Adam Carolla, of The Adam Carolla Show and Loveline, recently hosted California Lt. Governor and former Mayor of San Francisco Gavin Newsom on his daily podcast for the entire hour. It’s not a friendly format for a politician, to be on a one-hour unrated broadcast, and the issues discussed ranged from citizens getting involved in government to California’s budget crisis, the sinking economy to how different minority groups are faring in it.
Cord Jefferson of Gawker analyzes the interview, and begins like this:
You might remember Adam Carolla as the underachieving half of the Man Show. Whereas Carolla’s former partner in chugging beers and looking at boobs, Jimmy Kimmel, has gone onto fame and fortune as a late-night host, Carolla now hosts a podcast on which he frequently maligns minority groups.
This is the essence of an ad hominem attack: you attack personal qualities of the messenger (he’s a comedian!) to distract from and discredit their message. This is what Jefferson does to Carolla by saying that, compared to his buddy Jimmy Kimmel, Carolla is “underachieving” and instead of fame and fortune, “hosts a podcast on which he frequently maligns minority groups.”
Carolla’s podcast also managed to set the Guinness World Record for most downloaded podcast ever, approaching 60 million in just 2 years. Jefferson purposefully ignores those statistics. He wants to make Carolla sound like some crank with a microphone, when in fact he’s a wildly popular social commentator whose show attracts the likes of California’s Lieutenant Governor.
In a recent interview with former San Francisco mayor and California governor hopeful Gavin Newsom, Carolla, who now makes regular appearances on Bill O’Reilly’s Fox News program
What’s the relevance of mentioning this? To slam Carolla for appearing on Fox News, and especially on Bill O’Reilly’s program. Why pick out that fact? Jefferson wants to smear Carolla as a radical right-winger, to gain as much support from the reader as possible against Carolla before even mentioning what Carolla said. It makes the rejection far smoother to Gawker’s reader base.
Carolla stuck to well-worn conservative talking points like “What’s the matter with blacks?” and “Why don’t minorities respect education like proper white people?”
1) Those aren’t “well-worn conservative talking points”. Jefferson provides zero evidence for that assertion. He’s trying to equate “conservatism” with racism and then tie Carolla to that Titanic.
2) Carolla asked neither of those questions. Jefferson came up with these questions on his own for maximum impact, using words like “proper white people” to mimic how some racist Southern sheriff parody would talk, and then fake-quotes Carolla saying them. It’s a strategy to tar and feather Carolla that’s patently dishonest.
Here is the transcript of the discussion between Carolla and Newsom, with full context. The discussion began with the economy and how it’s affecting Californians, especially with California’s high foreclosure rate. Carolla begins by telling Newsom that people, no matter their economic situation, should always be planning and saving in case economic disaster strikes.
“I want everyone to plan. Look down the road six months,” said Carolla. “Yes they foreclosed on your home. That’s why you need to have a network, a community, friends, family members, money put away. Don’t have the kids.
“Think about it, Adam,” challenged Newsom. “Half of African Americans in the state of California, and roughly half of Latino families, have no access to a checking account or an ATM.”
“What’s wrong with them?” asked Carolla. “I want to know why those two groups don’t have access. Are they flawed?”
Newsom was the one who brought up the statistic that half of African-American and Latino families in California have no access to a checking account or ATM, to explain why those communities were hit hardest by the economic downturn.
Carolla wants to know why Newsom brought up this particular statistic. And it’s clear: Newsom brought it up in order to inject race into the conversation. He wanted to find an excuse for lack of personal financial responsibility in America, especially after the economic downturn. What better way to distract from the issue than to bring up race!
So Carolla asked why. Why would Newsom bring them up? Why do these groups not have access to a checking account or ATM while others do? There isn’t a racial litmus test to opening a bank account. What’s Newsom’s justification?
“Why are [these problems] concentrated in the African American community?” Newsom responded. “Look at the history. It’s naïve to suggest that those things don’t matter.”
“How about the Jews?” asked Carolla. “No problems in the past? Whose had it worse? Why are the Jews doing well? […] Why do some groups do so much better? I’ll tell you why: They have a family who puts an emphasis on education.”
Newsom hems and haws, blaming “history” for the fact that, according to him, disproportionately, African American community can’t get a bank account or have high test scores.
Carolla points out that another group that faced a recent history far more treacherous (Jews) has managed to do just fine. The Holocaust displaced millions of Jews without homes, money, or even most of their families. Many of them came to the United States, poor, not even knowing the language, and managed to be successful with both finances and academically. They didn’t let past grievances or historical inequities stop them from succeeding.
Jefferson responds:
Newsom could have addressed the many, many, many documented instances of intentional structural inequalities that continue to hamper the opportunities of blacks and Latinos in America to this day. But Carolla wouldn’t have wanted to hear any of that anyway. His solution for blacks and Latinos? Simple: Be more like the Jews. “Fathers, stay at home, raise your family, do your homework with your kids, put an emphasis on education like the Jews, like the Asians, and let’s see what happens to the problem in 20 years,” said Carolla.
Jefferson documents zero such instances of “intentional structural inequalities”, or how those “hamper the opportunities of blacks and Latinos in America to this day”.
Carolla, however, is right about an epidemic of single motherhood and fathers not staying home and raising families in the African-American and Latino communities.
In the African-American community, 67% of children, that’s 2/3, are born to single mothers.
In the Latino community, 42% of children are born to single mothers.
Children brought up in a single mother household are at a huge disadvantage. In fact, “father absence increases the school failure risk among African Americans and Hispanics by 75 percent and 96 percent respectively.”
Jefferson ignores these facts, and concludes:
Carolla is no novice when it comes to saying ignorant bullshit about minorities.
Jefferson proceeds to lift the “Controversies” section directly from “The Adam Carolla Show” article on Wikipedia and deletes the parts with Carolla’s apologies.
Jefferson:
Carolla is no novice when it comes to saying ignorant bullshit about minorities. In 2010, hecalled Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao “a fucking idiot” on his podcast for refusing a fight that would have required blood testing. Carolla then said of the Philippines, “Here’s how you know your country doesn’t have a lot going for it—when everything is about Manny Pacquiao. Get a fucking life as a country, all you’ve fucking got is this illiterate guy who won’t give up blood who happens to smash other guys in the head better than other people, that’s all you have as the Philippines?”
One year later, Carolla used his podcast to say of transgender people, “When did we start giving a shit about these people?” He added that the initialism “LGBT” should be replaced with “YUCK.”
Wikipedia:
On the April 4, 2010 episode of The Adam Carolla Show, Carolla referred to Filipino boxer Manny Pacquiao as being illiterate, having brain damage, and being someone who prays to chicken bones.
He continued with insulting commentary on the Philippines, where Pacquiao makes his home, saying, “They got this and sex tours, that’s all they have over there. Get your shit together Philippines. Jesus Christ. I mean, again, it’s fine to be proud of your countrymen. But that’s it? That’s all you got?”Carolla later apologized via Twitter, saying, “Read your comments. Sorry if I offended many of you. I don’t preplan my commentary. I try to be provocative [and] funny but I crossed the line and I’m sorry.
In August 2011, Carolla attracted criticism from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation after an episode of The Adam Carolla Show in which, referring to transgendered people, he asked, “When did we start giving a shit about these people?” He went on to say that the LGBT moniker ought to be replaced with “YUCK,” and that LGBT advocates ought to “shut up.”
Carolla responded to GLAAD via TMZ.com, stating, “I’m sorry my comments were hurtful. I’m a comedian, not a politician.”
Jefferson is scraping the bottom of the barrel when he has to lift Wikipedia’s “Controversies” section to make a point. Creating false controversies is not a legitimate way to make an argument. He’s trying to paint a picture of Carolla as anti-foreigner and anti-gay. After doing that, it’s much easier to paint Carolla as anti-black and anti-Latino.
This is not real racism. Discussing problems in racial communities is not real racism. Real racism is pitying and bemoaning underachieving minority groups while refusing to identify why they’re underachieving or how to help them. It’s finding excuses instead of finding solutions. It’s ensuring that these groups stay down, without finding a way to lift them back up.
Jefferson ignores that point on purpose. Ignoring problems is not a way to deal with them, and that’s the idea—to ignore them for as long as possible and blame the past when questioned. That’s what Newsom does. That’s what Jefferson does. Carolla refuses to do that, and for that he gets unfairly painted as racist.
