John Wayne’s racist comments resurface
In a week when the U.S. culture wars focused on actor Jussie Smollett’s reportedly false claim of being the victim of a hate crime and on Donald Trump calling immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border a “national emergency,” people also were on Twitter fiercely debating John Wayne’s infamous, racially charged 1971 Playboy interview, during which he observed, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”
While Wayne died nearly 40 years ago, the legendary actor was a No. 1 trending topic on Twitter from Monday night through Tuesday afternoon. There were people who questioned whether there were more relevant issues to worry about than things Wayne said in 1971, and others who joked about whether Wayne would still be able to get work in Hollywood.
Yet for others, Wayne’s legacy lives on — and not just at the Orange County airport named after him.
For some, his comments are disturbingly relevant to discussions still taking place in 2019. Journalist and author Glenn Greenwald joined in the Twitter debate about the interview. In his 2008 book, “Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics,” Greenwald said Wayne has long served as a template for right-wing notions of “American courage and conservative manliness,” Publishers Weekly reported.
That’s largely because Wayne played World War II heroes and stalwart figures of the American West in many of the more than 200 Hollywood films he made from 1926 to 1977. Greenwald, a co-founder of The Intercept, tweeted: “I devoted a book chapter to John Wayne, a conservative icon & one of the 20th Century’s most deceitful & pitiful men. A supporter of McCarthy, war cheerleader & moralizer who casually impugned patriotism & called people perverts while draft-dodging & having serial drunken affairs.”
Producer Joe Carnahan excoriated Wayne for being a war hawk, especially during the Vietnam War, even though he dodged service during World War II.
Carnahan mentioned some of Wayne’s famous contemporaries who signed up to serve, including in combat units.