Yesterday, A&E yielded to pressure and reinstated “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson. Within several hours of the announcement, the other shoe dropped. GLAAD, an organization that champions gay rights, was out with a statement of its own:
Phil Robertson should look African American and gay people in the eyes and hear about the hurtful impact of praising Jim Crow laws and comparing gay people to terrorists.
If dialogue with Phil is not part of next steps then A+E has chosen profits over African American and gay people — especially its employees and viewers.
One might argue that GLAAD could use a little time of its own in front of the mirror. Some introspection over its recent actions, which included attempting to bully sponsors of “Duck Dynasty” into withholding their advertising dollars, might reveal that such behavior runs counter to their plea for tolerance. In claiming to uphold the principles of fairness on which America was founded, the people at GLAAD are showing that those values are important to them only insofar as they serve the organization’s selfish agenda.
As Adrienne Royer wrote at The Federalist shortly after Phil Robertson’s interview with GQ, which started the controversy:
The threat of the Robertsons isn’t in Phil’s politically incorrect comments. The threat is that this family has figured out how right-wing politics and Evangelical Christianity can influence pop culture without being the punch line or the bad guy. While the left has spent decades making conservatives look like idiots and Christians look like bigots, Duck Dynasty reminds average Americans that these views are mainstream.
It would behoove GLAAD to keep in mind that the backlash it has received comes from the people it most disdains. If their goals are ever to be realized, it is more likely to be happen through peaceful gestures toward those they seek to win over than by making war on them.
