Sharon Osbourne Wants to Rename John Wayne’s Airport After His Racist Comments Resurface
Sharon Osbourne is all about renaming Orange County’s John Wayne Airport due to the late actor’s “racist” history.
The star called John a “bad man” after a 1971 interview with Playboy resurfaced in which he said he “believed in white supremacy until the Blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”
Really, John?
“It just gives me the creeps. There has always been this reputation of him of really hating blacks, Jews, anybody that wasn’t white,” Sharon told Daily Star. “When the airport came, I was like: ‘Why would you give this man this honor of having an airport named after somebody like that, who is just a bad man, a really ugly man?’ We cannot celebrate these people that we once thought were heroes.”
However, John’s son Ethan, 58, has refuted any claims his dad was a racist.
In a statement made to Fox News, Ethan said, “Let me make one thing [clear] — John Wayne was not a racist. I know that term is casually tossed around these days, but I take it very seriously. I also understand how we got to this point.”
He continued, “There is no question that the words spoken by John Wayne in an interview 50 years ago have caused pain and anger. They pained him as, well, as he realized his true feelings were wrongly conveyed.”
In the interview, specifically, John is quoted as saying, “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.”
Ay ay ay! We’ll see what happens.