Hate in the Mainstream

“A little boy said to his mother, ‘Mommy, how come I’m black and you’re white.’ His mother replied, ‘Don’t even go there, Barack! From what I can remember about that party, you’re lucky you don’t bark!’”
– Wilton Manors, Fla., Police Chief RICHARD E. PEREZ, in an E-mail forwarded on July 23 to department officials that was one of a series filled with racial and ethnic slurs that resulted in his 30-day suspension

“Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?”
– Montana Big Sky Tea Party Association President TIM RAVNDAL, in a July 23 Facebook exchange in which he seemed to endorse the hanging of gays like Matthew Shepard, who was attacked and left to die in Wyoming. Ravndal apologized but was ejected from the group

“I was … telling them about a group of homosexual millionaires who for years have been working secretly to change the society of America … so that there will be freedom and equality for everyone.”
– Oklahoma State Rep. SALLY KERN (R), at the Aug. 7 Southwest Radio Ministries’ Wake Up America! conference, in comments that suggested that equality was bad but that she later
said referred only to “special rights” for gays, such as marriage

“If you’re that hypersensitive about color and don’t have a sense of humor, don’t marry out of your race.”
– Host LAURA SCHLESSINGER, on the Aug. 10 radio show syndicated by Talk Radio Network, while berating a black caller who questioned her saying “n-----” 11 times on the air in response to the caller’s questions about racist comments made by her white husband’s friends. Schlessinger later apologized and said she would end her show in December

“Homosexuals are defined by one characteristic and one characteristic only: they want to use the anal cavity for sex.”
– BRYAN FISCHER, director of issue analysis for government and public policy at the American Family Association, in a Sept. 22 blog post at RenewAmerica.com

“[E]verybody who runs CNN … and a lot of people who run all the other networks are a lot like [Comedy Central host Jon] Stewart. And to imply that somehow, they, the people in the country who are Jewish, are an oppressed minority? Yeah.”
– CNN host RICK SANCHEZ, on the Sept. 30 edition of Sirius XM’s “Stand Up With Pete Dominick,” suggesting that Jews run the television media in comments that resulted in his firing the next day

“[Slavery] started small, and it started with seemingly innocent ideas. … It didn’t come over in a ship to begin with as an evil slave trade. The government began to regulate things. ... That’s how slavery began.”
– Fox News host GLENN BECK, in Oct. 1 comments on his Premiere Radio Networks show,
suggesting that “government” regulation is worse than the early slave trade

Quotes on this page were compiled from media accounts, web pages, e-mail groups and Media Matters for America, a website that monitors the far right.