Washington Post Columnist Slammed Over Remarks Regarding Bill de Blasio’s Family
Washington Post columnist, Richard Cohen, has been taking a lot of heat after saying that the sight of New York’s newly elected, Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio and his family would trigger a “gag reflex” in parts of the American populace.
Cohen wrote in his column, ” ‘People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?)” He went on to say that the de Blasio family “‘represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all.”
Understandably, Cohen’s peers at publications from The Huffington Post, The Atlantic, Slate and even the Washington Post have come out to criticize his remarks and request that the 72-year-old journalist be fired.
On Tuesday, Cohen spoke out several times to explain his opinion but not to retract his statement. According to Cohen, the remarks were not his personal views or what he believes to be the views of the general American populace-over 87% approve of interracial marriages. His intention was to criticize the often out-of-date views held by conservative extremists. “‘The column is about Tea Party extremism and I was not expressing my views, I was expressing the views of what I think some people in the Tea Party held,” he told The Huffington Post.
This is not Cohen’s first brush with controversial racial issues. This summer he wrote a column from the point of view of George Zimmerman defending the neighborhood watchman’s decision to profile and pursue a young black teenager.
Whatever Cohen’s personal beliefs may be, it is clear that his fellow New Yorkers didn’t share them with de Blasio beating his Republican competitor with 73% of the vote.
