So the big story today is that Duck Dynasty star Phil Robertson was put on “indefinite hiatus” (read: Sh!t-canned) after going on a rant about how gays don’t go to heaven. Except wait, there’s more! It turns out, Robertson was asked about racism in the South, and of course … well, exactly what you think happened? Happened. Us Weekly reports …
As it turns out, the duck-call entrepreneur’s GQ chat covered more than simply the subject of the LGBT community. When asked about whether he witnessed bigotry or racism against African-American people growing up in the pre-Civil-Rights South, the ousted reality star opined: “I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field…. They’re singing and happy,” Robertson surmised.
He continued: “I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!… Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues.”
So yeah, feel free to add “pretty racist” to the list. Personally, I’m of the mind that the “teachable moment” in all of this is that we probably should just stop throwing everyone we can onto TV because they’re backwards and dumb. I mean really, did anyone not see this one coming? Is anyone really surprised that a bunch of self-ascribed rednecks who live in a swamp aren’t proponents of social justice? Of course not, but we watched them anyway because we’re stupid, and we set the bar as low as we possibly could. Stop giving power to every backwards yahoo because you need to fill a timeslot between Real Houswives shows.