Skip navigation

Daily Archives: July 31st, 2019

Ronald Reagan Makes Racist Comment To Richard Nixon In Newly Released Audio


It appears that no matter how far forward we go, we are still backpedaling just as far.MA

Lee Moran
HuffPostJuly 31, 2019

Ronald Reagan called United Nations delegates from African countries “monkeys” in a 1971 telephone call with then-President Richard Nixon, according to a newly released recording of the private conversation.
The National Archives released audio of the call between Nixon and Reagan, who was then the GOP governor of California, earlier this month. Nixon, dogged by the Watergate scandal, resigned the presidency in disgrace in 1974. Reagan went on to serve two terms as president in the 1980s.
“To see those, those monkeys from those African countries. Damn them, they’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes,” Reagan told Nixon, reportedly in reference to members of the Tanzanian delegation dancing in the United Nations’ General Assembly following its vote to recognize the People’s Republic of China.
Reagan also reportedly lobbied Nixon during their exchange to withdraw the U.S. from the U.N. over the other members’ support of China.
In a subsequent telephone call to then-Secretary of State William Rogers, Nixon said Reagan “saw these cannibals on television last night, and he says, ‘Christ, they weren’t even wearing shoes, and here the United States is going to submit its fate to that,’ and so forth and so on.”
The National Archives first released audio of the Reagan-Nixon call, which Nixon had taped in the White House, in 2000, but Reagan’s racist comment was redacted. Reagan died at age 93 in 2004.
Tim Naftali, the director of the Nixon Presidential Library from 2007 to 2011, requested a review of the redaction. The National Archives released the full clip earlier this month, and The Atlantic shared it Tuesday, along with Naftali’s commentary.
“The past month has brought presidential racism back into the headlines,” wrote Naftali, referencing President Donald Trump’s recent racist attacks on four Democratic congresswomen of color, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) and the city of Baltimore.
“This October 1971 exchange between current and future presidents is a reminder that other presidents have subscribed to the racist belief that Africans or African Americans are somehow inferior,” Naftali added. “The most novel aspect of President Donald Trump’s racist gibes isn’t that he said them, but that he said them in public.”

btn_donateCC_LG

Please Donate

Culture: Stan Lee resurfaces 1968 ‘Stan’s Soapbox’ column to condemn bigotry ‘It’s totally irrational and patently insane to condemn an entire race’


By Julia Alexander Aug 15, 2017, 5:00pm EDT

Marvel’s Stan Lee isn’t shy about speaking out against injustices facing society.
Today Lee tweeted a photo of one of his Stan’s Soapbox columns, a monthly piece that ran in Marvel’s Bullpen Bulletins news and information section between 1965-2001, from 1968. Lee’s tweet comes just days after a violent protest organized by white supremacists and neo-Nazis was held in Virginia.

As true today as it was in 1968. Pax et Justitia – Stan pic.twitter.com/VbBtiZzUch
— st

ENTERTAINMENT 11/13/2018 06:19 am ET Updated Nov 13, 2018
Stan Lee’s 1968 Column Denouncing Racism ‘Plaguing The World’ Goes Viral Again
“The only way to destroy them is to expose them — to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are,” the Marvel Universe pioneer wrote 50 years ago.

By Lee Moran

A column that Marvel Comics visionary Stan Lee penned on racism 50 years ago is again going viral following his death Monday at the age of 95.
In 1968, Lee declared in one of his “Stan’s Soapbox” segments that bigotry and racism were “among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.” He suggested the only way to destroy them was by revealing them “for the insidious evils they really are”:

Stan Lee leaves behind a complicated legacy. He brought joy to the world while causing pain to the little guy behind-the-scenes. But if we can take something positive from the life he lived, it’s that he made sure to take a public stand when it might’ve cost him.

December 1968: pic.twitter.com/9U5TeTtXLc
— Siddhant Adlakha (@SidizenKane) November 12, 2018
Lee tweeted the column in 2017, following the violent white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Here’s the full text:

“Let’s lay it right on the line. Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. But, unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot, or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them is to expose them — to reveal them for the insidious evils they really are. The bigot is an unreasoning hater — one who hates blindly, fanatically, indiscriminately. If his hang-up is black men, he hates ALL black men. If a redhead once offended him, he hates ALL redheads. If some foreigner beat him to a job, he’s down on ALL foreigners. He hates people he’s never seen — people he’s never known — with equal intensity — with equal venom.
“Now, we’re not trying to say it’s unreasonable for one human being to bug another. But, although anyone has the right to dislike another individual, it’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race — to despise an entire nation — to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance. For then, and only then, will we be truly worthy of the concept that man was created in the image of God ― a God who calls us ALL ― His children.

stan lee (@TheRealStanLee) August 15, 2017
In the 1968 column, Lee didn’t specify which act of bigotry and hate he was writing about, but it was an important year for the rights movement in America. The Civil Rights Act of 1968 was finally enacted and Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. were assassinated just months apart.
It was a time of civil and social unrest and Lee, who lived through the second World War, wrote this piece condemning the hateful views of white supremacy groups.
“Racism and bigotry are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today,” Lee said. “But, unlike a team of costumed supervillains, they can’t be halted with a punch in the snoot or a zap from a ray gun. The only way to destroy them, is to expose them — to reveal from the insidious evil they really are.
“It’s totally irrational and patently insane to condemn an entire race — to despise an entire nation — to vilify an entire religion.”
Lee, whose full name is Stanley Lieber, is also the son of Jewish parents and served as a soldier during the second World War. During his tenure at Marvel, Lee contributed to many stories, including multiple Captain America comics. Captain America, who was created by Jack Kirby and Joe Simon, was designed to quite literally defeat Nazis during the rise of Adolf Hitler and the events of World War II.

btn_donateCC_LG

Please Donate