Dick Puts Foot in Mouth
It’s been at least a couple weeks since Rep. Alan Dick has made headlines for jaw-dropping comments that offend large numbers of people. But now, he’s back.
Last time it was suggesting that women should have permission slips signed by their impregnators before they have an abortion. Stunned at public outcry, he then issued a statement saying that what he really meant was not so much the consent that he’d previously espoused, but rather simply notification of the other party. Oh, and he was super sorry IF you were offended by what he said. He promised to choose his words more carefully in the future.
That brings us to yesterday, on the House floor. Rep. Dick was speaking in support of a bill that would create a council to preserve, restore and revitalize the speaking of Native Alaskan languages.
What could go wrong?
All was well, when Dick began talking about the famous Navajo code talkers in World War II. They communicated messages in a code based on the complex Navajo language, which Dick compared to the Athabascan language in Alaska.
And then….
The J-bomb.
“The Japs couldn’t break the code, and neither could I, until somebody came along… the Athabascan language is crafted in a very intricate way,” Dick said.
Rep. Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau said she was listening to the speech and couldn’t believe it when she heard the pejorative. She looked around and saw that Berta Gardner, D-Anchorage, was indicating she heard it too. Kerttula asked House Speaker Mike Chenault for a brief time out and walked over to Dick.
“I just said, ‘Alan, you know that’s a totally inappropriate term and that hurts people,’ and Alan just looked at me in shock and said, ‘I don’t want to hurt anyone.’ “
Kerttula, in a noble attempt to save him from himself, urged him to apologize. When the session started back up, Dick made a statement.
“If I said anything in haste earlier that might’ve been construed as pejorative, I certainly would rescind whatever I had said.”
No word on what Rep. Scott Kawasaki was thinking at the time, but he reportedly got an apology.
In a brief post foot-in-mouth interview, The Daily News’ reporter Richard Mauer questioned Dick who said he had no clue that the term “Jap” had a negative connotation.
Dick said he had no idea the term had a negative connotation and couldn’t understand why he was being asked about it by a reporter, especially because his speech was overwhelmingly about his support for revitalizing Native languages.
“I’m totally bewildered,” he said. “I would never hurt anyone.”
He also couldn’t understand why anyone would think he was insulting the Japanese when he was trying to defend Alaska Native languages. Because…. they’re the same thing? There’s white people, and then there’s everyone else? His district does extend to western Alaska… Perhaps he can see Japan from his house.
I have a feeling we’ll be hearing from Mr. Dick again. Call it a hunch.
I love the title. It’s what brought me to this article. However, I was underwhelmed by the content. After that introduction, I was expecting something truly asinine. Clearly this guy just didn’t know that “jap” is a bad word. It’s not really a word that is used much, and I can get how he’d think it was an abbreviation.
He says he didn’t mean offense. He seems sincere. Everyone is offended by some word or another. Frankly I don’t understand what’s wrong with the word “jap” either. Why would it be offense to anyone japanese? Is it different than someone Japanese describing Americans as “yankees”? If he had said something derogatory like “japs are idiots” or someone Japanese stereotyped Americans as “all Yankees are evil”… that’s offensive.
There must be more serious issues in the world to argue over. Political correct nonsense. Hopefully Japs reading this can understand Yankees meant no offense. I think its fair to say most Americans have great admiration for modern Japanese society. Very civilized and forward thinking.
Welcome to the USA, Demetri! Yes, it is totally different if Japanese people refer to Americans as “yankees”. Yankees is not a derogatory term. The term “Jap” is a derogatory term. If you do not understand the meaning of “degrogatory”, google it.
Welcome to the USA! Just because the dude sounds sincere doesn’t make his racial slurs appropriate.
Here, north of the Mason Dixon line, when a southern uses the term “yankee” it is not because they think we enjoy the baseball team from NYC, it is used as slang.
I’m sure Mr. Dick doesn’t think about the terms used after the Vietnam War or the Korean War or the first or second Gulf Wars and “those” Muslim people from the middle east. I’m sure he doesn’t have a clue of the insulting terms that are used for people coming up from Latin America and Mexico, legal or otherwise, to work in this country. I’m sure every time the half term quitter governor used the term “elitest” he thought that was okie-dookie speech because you know she was one of us, a “rill” American girl. It’s not all about political correctness its about having a common clue about those around you.
A note from New Mexico: WIth all do respect to that Athabaskan people of Alaska and Canada whose language is related to the Navajo language, it was the Navajo people serving in World War II that created the infamous code that this person referred to. The language used to create the code was Navajo. Many of the wors used in the code referenced natural features and animals found in the desert southwest. The Navajo that created the code are the Navajo Code Talkers.
Do you know of any good books or movies that tell the story of the Code Talkers?
I know there was a movie made a few years ago but I seem to remember that there were a lot of complaints that it was told from the perspective of a white, male lead. I’d love to read or watch more about the REAL story.
Code Talker: A Novel About the Navajo Marines of World War Two Joseph Bruchac is a highly acclaimed Abenaki children’s book author, poet, novelist and storyteller, as well as a scholar of Native American culture. (For the younger set it appears)
Code Talker: The First and Only Memoir By One of the Original Navajo Code Talkers of WWII Chester Nez
In Search of History – Navajo Code Talkers (History Channel) (1998)
Thank you! You can always count on mudpups to have the answers!
Somebody asked a good question, where is all the hate coming from?
I think that the hate, 24/7 from Fox news and the republicans willingness to accept these people into the party for the votes.
And the fact that we have the first black president. I was so excited when I woke up the next morning and found out POTUS Obama had won the election. To me, this was a monumental step for this country.
For some people this was the worst thing that could have happened.
To me, this is the difference between “them” and me.
..would love to put MY foot in Dick’s mouth.
In part:
‘You must be carefully taught to hate, before you are 6, or 7, 8,
To hate all the people your relatives hate…..
You’ve got to be carefully taught’…………. —– South Pacific
Rep Dick has a devilishly difficult district to represent in the Legislature, including rural communities that are not all “Native” in their make-up. According to his web site he is a 44-year Alaskan and has been a teacher, pilot, hunter, and fisherman, as well as a builder, author, inventor, and videographer.
Seems to me that, with such a “distinguished” resume, Rep. Dick would have no excuse whatsoever for his disgustingly racist use of the term “Jap” to identify Japanese people. It is hard to know whether he does more harm in the Legislature than he would have done had he stayed in the classroom. An election is coming up. DO something!
Dear Dick,
Just because you did not intend to offend someone, that does not mean that your comments are not offensive.
signed,
Voters
Some people are born to grateness,others have thrustness grated upon them. Mr Dick is apparently either the former or the latter or all of the above.
What a dick. His mother must have been Nostradamus to name him as such.
Some Neanderthals just grow into their names.
love you Mike…ROFL.
That Dick must have a foot and mouth disease.
uh huh
good one Zyggy!
I’d be rather curious to know if Mr. Dick uses similar terms when speaking to his circle of like-minded friends, associates, and family. Terms like: Kraut, Wop, Gook, Rag-Head, etc. Methinks he…they… would.
The apology wasn’t to those he might have offended by using the term, it was to himself for his momentary lapse in remembering who he was talking to. It’s frightening to realize there are sooooo many like Mr. Dick ‘out there’ — folks who’ll ‘conform’ to civil dialogue, but whose 24/7 hearts harbor well-entrenched ill thoughts of gd wetbacks; lazy ni****s; money-grubbing Jews; filthy, stupid, disgusting ‘other’. beth.
To those of you who think Alan Dick’s “slip” was not a big deal or that use of the term by someone who fought in World War II or had a relative or friend killed by the Japanese during World War II is okay, please try to understand why that term hurts. It has been used not just as a pejorative against the Japanese the Americans were fighting during WWII but also against Americans of Japanese descent both during and after the war. I beg your pardon for wincing when I hear the term but it was hurled countless times against my American parents by people who apparently never got the memo that it was to be restricted only to Japanese nationals. Kids taunted me with it when I was growing up, probably because they heard it at home. And this country definitely did not appreciate the distinction between Japanese and Japanese Americans during World War II.
I won’t even go into why it’s apparently fine to use a derogatory term to describe any country’s people, let alone people in a country that has been one of America’s staunchest Asian allies for years. Thank you, Beth, for addressing this in a dignified and appropriate manner.
I’ve had to inform my niece that “bohunk” does not mean a well-built good looking man, and I’ve had to tell my daughter that calling someone a “ginger” is not exactly complimentary. But “Jap?” Come on. Yes, it was a common term during WWII, but how long ago was that? And he’s an adult. Surely he’s heard by now that it’s an insulting term.
While we are reminding Rep Dick to be more thoughtful, do keep in mind that he was defending Alaska Native languages. Bring him along. Do not shut him out.
I concluded by his birthdate in 1945 he was possibly a child of a Pacific Theater veteran and had heard the word frequently growing up.
As did I from many of that wartime experience.
But, as a legislator speaking on the House floor or committee hearings there is no excuse for this slip of the syllabic..
It is the culture of those spending too much time with like-minded and speaking individuals who never grew out of blaming boogeymen.
The legislature has more of these idealogues than I’ve ever seen and the limits of their thinking is on display like never before.
I’m not sure of the chances of his being re-elected but would hope more enlightened minds are willing to come to Juneau before the likes of him become ensconced.
We’ve had a hell of an infusion of these dangerous characters foisted upon us from the Bush lately.
And, too many are committee co-chairs with a radical right agenda as evidenced by Keller and Feige among others.
(Granted, Keller is from Wasillia, considered urban, but he is about as far out as you can get.
As in where bear trails are the freeways.
As in the migratory waterfowl path of the loons).
My father of a Pacific Theater vet. He was a high school dropout. He was right wing. He used derogatory racial terms for Japanese or any other minority. This guy is a bum.
Dick is a man of the people (which ones?). No political correctness for Dick, no way!
Sounds like Dick is a dick.
That was too easy.
I worked with a man like this. He would be truly shocked when someone pointed out his errors. Then he would do it again. We called him Teflon Ted. He was a very kind and caring doofus who was just clueless about certain social taboos.
The money quotes:
“He also couldn’t understand why anyone would think he was insulting the Japanese when he was trying to defend Alaska Native languages. Because…. they’re the same thing? There’s white people, and then there’s everyone else?”
And Pat’s:
“… the only way to have a more civil discourse is to insist that we all do it, all the time.”
“… the only way to have a more civil discourse is to insist that we all do it, all the time.”
YES
RWNJ apparently need to go back to kindygarden and be re-taught forgotten lessons of looking before you leap and words can cut deeper than knives.Hard to imagine they can be this clueless this far along in life. Unless Rust Limpaw is their speech therapist.
LOL “Rust Limpaw”; I luvs it! I use “Slow Limpballs” when referencing that creature but yours is just as good!
My ex husband’s uncle, great uncle to my sons, was on the USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor and on one of the first ships to arrive in Japan when the Japanese surrendered. He struggled to stop using that term and corrected himself if he caught it. If he can try given what he went through then Dick could certainly get it out of his vocabulary.
I wouldn’t think twice about what he’d said if he’d fought in World War II. I’ve had two older friends who did, and they said that it was extremely difficult for many years after to not consider any Japanese looking person to be “the enemy”. They would often fall back to the slang of the time when they would tell their old war stories. However, both of them were able to eventually get over the feeling and even became close friends with a family from Japan.
Both friends are deceased now, and would be in their nineties if still alive.
Mr. Dick simply looks too young to have fought in that war, so I’m a little puzzled as to how he got into the habit of using the word “Japs”.
My mother would have been 100 this year. So she was an adult during World War II. She never got over her feelings towards the Japanese. And I guess I understand it, sort of. A young man she had dated in high school was killed at Pearl Harbor in the initial attack and that always stuck with her.
But for the most part, unless we were talking about WW II, I didn’t hear that sort of language. And then when she was in her 80s, she would just randomly say things and use terms that I found offensive and inappropriate. Our community has a fairly large Asian population and our girls had friends of all races. So I finally said to my mother that I didn’t want her using those words around the girls. At least she did quit and we didn’t have to argue about it. But I remember he glaring at me when I told her to stop.
I’m glad someone called old Dick on his poor choice of language. No, it’s not the end of the world, but the only way to have a more civil discourse is to insist that we all do it, all the time.
Or I MIGHT be able to understand it if he was 25 years old and hadn’t paid close attention in high school history class. Perhaps being that far removed from WWII and not being a child of the generation who fought in the war may have been a flimsy excuse.
However, he certainly looks to be old enough to be aware that it’s an offensive term. My father fought in WWII and, while he never used those kinds of slurs himself, I was well aware of the terms people used to demean members of other cultures.
Shame on him for
1. using such an offensive term
2. trying to convince everyone he didn’t know it was offensive.
My dad (who was in the Pacific in ww2) used to refer to them as ‘chink-Americans’…then, he had a triple A..(abdominal aortic aneurism) and his nurse was an incredibly gifted Japanese-American lady, who impressed him with her kindness and abilities ……. and he never used that awful term, again, either……. he showed me that old people CAN change their attitude…
Foot in his mouth, head up his a–.
Yoga?
Yup, it’s the standard RWNJ yoga beginners position they are taught early on. And once they learn it, they’re impressively able to hold it for life.
Alaska needs to take a lesson from Wisconsin and recall some of these duds.
Love those Badgers…!
UGH. Good grief… I just got back to land and internet after a couple weeks at sea, and this is a whole lot of unbelievable to swallow in one dose. SO sorry to learn about Prop 5 and all of the election shenanigans, and then this nonsense. Hang in there, Mudpup buddies…
Oh, sweet merry.
Rep Dick- stuff a sock in it.
Truly.
Really, just shut up.
Inspired headline.
I agree. When I saw the headline, my thought was “what did Mayor Dan Sullivan say now”. It wasn’t till I clicked on it that I realized that was the person’s name.
ROFL!
I don’t think making a huge issue out of this is a winning strategy. Bad choice of words, lame apology. No argument there. But this is a lot of misplaced outrage.
Why do you think this?
It’s REALLY hard to believe that he never gave a thought to the word being a slur.
Better to keep your mouth shut and let people think you a fool, then to open it and remove all doubt….
OK Folks, lets start right now, every one jump in.
Alan Dick is in a Pre – Dick – ament.
His comments were Pre – Dick – table.
His name should be the first one in the Dick – tionary.
Also his pickup truck won’t start and his dog ran away.