It may have started simply enough. Comic Joan Rivers was being interviewed and asked about the Miss USA pageant. Surely fertile grounds for Rivers well known bitchy vein of comedy that she's pioneered for years. But it quickly veered off the road giving an NYC and national audience a look at the hatred that's never far from the surface when it comes to Rivers.
Arts Magazine: You know, that she was Arab-American and people making a fuss about that.
Joan Rivers: Uh, if she was -- Uh -uh -- I don't know. I'm -- I'm a New Yorker and I get very nervous when people tell me -- uh, this is a terrible thing to say -- I get very nervous when -- Arab-Americans, fine. Just show me where it says, "I want to live in peace." That's all I want. I want you to have a good time. You believe what you want, I believe what I want. But I don't want to hear that you're out to get me. And that does scare me. I don't think -- I don't think she's a Muslim! Because her mother was in a dress that was so cut down, I could tell you what color her underwear was. The mother was having a good time. She was having a good time. So there wasn't this feeling of -- ladies didn't come in burqas to congratulate her. Then you would have gotten very nervous.
If you're appalled by the above, join the club. It's stereotyping, it's hateful and it's racism. In short, it's Joan Rivers. Believe it or not, the interview with Joan River was intro-ed on WBAI's Arts Magazine with, "And now, on a lighter note, Joan Rivers." If you missed the show, you currently have 56 days to catch the Tuesday, June 15th broadcast of Arts Magazine on WBAI by visiting the WBAI archives. And for those who can't stream, no, Rivers wasn't joking.
