Mike wrote: >> It is said that Elvis Costello once said (or is alleged to have said) that Ray Charles was 'a blind ignorant nigger'. This is not the Costello I love and I'm sure it's not what he believes, and maybe it's not even true that he said it. Whatever: if he said it, it was clearly a racist remark but I don't think Costello is a racist on the strength of one remark'. There are remarks and there are remarks, but one slip (for whatever reason) should not normally condemn anyone permanently as an idiot, or racist, sexist or whatever. <<
So true. There is also the element: listening to/reading what is said/written or listening to /reading what you WANT to hear/read. It's so easy to single elements out. I once interviewed one of the captains of industry in this country for a long in-depth (inter)view on the moral side of business. The conversation came to "intelligence". He mentioned that he liked doing IQ tests and then he literally said: "I have an IQ of 164." It was one sentence in an interview that lasted 4 hours over a period of 2 days and it was not at all out of context. It would have made a perfect headline. a) he said it; and b) it would draw the readers to read the article. But it would have made him a laughing stock. It would have branded him as a pompous asshole, which he was by no means. I decided to omit the entire passage. Later, I thought about why I omitted it. The only reason I could come up with was - I liked the man. Would I do the same with someone like George Double You? Fat chance. But then again, what would his score be? Would you have defended the remark when it hadn't been made by the impressively talented and probably sensitive Elvis Costello (talking about 'blind' -- he must have lost his glasses at the time of the remark) but by someone like Jim Carey, Ralph Nader, or Andre Agassi? Even in irony? Just wondering in general ... Also: Being called something ... does that mean that you ARE ? An afterthought I think it was Thomas Mann who once said (I quote from memory): "If you get two hours of compliments, you think about them for 2 minutes. If you get 2 minutes of criticism, you will think about it for two hours. Why?" John
