We don’t need a ‘hero’ like Phil Robertson
A few things to get out of the way first about Phil Robertson and his suspension from his family’s “reality” TV show, “Duck Dynasty,” due to some racist and homophobic comments he made in a GQ Magazine interview.
First, despite what a lot of people are saying, Robertson’s First Amendment right to free speech has not been violated. In the case of a true violation, he’d be sitting in jail. Protection from government intervention is the right he is guaranteed. He is not guaranteed to be free of consequences for every word he sputters. (By the way, with his words in this instance, he lumped gay people in with terrorists and those who practice bestiality, plus suggested that black people in Louisiana were better off before civil rights. “They weren’t singing the blues,” he said.)
A&E, who claim to support the LGBT community, exercised their own right to suspend Robertson and take away his platform. You can boycott A&E if you want to protest this decision. That is your right. But a multimillionaire getting suspended is not the death knell of free speech as we know it. Robertson can take to the Duck Commander website right now and talking about his religion and how his religion shapes his views about people, and millions will read it and share it and celebrate it and he’ll continue to be a free man with a willing audience.
But aside from the free speech kerfuffle from America’s misinformed patriots, another trend popping up in this discussion is the one I most want to talk about.
And that’s the trend that keeps calling Robertson an honest, God-fearing man. A salt-of-the-earth man. A good-hearted redneck who loves duck hunting and his close-knit family. A victim, here. A man who was merely “being honest about his beliefs,” unlike so many liberal pansies.
In our area, we make heroes out of people like Robertson. This is a prideful place with a long history of strength through adversity. And there are people out there, from more populous metropolitan areas, who will slam Greene Countians and “yinzers” as backwards, stupid, intolerant, uncultured and inconsequential. To them, this is “flyover country” — that no-man’s land between New York City and Los Angeles.
I hate these generalizations as much as anyone. I know there are big-hearted, compassionate, loyal people in these parts, and that flyover country is often a great place to be. People in “flyover country” love “Duck Dynasty” because the Robertsons also have pride in where they come from, plus an attitude that suggests they alone understand the true key to happiness — and private schools, fois gras, luxury vehicles and whatever else city folks go after, ain’t it.
We’re all searching for identity somewhere, a place that feels right to us, be it in a gay pride parade or a television show that makes rural people seem somehow better than city-dwellers. (Even the liberal, oh-no-not-mud-on-my-khakis interviewer for GQ acknowledges that around the Robertsons, he felt inferior.)
But here’s the thing: you’re being duped. People like Phil Robertson and Sarah Palin are duping you. They are not humble “salt-of-the-earth.” They are capitalizing on a “salt-of-the-earth” persona for their own personal gain. Phil Robertson has a master’s degree in education. Hop online and search for the family photos of the Robertsons from a time before “Duck Dynasty.” They are clean-shaven and wearing pressed khakis and white T-shirts — no beards, no camo. They were, at that time, a savvy business family running their emerging duck-call business.
And they continue to be a savvy business family. Phil Robertson’s net worth is $15 million. Is everything about Phil Robertson a big act, including his well-timed GQ quotes, near the start of his show’s next season? Maybe. I wouldn’t necessarily be surprised.
But beyond that, we don’t need a “hero” like him. The best of the people who represent flyover country are not intolerant, racist or calculating. They are open, humble, committed to bettering the place where they live. They don’t believe that black people were better off before civil rights or that gay people are akin to terrorists. They’re open to changing their minds and realize it takes true strength to do so. And, like the Robertsons claim to, they realize life’s happiness is in simple things. Except they’re not getting paid $200,000 an episode to say it.
So, in the end, the Phil Robertsons and Sarah Palins of the world don’t speak for us. They just want us to think they do.