While he’s been dead for nearly 40 years, film star John Wayne’s comments from a May 1971 interview with Playboy are making headlines for his pretty racist rhetoric, and it shows that not much has changed in America.
The actor, who has been in films such as 1960’s The Alamo and 1966’s El Dorado, stated in the nearly 50-year-old interview that he was in favor of white supremacy, explaining his belief that black people weren’t “sufficiently equipped scholastically” to be in charge of others.
“We can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of blacks,” Wayne said in the interview in response to a question regarding Angela Davis and discrimination. He also explained his belief that there was nothing wrong with the “so-called stealing” of indigenous land, because at the time, it was “means for survival.”
“There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves,” he said.
While many have argued that Wayne’s thought-process was par for the course for someone born in 1907, others insist that this type of thinking still persists today. Regardless of the time that’s passed, this way of thinking has no place in 2019 America.
“Seeing John Wayne complain about seeing gay relationships in movies and accusing diverse roles as ‘tokenism’ pretty much tells me sh*t hasn’t changed one bit,” one Twitter user wrote.
Jesus fuck, John Wayne was a straight up piece of shit
(Playboy interview, May 1971) pic.twitter.com/okfG1iZb0U
— Matt Williams (@pixelpreaching) February 18, 2019
Seeing John Wayne complain about seeing gay relationships in movies and accusing diverse roles as “tokenism” pretty much tells me shit hasn’t changed one bit. https://t.co/WxlH4q6UqR
— Jim Sterling (@JimSterling) February 19, 2019
