PDA

View Full Version : Skewering Racist Mark Halperin



Kathianne
05-10-2015, 12:45 PM
What nerve Halperin displayed!

http://www.mercurynews.com/opinion/ci_28074484/ruben-navarrette-halperin-interview-ted-cruz-was-painful


Ruben Navarrette: Halperin interview of Ted Cruz was painful

By Ruben Navarrette

...


..."Then, after all the family's efforts and sacrifices, one day, you can go on an interview program and be asked by a smug and clueless white journalist if you're authentically Cuban."




Watching Mark Halperin of Bloomberg Politics interview Cruz recently, I wasn't just uncomfortable. I was actually nauseated.



As a journalist, I felt embarrassed for Halperin. As a Hispanic, I felt like I was watching a college fraternity have fun with racial stereotypes, like when staging a "border party" where people show up in serapes and fake mustaches. And as someone who doesn't adhere to a party line to the point where I've been accused of being a "coconut" (white on the inside, brown on the outside), I was furious enough to -- as Sarah Palin once said approvingly about Cruz -- chew barbed wire and spit out rust.
...

I kept waiting for Halperin to ask Cruz to play the conga drums like Desi Arnaz while dancing salsa and sipping cafe con leche -- all to prove the Republican is really Cuban.

Just when I thought I'd seen the worst, it got even more offensive. Earlier that day, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, had entered the presidential race. So, Halperin said: "I want to give you the opportunity to directly welcome your colleague Sen. Sanders to the race, and I'd like you to do it, if you would, en espaņol."

...

Cruz responded: "You know, I'm going to stick to English, but I appreciate the invitation, seņor."

I will also stick to English, Seņor Halperin. You crossed the line. This was bad journalism, bad form, and bad manners.

I can't wait for Halperin's interview with Rick Santorum, another likely GOP presidential hopeful, where he asks him to discuss foreign policy in Italian.