Racial Censorship

Racial censorship is the stifling of criticism of affirmative action by declaring such criticism to be bigoted.

Origin of the Term[edit]

Racial censorship was the title of a column by black professor Walter Williams to decry the name-calling of Rush Limbaugh for Limbaugh's suggestion that a black quarterback was playing for reasons of social concern rather than merit:^[1]

Rush Limbaugh's comment on ESPN regarding Philadelphia Eagles' quarterback Donovan McNabb was, "I don't think he's been that good from the get go. I think what we've had here is a little of social concern from the NFL. The media has been desirous that a black quarterback do well." Kweisi Mfume, NAACP's president, criticized Limbaugh's remarks as bigoted, ignorant and racist. Democrat presidential hopefuls chimed in with their criticism and Eagles' owner Jeffrey Lurie called Limbaugh's comments "despicable."

... Limbaugh's statement is opinion that can be characterized as correct or incorrect but racist, no.

The true tragedy of the flap over Limbaugh's remarks is that it's reflective of an ongoing process in our increasingly politically correct world where people are losing the freedom to say what they think lest they be subject to intimidation, extortion and other costs by our well-established grievance industry.

Commonality of Usage[edit]

A Google search of the term reveals less than 500 hits, all of them seemingly attributable either to Rush Limbaugh, the above opinion column, or pieces about either of those topics.^[2]

References[edit]

1. ↑ http://www.gmu.edu/departments/economics/wew/articles/03/censorship.html
2. ↑ Google search for "Racial censorship".