No humor, no tolerance for ethnic slurs, insults

Monday, November 8, 2004 11:07 AM CST

Stupid or mean-spirited.

Racial and ethnic slurs and insults usually fall into one of those two categories.

We had instances of both this past week and a half here in Racine and up in Milwaukee.

City Council member John Engel, who is white, stepped across the line when he informed longtime activist Alfonso Gardner, who is black, that his three minutes of time for speaking on the proposed closing of Fire Station No. 5, had expired.

When Gardner challenged whether he had his allotted minutes, Engel responded, "Well my watch has a black face. I don't know if that counts for anything." The crowd hooted and Engel went on, "I said my watch has a black face. This is not a prejudiced watch. I said I gave you three minutes like everyone else."

Stupid.

In Milwaukee, conservative WISN radio talk show host Mark Belling crossed the line when he was whipping his listeners into a pre-election frenzy over the potential for vote fraud and warned on the air that "You're going to see every wetback and every other non-citizen out there voting."

"Wetback" is an anti-Mexican and anti-Mexican-American slur that was originally used to describe illegal immigrants who swam the Rio Grande to cross into the United States seeking jobs.

Mean-spirited.

Gardner and the Racine Chapter of the NAACP were quick to condemn Engel's comments as racist and Milwaukee and Racine area Latino groups denounced Belling's on-air comments and staged a protest Friday outside the radio station.

Both cases are regrettable and indefensible. Racial slurs and ethnic jokes demean people and make them justifiably resentful. They harken memories - no, they justify continuing practices in some parts of our society where racial jokes and slurs are still commonplace.

That's more than regrettable. It continues to be a matter of community and national shame, evidence of an intolerant attitude that should not be tolerated - not at home, work, school or anywhere - and certainly not something that can be sanctioned from a government representative or from a radio program.

In these two regrettable cases, in only one was there an honest sense of regret. Alderman Engel issued an apology and said it was "an ad-lib gone bad."

"I have no history of acting poorly toward anyone," said Engel, who said he meant no ill intent.

Engel's regrets are in sharp contrast to Belling who said he "deeply and profoundly apologize(d)" for using the slur, and later went on to say he "should have used a different mean term." Belling polled his readers while on the air Monday and after 15 of 20 callers said he shouldn't have apologized, he sarcastically called them "all wet." (Belling was more contrite in an apology issued Saturday. See story on Page 3B.) Stupid and mean-spirited. Sometimes both at the same time.

Whether it's bad ad lib or snarly sarcasm, none of it's funny.

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