Ta-Nehisi Coates has been on a roll lately. It’s a shame that Alec Baldwin lost his show on MSNBC because he’s actually a gifted interviewer. The program he did on 2001: A Space Odyssey was one of the coolest things I saw on television this year. But Baldwin isn’t the victim of gay rights “fundamentalists.” He’s responsible for his fate. It’s not appropriate to use gay slurs against anyone who annoys you, and you can’t expect advertisers to tolerate it. I don’t really care about what Baldwin secretly believes or how you want to define the word “bigot.” Mr. Coates’ important contribution to this debate is that he has the ability to convey what it is like to be part of a group (e.g., blacks, Latinos, women, gays) that doesn’t have the luxury of globally dismissing people who hold at least partially ill-feelings towards them.
The ability to “globally” label anyone is a privilege that people who live with a boot on their neck don’t really enjoy. We see people as complicated, because we must, because your tormentor one moment might be your liberator the next. This is not theoretical. In 1863, General James Longstreet led an Army that kidnapped free black people and sold them into slavery. Ten years later, Longstreet was leading black soldiers in a courageous, if doomed, campaign against white terrorists in Louisiana.
And if we are honest with ourselves, as the president would say, we know this isn’t theoretical, because we know ourselves.
He also reminds us, again, of the uncomfortable truth that throughout our country’s history a lot of black boys and girls had fathers who were white supremacists, which is somehow similar to how a gay boy or girl must suffer when their parents are anti-gay.
If you are gay your father or mother could be a “homophobic bigot,” but you might well love him all the same. For a significant period of American history it was common for black people to have fathers who were white supremacists. Some of us hated our fathers. But for many of us, the feeling was somehow more complicated.
Mr. Coates brings a perspective that has been lacking in our political discourse. He’s risen about his West Baltimore roots without ever forgetting where he came from. He can look back with regret on some of the attitudes he was born into without distancing himself from that culture or failing to represent it fairly and honestly.
When he calls Alex Baldwin on his bad behavior, he brings a certain credibility. Coates has unlearned a lot of things, which means he knows that Baldwin doesn’t deserve a pass.
My perspective on Baldwin is a little different but it may actually put Baldwin in a worse place. He’s clearly the proud owner of a serious anger management problem. Remember when he called his own daughter ‘a pig’ on an answering machine?
So I don’t think Baldwin is a bigot, rather he’s worse, he intentionally uses the most hurtful possible slurs to attack people he is angry with. He has no ethical boundaries, even with his own daughter, in his need to express his anger to inflict the greatest psychological damage on the subject of his anger. He’s so addicted to expressing his anger he loses any ethical control over how to display it.
IOW, he’s a sick, bully who uses words he knows are wrong because he’s more interested in inflicting pain on anyone who interferes with his own needs than conforming to his own principles. A bigot can learn (Coates proves it), an anger addict has a bigger problem.
Having an anger management problem and being a bigot aren’t mutually exclusive. Baldwin (or anyone else) could do both at the same time.
My point is that he exhibits the same behavior whether it’s a situation that could be classified as bigoted or not. He also exhibits the same behavior with his own family or with strangers. His behavior is problematic and constant in any instance he loses his temper.
The thread that runs through all of it is that he’s a sick, bully. You’re right that he could be bigoted as well, but his policy positions don’t suggest that.
My additional point is that his intentional use of the slurs makes him worse than a bigot, since he clearly knows better but chooses the slurs because he understands the depth of the pain he is trying to intentionally inflict.
what was the incident with his daughter? I haven’t followed this situation at all until reading Ta-Nehisi Coates. Agree with what you write about Baldwin’s anger management issues (together with bigotry); so weird how he went out of his way to verbally attack the guy then ranted on and on repeating his insults
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-449775/Alec-Baldwin-apologises-calling-daughter-11-rude
-thoughtless-pig.html
horrendous. and didn’t even know how old she is/ was.
thanks for link.
Always appreciate what Ta-Nehesi Coates writes. However, in this instance, his memories might not go back far enough. Back to before he was a homophobic bigot.
Children are little sponges when it comes to hearing words and phrases uttered in anger to insult others. They can seem almost magical in their power. Easily added to one’s lexicon without any understanding of their meaning. That comes later. And absent adult guidance, choosing to extinguish them comes later still and the later that time comes, the more difficult it is to extinguish them.
I can still recall a time when I was young and used the “N” word. No, not ever for people. Can also recall when my mother said that they are Brazil nuts and that’s what we’ll call them. And we did. The old term was quickly extinguished. Only much later did I understand how bad that old term had been.
I don’t think any of us can fully appreciate how dreadful it is to have paparazzi stalking one in public. Doesn’t excuse Baldwin responding by getting angry or that he hasn’t learned that that isn’t helpful. Nor that he hasn’t bothered to do the work required to excise the hurtful, archaic words in his lexicon that surfaces when he gets angry.
He needs to grow up. Fast as it’s now about thirty years after he should have done so.
And here I was thinking he was the more reasonable of the brothers. Then again, after looking at some of Stephen’s clips, maybe he is.
Mr. Baldwin is a bigot. So is Mr. Coates. Everyone one is. Gay men and women are all well aware of the patronizing “not that there’s anything wrong with that” attitude that pervades the current tolerance for Lesbians, Gays but not so much Bi’s and Tran’s just yet.
So I’ll give Mr. Baldwin a pass because he is no different than any other straight person. We don’t like you either, really.
“He’s risen about his West Baltimore roots.” I assume you meant, “above” But I’d suggest, “from” may be more apt. As a West Baltimorean, I insist it’s fertile soil.