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Gook: John McCain's racism and why it matters


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The UpTake's Chuck Olsen interviews author Irwin Tang about his book, "Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters."

McCain first used the word "gook" in the mass media in his 1973 article for US News & World Report. The word appears twelve times in the article and is available online here.

Most recently, McCain used the term in his 2000 presidential campaign, as documented by the San Francisco Chronicle.

To learn more about Mr. Tang's book, which also details McCain's connection to white supremacist groups, visit his web site: http://irwinbooks.com/
RyanBWylie

29 responses // Gook: John McCain's racism and why it matters

  • Wow. Just, wow. How was this totally not on my radar until now?
    jennatar
  • They did lock him up for five years and break his arms and legs. I'd be a little pissed off myself.
    JohnA
    7 responses to this
  • Outside of George W., I've never seen a candidate so successfully create a sense of 'the other' in my lifetime. We're all humans people. From culture to culture, we have more similarities than we have differences.
    recommended by  Vierotchka, jubal
    bishopobispo
    1 response to this
  • Yea, but by that regiment anytime you meet anyone, no matter their ethnicity, you would immediately assume they're capable and willing to commit an injustice or crime that another individual of their ethnicity has committed. If so, this is known a prejudice which is a precursor to racism. At some point in our lives the majority of us will experience an injustice by another member of some ethnicity. This does not give us the right to treat anyone else as less then they deserve.
    I am also surprised this had never come up publicly until now, less then four months from our election. It really makes me think that John McCain has been winnowed out for Bush corp.
    Kewara81
  • Let's all take advice and listen to stories from the Vietnamese on John McCain.
    Brilliant.
    I'm sure when he was their prisoner they weren't too nice to him.
    Isn't it most telling when people from other nations try to influence our elections?
    And yet, people fall for it.
    cdltnla
    1 response to this
  • The United States entered the war to prevent a communist takeover of South Vietnam as part of a wider strategy of containment during the Cold War. Just as in Iraq this was under the guise of fighting for 'them', and just like in Iraq it only became about us (US) verses 'them', gooks, towel heads and sand... Can't even bring myself to write it. The US soldier, as have all fighting men, been nothing more than the pawns of politicians and avaricious business men out to satisfy their own ends. The enemy is not who it is purported to be.
    dearmat23
  • This the world needs to know about! But would telling voters about McCain's racist remarks make any difference? Doubt it. It might even get him more republican votes. That's the hardest thing to face: that many Americans will vote for him not in spite of but because of his racism, just like they did for Nixon, Reagan, and Bush.
    dietbetsy
  • Voted down.

    The remarks are too old and are ultimately irrelevant, kind of like McCain.

    This dude is just trying to sell a book.
    Saladin
    2 responses to this
  • McCain is horrible, just horrible.
    Eri_Soulja
  • JohnA

    Remember he did not just say this 35 years ago,

    "Most recently, McCain used the term in his 2000 presidential campaign, as documented by the San Francisco Chronicle."

    But using the word is not the problem, it is the idea behind the word. The idea of seeing someone else as less human or less valuable because of their ethnicity. Not what we need in a leader, not now not ever again.
    recommended by  Vierotchka
    RyanBWylie
  • It is never OK to reduce any culture to a racist degrading name. I find his comments offensive, no matter when they were said!
    singrrr
  • He was treated as a privileged prisoner, given the best medical treatments, and not tortured, because he sang like a canary. See:

    http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnmccain.com/cin_hac...

    http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd59.htm

    http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd60.htm
    Vierotchka
  • I am sure you are all much too young to even know of all the atrocities perpetrated on our soldiers during the Viet Nam war. It created a mind set for a generation of those that served there. Much the same as the soldiers of WWll that served in the Pacific, in the war against Japan.

    After our pull out of Viet Nam, some 50,000 soldiers returned home, and an additional 300,000 were released from the military that served in support positions in bases around South East Asia. In the years that followed, over half of our Military Bases in the U.S. were closed.

    These facts in them selves mean nothing in the grand scheme, but during that time they also started cutting Veterans Benefits. By 1980 Education Benefits has been cut by 75%, and Home Loans had been restructured to where no veteran could qualify. VA Hospital staff had been cut by 50% and their budget by 45%. Only the most severe cases were admitted.

    Now during that same period of time tens of thousands of Vietnamese refugees began arriving in America. Each was given a lump sum of resettlement cash, and "Supplemental Security Income payments" from our Social Security.

    While hundreds of thousands of Viet Nam Veterans were suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, unable to hold a meaningful job, or function in a normal family environment. Many becoming homeless, alcoholics, and or drug addicts, unable to function in society as a whole, the Vietnamese refugees were living the American Dream.

    It takes years and years to move beyond the prejudice's created by that time in our history. There are still thousands of Veterans of that war, that are having emotional problems because of events they endured. And yes, no matter how well most of us have adjusted, those prejudices will still on occasion raise their ugly heads.

    I would never justify anything McCain says or does. I believe his demons and prejudices are whats going to keep this country in a perpetual war for the rest of my lifetime.

    But in all fairness, you would have to have been there to begin to understand the comment.
    TerryA
  • You'll be surprised, TerryA - I am sixty years old and there are many Currenteers who are older, and even much older, than I am.
    Vierotchka
    4 responses to this
  • wow. just wow. that's just horrible!!
    CedricaBaez

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