We seem to have hit a nerve in a comment regarding John DeSio’s unflinching support for bigot David Touretzky. Indeed, DeSio displays a troubling inability to take several sentences of criticism – while uttering all manner of generalities himself. DeSio claims that he was horribly misrepresented by a comment noting that in his inaccurate and biased article based on Touretzky’s opinions, there was no denial of Tourtezky’s abiding racism. DeSio now wants to correct the record to say that he stands behind the failure to note Touretzky’s racism, because it was DeSio himself, not his “source,” who felt the evidence of racism was not strong enough to mention the matter. DeSio whines, “Touretzky did, in fact, deny he was a racist. But since the evidence charging that he was a racist is so flimsy in the first place it was not even worth bringing up.”
You be the judge. DeSio had access to all of the statements from Touretzky quoted below. Is one who makes the following comments (verbatim quotes from Touretzky) a racist?:
“There should be a video game where you can beat Rodney King.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“Don’t quote that scumbag Jesse Jackson, Tory, or I’ll puke in your lap.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
Regarding former California state Senator Diane Watson, now a Member of Congress:
“Oh, she’s a ‘state’ senator. Did she get elected to congress after that statement was made? So now she’s their whore in Washington? … She is the former ambassador to Micronesia! and she’s black. I should have known. What are all the really st00000pid congresswomen black?” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
Reagrding Afro-Americans:
“Washington DC is more disgusting than Harlem. .. Disgusting as in rates of illegitimacy, drug abuse, domestic abuse, shootings, prostitution, welfare culture. I think Harlem has gotten better the last few years, but DC has not. White men don’t walk in Harlem at night.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“Although, your remark about ‘niggers’ reminds me of an incident I’d been meaning to tell you about. .. Back before we were all posting on Usenet, we had a local bulletin board system here at CMU. And one of those boards was dedicated to no-holds-barred discussion. … I asked on this board why we had no term that was the black equivalent of ‘white trash’. Because, you know, the N-word was totally unsuitable. We needed some other term. A term that would show that the speaker drew a deliberate distinction between people of a certain skin color who behaved decently (as in ‘decent white folk’) and those who behave badly (as in ‘white trash’).” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“Living in trailers is a white thing. Drive-by-shootings are a black thing etc. Anyway, here’s the interesting part of my story. A colleague of mine, from Texas, took grave offense at my inquiry. He said that the reason people say ‘WHITE trash’ is to distinguish it from ordinary trash, which is ASSUMED to be black. So even “white trash” is an anti-black term. Personally, I think we need a term for ‘black trash’ so that people can express disapproval of a subculture without appearing to denounce an entire ethnic group.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“… we have a high infant mortality rate for a developed country, but it’s not because middle class people’s babies are dying. It’s because of crack whores giving birth to high risk premies. …I’m just telling the truth.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“Maybe [you] know something about crack whores that I don’t. … but if you want to talk about race…. infant mortality in the US is much higher for blacks than for whites. I have no idea what the racial breakdown of crack whores is. … I’m sure that blacks are over-represented in that profession, but in terms of absolute numbers, I don’t know.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“I’m not racist, I’m classist.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
“Man, Hispanics are fucked up, which is why they’re still working class. Dipshits.” – David Touretzky, Carnegie Mellon University Professor
Methinks you doth protest too much DeSio. Or do you find Touretzky’s racist comments so normal, and your defense of his bigoted statements so necessary to support your own deep hatred, that, as claimed, “it was not even worth bringing up?”
As far as I am concerned, the main issue here is whether or not a professor at a prestigious university like Carnegie Mellon is going into chat rooms and other public forums and making racist and sexist comments like the ones above.
Don Imus made statements of a similar nature and because of public backlash and media reaction, CBS felt compelled to fire him in order to save face. That it took public outcry and that CBS’s sister company, Viacom, allows much worse to go out over the airwaves, just shows the hypocrisy of the media. Don Imus of course claimed he was not racist either. It is disgraceful that Carnegie Mellon has not taken similar action and fired Touretzky for these statements and misuse of their facilities.
One more point. I find it hard to believe that DeSio just found David Touretzky out of the blue. Only someone with an agenda would resort to using a source with a proven record of despicable, racist, sexist and anti-religious statements.
“Journalists” such as John DeSio need to be held accountable for their sources. If he feels he needs to stoop to that level in order to give a story that negative pitch, then he deserves scrutiny and criticism.
I would like to know if DeSio actually checked as to whether the logs in which Touretzky was caught making the racist statements exist or not. Can Religious Freedom Watch publish sections of the logs and the IP addresses so that we can verify Touretzky is making these statements?