The Propaganda Press
Ann Curry’s Simplistic Support of Racism
June 12, 2001
Ann Curry:
The news anchor of the top-rated Today show isn't "Iranian, Eskimo, Hispanic." But she understands why people wish she were.
Ann Curry, news anchor of NBC's Today show, loves sitting in for hosts Katie Couric or Matt Lauer. But she doesn't aspire to a permanent place on that couch. "I'm not looking for Katie's job," she says. It takes some prodding, but finally she reveals her ambition: "I want Tom Brokaw's job."
Whether or not she ever lands NBC's top news post, Curry's aspirations signal how America has changed. Growing up in Ashland, Ore., the child of a Japanese mother and white father, Curry often watched Today. Everyone on the air was white. "When you're a child and you don't see people like you doing something, it doesn't enter your mind you could do it," says Curry, 42. "It's like looking through a shut glass door into a room that seems so tantalizing, but the door isn't open to you."
Now, having risen from local TV to her showcase network job, Curry senses how desperately people yearn to see themselves in her face. "I've been asked if I'm Iranian, Eskimo, Hispanic. The Currys of South Carolina, a black family, invited me to their family reunion. They said, 'You're black, aren't you?' ... People who are disenfranchised will reach so far to find an opening in that door."
Curry's mother came to the United States after World War II. "It was very difficult to be Japanese here," Curry says. "People were still angry about the war. So she raised me to be American. She wouldn't even let me speak Japanese."
"It was very difficult to be Japanese here," Curry says. "People were still angry about the war. So she raised me to be American. She wouldn't even let me speak Japanese."
But Curry's dad gave advice she now offers other mixed-race Americans. "He told me, 'Never forsake either world. In fact, if you have to choose, choose your Japanese side.' He gave me permission to embrace the samurai side, the side of strong people he'd come to admire."
Curry is married to computer consultant Brian Ross, who is white. When teaching their daughter and son, 6 and 3, about their Japanese heritage, Curry repeats words her father once spoke to her: "You are the best of both worlds." USA Today, STRAIGHT TALK By Jeffrey Zaslow Issue date: Dec. 18-20, 1998
Every so often there comes a time for a fighter to drop his gloves and deliver a punch that means business.
This is one of those times.
I sat down today to write a column on the bias I have been observing in the television reporting of NBC’s Today show newsreader, Ann Curry.
In the midst of doing some background research on Ms. Curry I read the above “demi-interview”.
As an American I was insulted and infuriated by Ms. Curry’s semantics.
What is it about the above interview that all Americans and I should find so disturbing?
It is the racially simplistic bigotry of Ms. Curry’s descriptive slang.
And…nothing beats simplicity like simplicity itself.
Joseph Goebbels, Adolf Hitler’s minister of propaganda (1933–1945), was a man who knew the value of simplicity. "The nature of propaganda lies in its simplicity and repetition," Goebbels wrote in his diary, "Only the man who is able to reduce the problems to the simplest terms and has the courage to repeat them indefinitely in this simplified form despite the objections of the intellectuals will in the long run achieve fundamental successes in influencing public opinion.”
Perhaps Ms. Curry has being reading Dr. Goebbels diary?
Whether the result of intellectual shallowness derived from memorizing and regurgitating the Liberal dogma or an intentionally degrading propaganda campaign, the racism of convenience as practiced by Ms. Curry and most media “personalities” must stop.
A careful reading of the above interview will focus on the subtle use of the term “white”.
While Ms. Curry defines her mother as Japanese, her father is “white”. More accurately, her father is a mixture of French, Scotch-Irish and Native American. But for her convenience, label it “white”.
Intellectual consistency dictates that if she describes her father as “white” then she should describe her mother as “yellow”. Or would that be degrading?
Of course it must have been a terribly abusive ordeal for the downtrodden Ms. Curry to be tormented through a 1960’s broadcast media where, “Everyone on the air was white”. If she had been raised in Tokyo, it is fair speculation to wonder if her “white” half would be whining, “Everybody on the air was yellow”.
God forbid the insensitive racism that would lump all Asians as “yellow”. Political correctness dictates that reducing all human characteristics to the simplicity of a single color is the exclusive nomenclature for Western Europeans, Eastern Europeans, some “almost whites” from other continents and other undesirables.
It would be hard to convince an American whose grandparents were immigrants to the United States from some obscure region of the Caucasus Mountains (like this writer) that he was ever thought of as “white” in the America of the 1950’s and 1960’s. But who cared…some people speak through their accomplishments and contributions, not through their color.
Perhaps it is time to break out the Glidden paint sample chart and start assigning designer color names to various ethnic backgrounds. Woe betide the poor descendants of countries, like Italy, that run from south to north…Sicilian = Westchester Brown, Roman = Fairhaven Peach and Friulian = Stowe White.
“White” is an unacceptable descriptive that has become widely accepted and endorsed by the forever divisive Liberals. Today, being “white” is the communist party of Nazi Germany; a demonized scapegoat responsible for every ill including the weather.
“White” is a bogeyman of convenience for the politically correct. But what does the “white” bogeyman symbolize?
Perhaps the Liberal intelligentsias will be brave enough and kind enough to itemize each and every ethnic group that is limped under the general heading of “white”. But that would take conviction beyond nameless and faceless character assassination and race-baiting.
The ever-accommodating Ms. Curry does not leave the reader wondering about the identity of the “white” bogeyman. "It was very difficult to be Japanese here," Curry says. "People were still angry about the war. So she (her mother) raised me to be American. She wouldn't even let me speak Japanese."
Duh Ann…you are an American! If you were Japanese, you would be a Japanese citizen and not entitled to vote in American elections or work without a Green Card. One would only hope that anybody who immigrates to the United States wishes to become an American and raise their children as Americans. The U.S. is not a United Nations owned short-stay motel of convenience (not yet at least).
For the overly entitled upper income whiners of the politically correct community, citizenship is like a hair color…if I’m a blond; I wish I were a brunette.
What is so horrible about being an American? Certainly, Ms. Curry, it is not your seven-figure paycheck from NBC’s parent company, G.E. Shame on those who would enrich themselves into the rarified atmosphere of multimillionaire from the earnings of an immoral ‘white-mans” multinational defense contractor like General Electric.
Ms. Curry' hypocrisy is too much to bear. Perhaps, implied by her own words, Ms. Curry wishes to forsake her American citizenship and become Japanese. If so, please don’t let the door hit you in the butt.
Perhaps Curry's disdain for “white” America is derived from her dad’s that, “she now offers other mixed-race Americans. He told me, 'Never forsake either world. In fact, if you have to choose, choose your Japanese side.' He gave me permission to embrace the samurai side, the side of strong people he'd come to admire."
Eureka! Finally, the answer to the puzzle. Ann Curry might have been abused as a child. Any parent who advises their child to embrace the samurai side is equivalent to a parent praising the Hitler Youth. It was, after all, the “samurai side” that embraced the Bataan Death March, the Rape of Nanking, Unit 731, the conversion of all Korean womanhood into prostitution and the infamous Kamikaze suicide missions.
What a “side of strong people…to admire”!
Ms. Curry should emerge from her delusional arrogance and practice what she preaches, “Ann Curry is serious about any kind of hatred. "I don't ever allow racism, homophobia or sexism to go unchecked," she said. "To say nothing means to go unpunished." Interview with Ann Curry by Sula Kim (ABC Flash Writer)
Ann should “check” the racism, homophobia and sexism that has persisted and thrived in Japan to this very day before preaching her politically correct blather. More importantly, she should look to her own propagation of racist propaganda.
The racial lumping of all bogeymen and bogeywomen under the heading of “white” is a polarizing practice that insults millions of Americans descended from proud ethnic heritages.
It is an insensitive practice that denigrates over one hundred million people based solely on color. Perhaps Ms. Curry needs some sensitivity training.
RightPage