Jack & Jill Politics

Late last week, commentator/conservative blowhard John Stossel supported Rand Paul’s questions about the Civil Rights Act and went further. Of course he used the tired fig leaf of I’m not a racist…I just think laws that actively reduce racism should be repealed.

Stossel is either truly and alarmingly ignorant of how Jim Crow operated, i.e. that market forces has decidedly done nothing to address the problem of Jim Crow OR (more likely) despite his disingenuous denials, he’s recommending that businesses open to the general public be allowed to discriminate based on race. And that that should be ok.

So in other words, that swimming pool in PA who kicked out a summer camp of kids last year once they found out it was mostly black and latino children — they should have been allowed to discriminate. Or hotels should feel free to turn away anyone they don’t like the looks of — no matter how green their money might be. Discrimination in restaurants (remember Denny’s?), housing etc still runs rampant. The subprime mortgage debacle which was focused disproportionately on fleecing minorities and almost took down the global economy should be evidence enough to see that market forces are not a panacea. Laws which govern our society’s values when it’s clear that the market has failed to protect individual consumers are still needed. I dream of a day when they are not. We’re definitely not there yet.

NO.

It’s no mystery why some people are pushing this agenda now. Color of Change is targeting John Stossel to push back on his insistence that Title II of the Civil Rights Act should be repealed. Here’s the action urging Fox News to stand on the side of right-thinking Americans. Please join me and thousands of other people in sending a strong message and standing up for legislation that defines our society in a positive way against those who wish to roll back the clock.

Rand Paul, the GOP’s US Senate candidate for Kentucky repeated his claim that a central piece of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was wrong, and that businesses should be free to discriminate against whomever they please.¹ Paul and his supporters don’t seem to care that without federal intervention, Black people might still be second-class citizens in many aspects of American life: where we eat, where we work, even where we live.

Then, on Thursday, FOX anchor John Stossel went even further, calling for the section of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that applies to business to be repealed.² And he’s refused to back down.

While Paul may have started this outrage, he can be taken care of at the ballot box — FOX News can’t.

Stossel’s position is an affront to Black America and everyone in this country who believes in racial progress. It’s one thing to be a candidate with backwards views. It’s another to be employed by a supposed news network and to use that platform to push hateful ideas that our nation repudiated decades ago.

It’s time that FOX drop Stossel. If people like you stand up in huge numbers and FOX does not act, it will be clear that FOX stands with Stossel and his values — and we’ll go directly after the network with a public campaign unlike anything we’ve pursued to date.

Can you add your voice to the call to fire Stossel? And please ask your friends and family to do the same. It takes only a moment — just click below:

http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/?id=1489-129670

FOX has a history of providing a platform for bigoted views and race-baiting. Most recently you helped us hold FOX accountable by stripping Glenn Beck of more than 100 of his advertisers, after Beck called President Obama a “racist” with a “deep-seated hatred for white people.”³

But Stossel has arguably gone beyond Beck, echoing segregationist arguments from the Jim Crow era:

“It’s time now to repeal that part of the law because private businesses ought to get to discriminate. And I won’t ever go to a place that’s racist and I will tell everybody else not to and I’ll speak against them. But it should be their right to be racist.”

Stossel went on to argue something that history has disproved time and again — that private business will do the right thing, without being compelled by laws, because no one would patronize a business that discriminates. It’s a blind belief in market fundamentalism that just isn’t in sync with reality. In the ’60s, white-owned businesses that allowed Blacks as customers lost business. Market forces actually perpetuated discrimination; they didn’t combat it. Simply put: segregation would still be active in parts of this country if government hadn’t stepped in.

And recent history has shown that the public accommodations section of the Civil Rights Act is still needed. In 1994, it was used to hold Denny’s Restaurants accountable, after the chain repeatedly refused to seat Black customers.⁴ Just last year, it was used to go after a Philadelphia pool that prevented Black children from swimming there.⁵

It’s time for FOX News to make a choice. Are they going to give Stossel a platform to revive dangerously outdated perspectives? Or will they move with the rest of the nation into the 21st century? Please call on FOX News to fire John Stossel. And once you do, please ask your friends and family to do the same:

http://www.colorofchange.org/stossel/?id=1489-129670

Thanks and Peace,

— James, Gabriel, William, Dani, Milton and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team

1. “Rand Paul On ‘Maddow’ Defends Criticism Of Civil Rights Act, Says He Would Have Worked To Change Bill,” Huffington Post, 5-20-10
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/246?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=7

2. “Stossel calls for repeal of public accommodations section of Civil Rights Act,” Media Matters, 5-20-10
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/247?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=9

3. “Beck’s UK broadcast runs without ads; over 100 companies have ditched Beck,” Jack and Jill Politics, 2-16-10
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/248?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=11

4. “Denny’s Restaurants to Pay $54 Million in Race Bias Suits,” 5-25-94
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/251?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=13

5. “Justice Department Files Lawsuit Against Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, Country Club Alleging Discrimination,” US Department of Justice press release, 1-13-10
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/252?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=15

Additional:

“Dancing with the Devil,” ColorOfChange.org, 3-14-07
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/249?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=17

Summary on FOX News and coverage relating to Black Americans
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/250?akid=1465.852719.Jpj3p1&t=19