Look to U.S. views on race, not celebrities' opinions, says professor

Published: 2007-01-23

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (CNS) -- Rather than discuss the latest celebrity peccadillo on racial or ethnic slurs, Americans should consider what the nation's attitudes are on race and stereotypes, according to Leonard M. Baynes, director of the Ronald H. Brown Center for Civil Rights and Economic Development at St. John's University in Jamaica, N.Y. Much was made last year, Baynes said, about the anti-Jewish slurs uttered by actor-director Mel Gibson after he was stopped for drunken driving in California and the anti-black ranting by comic actor Michael Richards during a stand-up comedy routine, as well as the "macaca" gaffe by then-Sen. George Allen, R-Va., which began his slide in the polls and led to his eventual loss in a re-election bid. What helped publicize these incidents, Baynes noted, was new technology -- a digital camera caught Allen's remarks to the cameraman, a cell phone with video recording capabilities was used in Richards' case and Gibson's arrest report was posted on a Web site. "When it was picked up by traditional media, these stories all became validated," said Baynes, who moderated a Jan. 14 summit on diversity at the National Conference for Media Reform in Memphis.

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