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Roger Ailes on Soledad O'Brien: 'That Girl That's Named After a Prison'

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CuriousLurker4/13/2012 4:35:42 pm PDT

re: #16 SanFranciscoZionist

One presumes he knows better, but it’s ‘a funny’, both because it allows them to be dismissive of her, obnoxious about her funny non-Anglo name, and because it raises echoes of the ‘black people give their kids funny stupid names, she was probably named after the prison because people in her family were in there, har har’ kind of joke that too many of Ailes’ commenters like.

I don’t think I read too much in here.

I don’t think you do either. Ms. O’Brien is a strong, educated, successful woman and the only people degraded by the cheap shots are those firing them at her. Soledad is a beautiful name, both in sound and in meaning, and no amount of wingnut nastiness can make it any less so.

Sadly, she had to learn to deal with this sort of thing along ago:

Survival of the Fittest
I’m 11. My sister Estela is 14. We’re at a photo studio in Smithtown, N.Y., not that far from where we live. The photographer says, “Forgive me if I’m offending you, but are you black?” I turn the comment over in my head. I’m trying to figure out why these nice-sounding words make me feel small and embarrassed. Estela, light years ahead of me, starts to shred the guy. “Offend us? Offend us? By asking if we are black?” He’s white, and we’re two mixed-race girls trying to get our picture taken as an anniversary present for our parents. It’s 1977. I’m this cheery, optimistic kid who suddenly feels quite sunk. […]