Washington Post “liberal” columnist has long been considered a racist, sexist disgrace to an otherwise fine journalistic institution. Well, now he’s gone and done it again with an op-ed piece that reads like something straight out of the 1860s, effectively daring new Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to fire his a$s.
Specifically, this paragraph from today’s Cohen piece on Chris Christie has justifiably sparked an uproar…
Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.
Um, let’s review this again, just so we’re clear here: Richard Cohen thinks that it’s “conventional” for interracial marriage and biracial children to trigger a gag reflex. And OMG LESBIANS!
Someone should tell Richard Cohen that even in today’s still-somewhat-ass-backwards-compared-to-the-rest-of-the-Western-world America, 87% of the country is accepting of interracial marriage. In other words, gagging over mixed marriages is far from conventional.
For the love of God, do what the Graham family should have done long ago and fire this man, Jeff Bezos. #firerichardcohen
(Via Gawker. Pic via Washington Post)