Happy Bigotry Day, everyone! Today we should all follow in the lead of British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and justifiably call someone a bigot.
In case you haven’t heard, Brown got caught calling a British woman named Gillian Duffy a bigot when he didn’t realize his microphone was still on.
Several things are funny/infuriating about this story. First, Brown called Duffy a bigot after a conversation on the street in which Duffy made this somewhat remark about immigrants: “You can’t say anything about the immigrants because all these eastern Europeans, where they are flocking from?”
Although Duffy’s question does not literally make much sense – I mean, presumably she knows that “all these eastern Europeans” are flocking from eastern Europe – Brown understood her to be complaining about the same sort of thing the Duffys of America like to complain about, except regarding “the Mexicans.” So let’s see, that type of complaint is generally associated with . . . what is the word I’m looking for here? It means being impartial to your own group, like maybe your own racial or ethnic group, and intolerant of those who differ?
So Brown was pretty justified in referring to this woman as a bigot, especially because he was polite enough not to say it to her face. But now he’s been forced to apologize, which is the second thing that is infuriating/hilarious about this story. The third thing is Brown’s non-apology apology, which AR would just love.
My absolute favorite thing about this story, though, is that when confronted with the news that Brown had called her a bigot, Duffy did not know what the term meant. But then she complained about Brown by implying that calling someone a ‘bigot’ is ignorant: “He’s an educated person. Why is he coming at me with words like that?” Classic.
In honor of “Bigotgate,” then, let’s all have fun justifiably calling someone or something a bigot today. I pick Arizona’s Russell Pierce. You? Remember: it’s even more fun if the person might not know what the term ‘bigot’ means.
-AS
Not all eastern Europeans are from eastern Europe. Many are from my hometown of Slickville, Pennsylvania.