this is what got him rightly fired.

Saying that fellow passengers, dressed as Muslims, give you boarding concerns, because of 9/11, right in the middle context of the polarizing Bill O’Reilly Show, is a whole other kettle of fish. Juan was throwing rabid-dog O’Reilly a ‘profiling’ bone with some special meat on it, to keep the right-wing masses stoked and clamoring for Muslim blood. O’Reilly does not care what Williams might have meant, and Juan should act like he knows this, or stay off his damn side-show.

Williams has been playing with fire for a while, as a recurring ‘liberal’ guest of O’Reilly’s. In this case, he got burned trying to straddle the line between being liberal, and pitching fat, juicy softballs to Bill. In truth, NPR has probably been impatiently waiting for Juan to get both feet out of bounds at the same time. His appearances on the Fox show were not in alignment with the journalistic image NPR seeks to portray. Juan should have known this. Look for him full-time on Fox.

As for Muslims on aircraft, they have every right to the same treatment as all the other passengers – no more or less. They should neither be exempt from intrusion, nor should they be singled out because of the 9/11 extremists. Juan needs to act like he understands that he could very easily be on the receiving end of a profiling-gone-bad, wherein he would be screaming that authorities not assume things about him, not in evidence.

On the other hand, all Muslims must recognize, just as black males should, that behaviors of members of the group will inevitably show up in how they as individuals, in certain context, are perceived and received. Whenever I see some Timothy McVeigh-looking white dude with a glazed out-of-place look, I keep at least one eye on him. I'm not saying it's right, but he better understand.

James C. Collier

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