Leftists in southern California have their knickers in a knot after a recent Los Angeles Times opinion piece resurfaced of John Wayne’s Playboy interview of 1971.  Most people only read the Times article about the interview, but I read the original, comprehensive interview.  While Wayne had a dirty mouth, he was not the dumb cowboy depicted by his critics.  He had many very thoughtful comments on America, but three or four comments got him in trouble -- 50 years later.

Statue of John Wayne at the airport named after him (Photo credit: Dave and Margie Hill)

They were so bad, progressives want his name removed from the John Wayne Airport, the commercial airport serving Orange County, California.  However, other progressives are tolerant of a black who said equally objectionable things who is to have an airport named for him.

Wayne stated, “I don't want somebody like Angela Davis inculcating an enemy doctrine in my kids' minds.”  The interviewer then declared that Davis claimed the reason that people wanted to revoke her teaching credentials was because she is black.  I don’t suppose it could be her involvement with the Black Power Movement, her Communist Party membership, support for Fidel Castro, her support for the “Palestinians” and antagonism toward Israel, and her part in an aborted prison escape where four men were killed.

She was on the FBI Most Wanted List and spent 18 months in prison awaiting trial for her part in the attempted prison escape.  She was tried and acquitted of all charges.

So was O. J. Simpson.

She is a professor at the University of California Santa Cruz, filling the minds of youth with all kinds of leftwing poppycock.  Wayne was responding to her teaching at a tax supported institution.

Wayne declared, “With a lot of blacks, there's quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so.  But we can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks.  I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.  I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”

Keeping in mind that the interview took place in 1971, Wayne said he “believe[s] in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility."

Davis can work wherever she wants if she can con someone in authority to hire her.  I would never hire her because of her vile unrepented past and her reprehensible present.  All institutions that are taxpayer-funded should use discretion in how they spend tax dollars.  Wayne was right: Blacks or Whites should not be rewarded with a lucrative position, especially if the person’s beliefs are dangerous to society. 

Wayne was saying that if people want to be leaders, they must display leadership qualities.

Wayne also said that black people should take "tests" to prove that they are "sufficiently equipped" to attend college.  I find no fault with that statement. Everyone should have to pass an entrance exam.  But black racists and guilt-ridden Whites will find fault.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Wayne’s disparaging remarks in the Playboy interview about homosexuals, using a homophobic slur. Referring to Hollywood films, he suggested that Americans are “completely fed up with these perverted films.”  When asked to elaborate on “perverted” films, he mentioned Easy Rider and Midnight Cowboy.  He added, “Wouldn’t you say the wonderful love of those two men in ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ a story about two fags, qualifies?”  Well, since the homosexual crowd often use “queer,” “fag,” etc., then I find no fault in him. The author of the Times’ piece opined of Wayne’s indiscretions, “It certainly undermines any justification for his name and image to adorn a civic facility.”  Ipso facto, the airport should not bear his name.  So, the Orange County Board of Supervisors may dump Wayne for being insensitive, homophonic, and a bigot.

But progressives in are not as sensitive to rooting out people who expressed bigoted sentiments around the same time Wayne unburdened himself of his thoughts, if they are Muslim.  A Black Muslim from Louisville, Mihammad Ali, is to get his home town airport named for him.   Ali opined in a 1975 Playboy interview that couples who were in black/white relationships deserved to be killed!  He said, “A black man should be killed if he's messing with a white woman.”  And in relation to interracial marriage: "No intelligent black man or black woman in his or her right black mind wants white boys and white girls coming to their homes to marry their black sons and daughters."

It was the most venomous interview I have ever read, and it is shocking that anyone would consider naming anything after him.  I never heard any other rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth segregationist advocate murder.

The International Business Times quoted him saying, "We who follow the teachings of Elijah Muhammad don't want to be forced to integrate. Integration is wrong.  We don't want to live with the white man; that's all." I don’t think Louisville’s airport has segregated restrooms and water fountains.

On a British television show, I heard Ali say that blue birds fly together; red birds fly together, buzzards fly together.  And Blacks are more comfortable with other Blacks.  The British interviewer was almost speechless.  Indeed, Ali's beliefs included the notion that the white man was "the devil."

At Howard University, he gave his popular "Black Is Best" speech to 4,000 cheering students and community leaders, on behalf of the Black Power Committee, a student protest group.  “The draft,” he said, “is about white people sending black people to fight yellow people to protect the country they stole from red people.”  No, it was about keeping millions of “yellow people” from being enslaved by Communist “yellow people” from the north.

Ali said, “…in the Islamic world, the man's the boss and the woman stays in the background.  She don't want to call the shots….They obey us.”  Where were the feminists at that time?  Why did no one demand he be drawn and quartered? 

He also told Playboy, “You hear about Catholic sisters -- but they do a lot of screwing behind doors.”  That didn’t play well at the Vatican but I didn’t hear anyone complain about religious discrimination.  But when I tell the truth about the Koran then I’m a bigot for quoting the facts about jihad, sharia, and sexual mutilation of little girls.

Almost everyone praised Ali’s “courage” for refusing to fight for his country (or serve as a non-combatant) during the Vietnam War, suggesting that he was a very principled man; however, few are willing to discuss his call for murder and his lack of self-discipline when it came to sexual affairs.

The London Daily Mail bravely opined, “when it came to his private life his morals were those of an alley cat.  The way he treated his first three wives and neglected some of his nine (known) children was frankly disgraceful.”

Let’s all learn from any real mistakes and move on. Stop whining and looking for ways to be offended.  Moreover, let’s stop requiring people from the past to meet the present, modern, exalted progressive values. But if Wayne’s name should be removed from the California airport then Ali’s name should be removed from the Kentucky airport.  Everyone will agree with that except the hypocrites. 

Leave both airports alone. 

Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of Representatives, who ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis and wrote columns for USA Today for eight years. Boys’ book, Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! is available here. Follow Dr. Boys on Facebook at Don Boys, Ph.D. and TheGodHaters, Twitter, and visit his blog.