Friday, December 20, 2013

Totally Not Prejudiced Pat Robertson Said Japanese People Are Prejudiced


A regular feature of The 700 Club is "Bring it On-Line," where Pat Robertson answers viewer questions because apparently there are still hundreds of thousands of people out there who think Pat's a fount of wisdom.  It's the most unscripted part of the show—I don't think Pat even knows in advance what the questions will be—and it's been the source of most of the WTF moments he's treated us to in the past year: the AIDS-spreading rings gay people wear, the is-your-son-gay-because-his-coach-molested-him comment, and many others that weren't always about gay people.

On yesterday's show, Pat fielded the question shown above from a white guy who's attracted to African-American women.  And of course the answer got awkward, because old white Southern men aren't all that capable of talking about race without putting their feet in their mouths.



“From a scriptural standpoint, the only problem is, ‘Do not be equally yoked together with unbelievers.’  That's what the Bible says.”
Okay, so far so inoffensive.  And coherent.  But then:
“The skin color.  Asian—they call 'em the yellow race, but they're a little bit off-white.  Black people, a little bit different shade of pigmentation.  Indian—they call 'em the red men, we've got names for all this stuff.  But I think, according to your preference and your love, I would just say in certain cultures, there is a definite prejudice against interracial marriages, and whether it has to do with Indian, or it has to do with Chinese, or it has to do with something else, you'll find a prejudice.  Japanese, particularly.  Prejudiced.  So you're asking yourself to get into a situation of prejudice…”
I've read that five times, and I still don't understand most of that.  But the part about how prejudiced the Japanese are comes out loud and clear.  Not to mention the irony of judging a whole ethnic population and calling them prejudiced.  Anyway, I wonder what my Jewish cousin and his Japanese wife would think of all this.

No comments:

Post a Comment