In an interview for an installment of @katiecouric, the new Web show hosted by Katie Couric, Katie Couric interviewed Glen Beck.
Katie brought up a statement that Beck had made in July of this year. Beck had called President Barrack Obama a "racist" and said that "he has a deep seated hatred for white people or white culture."
According to Media Matters For America, because of this statement, more than 60 advertisers have boycotted Beck by dropping their ads from his news program. Good!
In a recent interview Katie Couric questioned what Beck meant when he said "white culture."
Glenn Beck refuses to define white culture
Transcript From the Interview:
COURIC: A twitter question is, adrianinflorida: what do you mean by white culture?
BECK: Um, I, I don’t…
COURIC: You said he had a deep-seated hatred for the white culture, what is that? What is the white culture?
BECK: I guess it’s…gosh. I’m so tempted to make news here today.
COURIC: No no, I’m just curious, this was actually adrianinflorida.
BECK: What to do? What to do? Adrian, Go to glennbeck.com. Listen to it. You can hear all of it.
COURIC: No, but you didn’t really address white culture, I think, in your explanation about President Obama, I haven’t seen the whole show, but can you? Just for our purposes?
BECK: Just for your purposes? So this will be a little secret between us?
COURIC: No, for this show, can you explain what you mean by the white culture? Because some people say that sounds kind of racist.
BECK: Really? It’s amazing to me that, for the first time, I think in history somebody can ask a question and say, “Don’t you think that maybe we have several pieces here?” We have several pieces; George Bush says my grandmother was a typical African-American that had, that had her views bred into her. You don’t think maybe we would ask questions about that comment? How is it that the first time I think in history, you should check on it, somebody says, “Hey. There’s some red flags here maybe we should look at?” … How am I? How am I the target for asking questions?
COURIC: People just want to know. What is white culture?
BECK: I’m going to see if I can play your game. People just want to know.
COURIC: You know, well, Adrian wants to know.
BECK: That’s good for Adrian.
COURIC: No but I mean it’s fine if you make a statement though, shouldn’t you be able to defend exactly what you mean by it. I’m not –
BECK: Katie, how many times have you said, how many times have you said something where you’re like, “I didn’t think. What’s white culture? I don’t know. What’s the white culture?”
What? What is the white culture? I don’t know how to answer that that’s not a trap.
COURIC: Mhmm.
BECK: You know what I mean?
COURIC: Yeah I’m not, I’m just, I’m not trying to trap you, I’m just, I think people wanted to know what that meant exactly.
BECK: Well we know Adrian does.
COURIC: Yeah, and you’re not going to answer her?
BECK: I’m not going to get into your sound bite gotcha game which we already are. We already are.
COURIC: No we’re actually, this is completely unedited so if you felt like you wanted to explain it, you have all the time in the world.
BECK: Mhmm.
COURIC: No? Don’t want to go there?
BECK: Nope.
COURIC: But basically, you stand behind your assertion that in your view, President Obama is a racist.
BECK: I believe that Americans should ask themselves tough questions. Americans should turn over all the rocks and make their own decisions.
Beck later said that he was "sorry" for the way he “phrased” his statement, but still considers Obama to be a racist.
I think that there is indeed a white culture however it may be difficult for some to explain what it is. For others it may be quite easy. "White" seems to be the norm, which is evident by our racist society.
Macon D from Stuffthatwhitepeople do said it well on his blog...
Most Americans do have some idea of what "black culture" is, and could probably put together a definition of some sort pretty easily. But then, how accurate would that be? Is there really just one black American culture? So again, is there one white culture? Or, in both cases, and in the cases as well of other American subcultures, are there several, perhaps overlapping cultures within a larger subculture?
What is white? We never really use the term European American do we? If you were to travel to Italy, Ireland, Sweden etc. you would find a culture that is different from the U.S. However, like Macon D stated, there is not just one white, black, asian, european etc. culture.
So, perhaps culture cannot be defined so specifically. I think that is okay. However, Beck became quite stumped and was unable to back up his own words. I think at times this can happen to the best of us. However, I think that anyone who has viewed this interview may now be asking themselves what white culture is to them. I see this as a good opportunity for individuals of any background to explore what culture in general means to them.
Beck didn't say flat out "I don't know" however he did shrug several times which tells us that he admits passively that he indeed doesn't know. Instead of admiting this verbally he attempted to put it on Katie Couric. Bad form Beck!
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