By Richard Huff
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Glenn Beck may have stepped in it again.
Sort of.
The radio host and Fox News Channel commentator has folks in a minor uproar for even questioning the term African-American on his syndicated radio show Thursday.
“African-American is a bogus, PC, made-up term,” Beck said, in a discussion about the new Census forms.
“That is not a race. Your ancestry is from Africa, and now you live in America. Okay, so you were brought over, either your family was brought over in the slave trade, or you were born here and your family immigrated here, or whatever. But that is not a race.”
Beck’s on-air guests agreed, noting the frequent misuse of African-American as a label, using, for instance, the term incorrectly applied to someone from Jamaica. Also, it’s not used to describe South African-born Charlize Theron, who is white and now a U.S. citizen.
The conversation stemmed from the new Census documents that give respondents three boxes from which to chose from: Black, African-American or Negro.
The watchdog group Media Matters picked up on the conversation and posted a clip on its Web site as has Thinkprogress.org.
“Negro used to be — is it still — not acceptable, is that still the clinical term, I don’t know,” Beck said. “It has negative connotations in this country. But what I’m asking is: what are the clinical categories?”
Not surprising, the clip, now circulating in the blogosphere, has generated a load of anti-Beck comments.
Last July, Beck created a real firestorm when when, during an appearance on the Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends,” he said President Obama’s initial reaction to the Henry Louis Gates Jr. arrest situation in Cambridge, Mass., suggested a “deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture.”
The show’s co-host, Brian Kilmeade then reminded Beck Obama had many whites in prominent positions.
“I’m not saying he doesn't like white people. I'm saying he has a problem,” Beck responded. “This guy is, I believe, a racist.”
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