A duck test can be applied to the Mel Gibson story, and it is surprising that it hasn’t, so far as readily available online. (Use as search something like “Mel Gibson driving” in news.google.com or news.yahoo.com).<\/p>\n
The talented actor and director (and he is gifted) was pulled over for erratic driving in late July. He was intoxicated, and in the give-and-take with police on the scene he uttered a number of anti-Jewish phrases, tirades or quips, all following stereotypes. There would be some “allegeds” sprinkled in there, but even Gibson says he was drunk and said hateful things.<\/p>\n
A number of Jewish leaders or other prominent sorts, as well as liberal and broad-minded non-Jews, have forgiven and excused Gibson. I will go along with that. He admits alcoholism, he says he didn’t mean those remarks. I accept that, and if his future movies are ones I think I might enjoy I certainly will buy tickets or rent the video etc.<\/p>\n
But. But let’s not say this is not nothing.<\/p>\n
If Gibson had spewed out a pile of anti-black remarks — not blacks “are responsible for all the wars in the world” but remarks in kind, that follow stereotypical false African-American traits — then would his fellow performers, fellow Christians, fellow-anything anyone claims to have in common with this fellow, say, “Ah, he didn’t mean it.”<\/p>\n
Apply this duck test to hypothetical homophobic remarks. Use another prejudice, your pick. Are celebrities pushing a little to hard to forgive Mel for uttering anti-Jewish remarks, by comparison?<\/p>\n
This coming in the midst of the Israel-Hezbollah war in which Israeli forces are sloppily wiping out southern Lebanese citizens makes this difficult and potentially explosive. -30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A duck test can be applied to the Mel Gibson story, and it is surprising that it hasn’t, so far as readily available online. (Use as search something like “Mel Gibson driving” in news.google.com or news.yahoo.com). The talented actor and director (and he is gifted) was pulled over for erratic driving in late July. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":78,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/03\/the-passion-of-the-gimmick\/","url_meta":{"origin":221,"position":0},"title":"The Passion of the Gimmick","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"March 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Tuesday, March 9, 2004. \"The Passion of the Christ.\" I have not seen the movie, though it's been out a couple of weeks. I am not curious about it, the way I have been about other movies about Christianity, and so may not see it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":65,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2004\/09\/drop-anchor\/","url_meta":{"origin":221,"position":1},"title":"Drop anchor","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 22, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2004 Ben S. Pollock Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004. The presidential debate particulars have been announced. Jim Lehrer of PBS, Charles Gibson of ABC and Bob Schieffer of CBS will be the moderators -- and PBS's Gwen Ifill will host the vice presidential debates. Lehrer is the top news guy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":201,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2006\/06\/production-number\/","url_meta":{"origin":221,"position":2},"title":"Production Number","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Brick heartily endorses renting the DVD version of The Producers -- the Lane-Broderick version. (Of course we vouch for the original. 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We're\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lama-palooza"","block_context":{"text":"Lama-palooza","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/briefs\/lamapalooza\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Dalai Lama","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/05\/IU_visor_051810-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1183,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/05\/dixublican\/","url_meta":{"origin":221,"position":4},"title":"Dixublican","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 15, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Stereotypes are tough. Arkansas can move right along, minding its own business with no Huckabee or Clinton (either of them) feeding the 24-hour international news cycle in at least 168 hours, when a politico from my northwestern part of the state, prominent only here, opens his yap. State Sen. Kim\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":307,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/04\/one-man-un\/","url_meta":{"origin":221,"position":5},"title":"One-man U.N.","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"April 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Let us praise World Bank prez Paul Wolfowitz, not Clintonize him. The Wall Street Journal and other leading news media report that the former Pentagon official has steered his close female friend Shaha Riza to a good job down at the store, not to mention security clearance. 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