The past year has produced a rash of un-PC
behavior from a string of public figures. Mel Gibson’s sickening anti-Semitic drunken tirade in July 2006 was followed
only months later by Michael Richards’ revolting racist diatribe at a West Hollywood comedy club. Isaiah Washington,
former Grey’s Anatomy cast member, also caused an uproar when he called fellow actor T.R. Knight a homophobic epithet.
Other public figures have also sparked controversy
in the recent past. In April 2007, CBS fired syndicated talk show personality Don Imus for calling the Rutgers
women’s basketball team “nappy headed h-s.” Back in 2005 radio host Rush Limbaugh ignited controversy when
he referred to Senator Barack Obama as “Obama Osama.” Senator George Allen (VA-R) jeopardized his career when
he called a rival’s campaign volunteer, a young man of Indian descent “maccaca,” a word about which Allen
remarked, “I don’t know what it means.” (“Allen Quip Provokes Outrage, Apology,” by Tim Craig
and Michael D. Shear, The Washington
Post, August 15, 2006).
With a host of racial, ethnic, and homophobic
slurs swirling about, Harris Interactive set forth to discover how Americans really feel about such name-calling. In executing
the online poll, Harris Interactive warned respondents that a specific section of the survey would include terms which they
may find offensive. Eleven percent of respondents requested to skip that section, while 89 percent were willing to answer
those questions, despite exposure to offensive terms.
In order to measure perceived offensiveness
of terms, the survey listed a series of epithets and asked respondents how offended they would be if public figures used these
terms in the media, either in reference to an individual or a group. Of those adults willing to partake in this section of
the survey, the majority would find public usage of racial, homophobic, and anti-Semitic slurs offensive. The term most offensive
to the most respondents was the “n word” (85 percent), followed by the homophobic “f-----“ (81 percent),
the sexist and racist term which was the basis of the Imus controversy, “h-“ was next (72 percent). Fourth down
the list was another homophobic term, “qu---“(70 percent) and last on the list of offensive terms is the anti-Semitic
“k---.” (68 percent).
Respondents also stated which controversial
public events involved epithets they found most offensive. Sixty-nine percent stated that the Michael Richards outburst was
“offensive,” 64 percent maintained that the Don Imus remarks were offensive, and 63 percent of respondents cited
the Mel Gibson invective as offensive. More than half (54 percent) of respondents found Isaiah Washington’s attack on his gay co-star offensive. Exactly half (50 percent) of respondents
found Limbaugh’s “Obama Osama” remarks offensive, while 37 percent cited the George Allen “maccaca”
incident offensive as well.
Of respondents who found particular events
“very” or “extremely offensive,” results were examined by demographic. The Imus controversy drew particular
ire among African Americans and women. Of those who categorized his remarks as very or extremely offensive, 88 percent of
respondents were African American. More than half were women (54 percent), compared with only 40 percent of whom were men.
Additionally, nearly half (48 percent) of respondents in this group were members of the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered
(GLBT) community. Fifty-nine percent of respondents in this group were Hispanic, and 40 percent were white.
Seventy percent of respondents who deemed
the Mel Gibson outburst as extremely or very offensive were African American, followed by whites at 39 percent. More women
(50 percent) than men (36 percent) were very offended by Gibson’s remarks, and just over half (51 percent) of GLBT respondents
agreed. Forty-two percent of those finding Gibson’s remarks extremely offensive were Hispanic.
Of those who found the Richards rant very
or extremely offensive, 83 percent were African American, 44 percent were white, 59 percent were Hispanic, and 61 percent
were GLBT. Again, more women (57 percent) than men (44 percent) deemed the incident very or extremely offensive.
As expected, Washington’s anti-gay remark incited the strongest reaction among respondents in the
GLBT demographic (66 percent), though African Americans comprise 46 percent of those who feel his remark was extremely offensive,
versus whites, who registered 33 percent. Next, were women (43 percent) versus men, of whom only about one quarter (26 percent)
fell into this category. Thirty-seven percent of Hispanics found his slur to be very or extremely offensive.
Of those who were very or extremely offended
by Limbaugh’s “Obama Osama” remark, 60 percent of respondents were African American, 28 percent were white,
40 percent were Hispanic, and 46 percent were GLBT. More women were deeply offended
by the comment than were men (37 percent versus 29 percent, respectively).
Those respondents who objected most vehemently
to Sen. Allen’s “maccaca” remark were African American. Of respondents most offended by this remark, this
demographic comprised nearly half of the group (49 percent), followed by GLBT (36 percent), Hispanics (30 percent), then women
(25 percent), men (21 percent) and finally whites (17 percent).
There was a relationship between level of
offense and familiarity of an event. The “maccaca” incident elicited the weakest response but was also the least
well-known. Conversely, the Imus incident was discussed on “Oprah” and has evoked the strongest response among
respondents.
