The Reason Juan Williams Should Have Been Fired

For those of you who have not been watching Fox News for the past few days the most important thing in the world was NPR's firing of a one Juan Williams for saying this on the O'Reilly Factor. "I mean, look Bill [O'Reilly], I'm not a bigot (this is what people say when they are about to say something bogus), you know the kind of books I've written on the civil rights movement in this country, but when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous."

Let just get this out of the way, the 9/11 hijackers, shoe bomber, the Time Square bomber and the underwear bomber did not wear a Thobe, Bisht, Shalwar Kameez or Ghutra and Egal. They had on slacks, jeans, button ups, polo's and hooded sweatshirts. Terrorists probably know that wearing traditional Muslim clothing to the airport is not a good idea when you are dealing with a security detail who's expertise about Muslims comes from the TV show 24, Call Of Duty 4 and watching action movies where brown people are the villains. Now that I think about it, as a fan of 24, the Muslim villans on that show never really dressed in the traditional clothing that Mr. Williams seems to be so afraid of. If anything you have less to fear from Muslims wearing "Muslim garb". Thinking critically about the situation, you should be put at ease when you see someone dressed in the items listed above because fairly or unfairly there is a good chance they have been profiled thoroughly.

With that said as a professional journalist and commentator Juan Williams should be able to think more critically than someone (me) who plans their day around completing the daily challenges on Halo Reach, as a man of color he should have an understanding of how easily some of those in the general populous can turn their fear of minorities into unfair treatment and sometimes violence, and as someone who should know how the media game is played by now, he should have known better than to say what he said on Bill O'Reilly's show. Not being consistent with NPR's editorial standards and practices, and undermining his own credibility as a news analyst is something you get a stern closed door talking to about. Juan Williams should have been fired for being intellectually dishonest and for being a fear monger. Luckily, there is a place for people who think like this and they just gave him a $2 million contract.