John Wayne’s son lashed out at calls to drop his father’s name from a California airport, insisting that his father “was not a racist,” and would even have “pulled those officers off George Floyd” if he were alive.
Ethan Wayne told Fox News on Monday that it would be an “injustice” to rename the John Wayne Airport in Orange County due to a 1971 interview in which his father said he supported white supremacy and dismissed the pain of the slavery.
“Let me clarify one thing: John Wayne was not a racist,” the actor’s 58-year-old son told Fox News.
Ethan acknowledged the “pain and anger” caused by the bigoted words in his father’s 1971 Playboy article, but said it was “an injustice to judge him based on a single interview” where his “feelings were wrongly conveyed” .
“The truth is … he did not support ‘white supremacy’ in any way and believed that responsible people should gain power without the use of violence,” Ethan told Fox.
“He called intolerance when he saw it. She hired and worked with people of all races, creeds, and sexual orientations.
“John Wayne represented the best for all of us: a society that does not discriminate against anyone who seeks the American dream.”
In fact, his father, who was 72 when he died of cancer in 1979, “would be at the forefront demanding equity and justice for all people” if he were alive today, his son insisted online.
“He would have removed those officers from George Floyd, because that was the right thing to do. Defend everyone’s right to protest and work for change, ”he told Fox.
“The current approach to social justice is absolutely valid and necessary. But attempts by some to use it for political advantage distract from real opportunities for reform, “said Ethan, president of John Wayne Enterprises.
In his damned interview with Playboy, Wayne had said, “I believe in white supremacy until blacks are brought up to a point of responsibility.”
“I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or ten generations ago these people were slaves,” he also insisted.
As part of the trend to remove memories of America’s racist past, leaders of the Orange County Democratic Party used the nearly 50-year interview to campaign to drop their name from the area’s airport.
“An international airport that serves millions of people each year should not be named by someone who, in real life, opposed the values of opportunity and justice for all of our nation,” Ada Briceño, president of the Orange County Democratic Party. statement. “Now is the time for change.”
The airport was renamed in his honor in 1979, the year he died, and in 1982 a statue of Wayne was erected.
With posts
.
