An anonymous tipster alerted us via the News tab to a possible racist/scandalous/nebulous slip of Michael Moore’s tongue. I sat through the entire, excruciating 10+ minute video at Breitbart.tv, only to discover that the controversial part is at the end; the video I posted below features the last eleven seconds of the entire segment and contains the relevant moment.
Link: sevenload.com
Well? What do you think? Racist or immature? Mispronounced or intentionally mangled? Or is this much ado about nothing? Comments on Breitbart were hot, heated and divided about whether or not Michael Moore started to channel Apu. What say you?
Nah – I think he was just frustrated. Silly though how even the simplest names are obscured: Gooooopta!
Bud light, Boood light….Bud light, Boood light
I didn’t see anything racist in his pronunciation. Sure, he mangled it, but in a way that a lot of white Americans do. The video’s name on sevenload is “moorename”. Maybe your tipster isn’t so anonymous, eh? 🙂
He mangled it or mispronounced it? Please. First of all lets disconnect the rest of his points about healthcare and the war from this particular bit because they obviously have much more merit. But it is incredible hypocrisy if you turn a blind eye to this: First he purposely moved his head forward to enunciate the guys name which indicates he knew that he was adding something to his name and secondly if you watch the entire video (admittedly excruciating) you’ll see that he said Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s name the correct way (and not in the tone he uses here- one which is often used to mock perceived indian accents) over half a dozen times. To put it simply, it was a racist cheap shot, which is especially obvious if you watch the entire video.
A person’s politics on some issues don’t excuse stupidity in other areas.
Nope. It’s just plain fun to say GUPta, no matter what your color.
um. no! to say otherwise would be to indict myself [1], [2] etc.
“please”, I was going off of the snippet posted above, maybe I’ll watch the whole video later. I’d appreciate if you didn’t insinuate that I am an apologist for him, because I actually think he does my politics a disservice with his unnuanced demagoguery.
Umm…where’s the racism in this? Michael Moore was getting heated in his exchange with Wolf Blitzer and enunciated “GOOPta” out of his anger, not out of any racist intent.
It reminds me of that bit from the office (US) when Michael is doing that diversity day exercise and starts asking Kelly ‘would you like some cookie cookie’ or something in the apu accent. This was a little worse as Michael Scott is just as idiot whereas Moore seemed to mean it as a quasi insult. Doesn’t mean he’s racist, but its a stupid thing to do and a tad bit juvenile
point taken rahul. i don’t mean to insinuate you’re an apologist regardless of your particular political view (i’m actually somewhat of a fan of moore, though this was juvenile)
I did not see any racism period and there was no Apu channeling whatsoever.
when i first saw this post, i did a 5 minute dance of ecstasy. then i played the clip and i didn’t have a slightest idea of what anna was talking about. i thought my computer ended the clip too soon. so i played it again. but same thing. then i read the comments. but to my horror everyone was dumbfounded too. then i read please. and his logic persuaded me that this man is a racist.
oh, i can’t do this. can we please just concentrate on how he dehumanizes the cuban people?
To be fair, “please” has a very valid point– I watched the whole thing (extended version), twice and it’s true; Moore seemed to have no problem pronouncing anything earlier on, repeatedly. It’s still brutal to sit through, though. 🙂
No worries, “please”. Thanks for the response.
the only reason it annoys me is that it spoils a heck of a segment by moore where he really chews out cnn.
Manju– I said it was a racist cheap shot, I dont think Moore is racist, but someone can say one particular thing which can be insensitive/racist and still not be a racist person. Maybe you feel differently, but thats how i see it.
I saw the clip twice. And to me Moore was attacking Dr. Gupta for his reporting and being part of “mainstream media” rather than him personally. I don’t think there was anything racist about it. Come on guys lets not get so sensitive that any criticism is because of the race. Lets not develop the victim mentality.
The tirade was against the mainstream media (deservedly so) for its blatant misrepresentation. Please people, stop giving Michael Moore this much CREDIT. He’s a filmmaker, he makes MOVIES that play in blockbuster theaters alongside other MOVIES about cars that transform into ROBOTS. His films are designed to entertain, and raise a general awareness about social and political issues. He’s a sensationalist (but I happen to agree with most of the issues he’s sensational about) His movies aren’t “propaganda”
Secondly, Moore a racist? Cmon, Read stupid white men, in particular the chapter “Kill Whitey”.
And I think asking whether or not he’s a ‘racist’ bismirches the point – this reeks to me of the Rosie Odonnell “ching chung” incident (which by the way, is MUCH MUCH more blatant) but most white folks, irrespective of how liberal or leftist they are, have certain stereotypes embedded into their heads. In rosie’s case, she probably heard chinese people being referred to as “ching chong” people since she was a 3 year old – that characterization just stuck in her head.
Michael Moore’s attack on Gupta wasn’t out of his indianness, but his complicit actions in mass media misinformation, the “foreign sounding name” was like icing on the top. Unnecessary, yes. But in the heat of a battle you reach back into the canals of your brains and fish out your original stereotypes.
no way did it seem like Gupta was being racially attacked, professionally – sure, but who cares about that. Moore pretty much blasted the entire CNN gang and so I don’t see anything racial here. At best his discomfort at pronunciation got more obvious when he was frustrated, but that still does not mean it was anything racial. Plus I liked the way he put a spin to Rudy’s comments to make it seem anti medicare.
Secondly, I find it a bit disconcerting that this issue is blogged about, and the fact that insurance companies anally rape milllions of people for profit is glossed over. The film is fantastic.
Ramaswamy
I think you’re right that he’s attacking him for being complicit in what Moore perceives to be the pro corporation media, but he could have chosen many other ways to make fun of a randomly media associated individual then something associated with race. It isn’t a victim’s mentality to point out something is stupid but at the same time realize it was likely just out of frustration and not a serious race issue. It’s a little too pc for me, but then again imagine if gupta was spanish and moore rolled his r’s or he was african and he added in a click (a la russell peters skit) to the person’s name. The media (besides just a couple right leaning sites) would probably have made a bigger deal out of it though none of the three situations really deserve much attention (isn’t there a more interesting paris hilton party they can cover?)
hmmm. yes. i think i can see that. i had an altercation the other day with a black dude while buying a protein shake. he said: “excuse me, i was first, apu.” i said, “of course, go right ahead…tyrone.” we stood eye to eye for two seconds. then both cracked up. he cracked first.
I have dumb question. In that breitbart.tv link it is titled the “indian” anchor . I thought Sanjay was an american citizen ? If people are alluding to his desi background shouldn’t he be called “indian american” or something else ? or Maybe I am wrong probably he is an indian. I saw the entire clip but didn’t find anything wrong in Moore’s statement. If you pay close attention, in the beginning the CNN anchor defends CNN medical reporting by vouching Sanjay’s excellent record and asks Moore to visit Sanjay’s website. I think to this Moore remarks in the end about visiting Sanjay’s website as in the posted clip. What can probably be controversial is Moore’s doubt on Sanjay’s war statements and some other medical analysis. But he has every right to question Sanjay’s analysis. What is racist/scandalous/nebulous ?
HMF, I am not A N N A (duh!), but it seems fairly obvious to me that this specific issue has been blogged about here for the explicitly South Asian interest aspect. (I don’t think saying that South Asians are also among the millions of people engaged in unwilful rectal intercourse with insurance companies is equivalent).
As for Moore’s movies, if you don’t think they are propaganda (independent of whether you agree with them or not), I don’t know what they are. Just because you charge $10 a ticket to allow people to watch something doesn’t mean it can’t aggressively push a point of view.
I only watched it once, but I think he consistently used the same inaccurate phoneme (pronouncing it “Goopta”), as did Wolf Blitzer. It seems more grating in the last instance because he does lean forward and draw out the sound (which we know to be mistaken) a little more, but it’s actually the same phoneme. I think he was emphasizing the name in a derisive way, but it’s possible that this has no racist undertone, and to assume one seems unfair to me.
Michael Moore has a classic Michigan accent. Every word he utters (but particularly his o’s–‘out’, ‘about’, etc.) is going to sound odd and affected to coastal ears.
for the record, i thought king kong was racist.
What a ridiculous post. There’s nothing racist about this. We should be more concerned about the issues he raised.
It seemed that mr. moore. put on his best version of an indian accent. god knows why – he was aggravated and in his aggravation there might have been some insight into the mind of michael moore. Ironically, doesn’t sanjay gupta have an american accent?
I don’t get it. Where’s the racism? In the way he says Gupta? Did I miss something?
I saw the whole video. The most offensive bit to me was Lou Dobb’s wisecrack at the end. There was nothing in Moore’s commentary that came off as racist. How does Gupta himself pronounce his name anyway? More like how Moore did. And there was no perceptible difference to me, between how Moore says it earlier and later. Anyway, I can’t believe we really want to come after a guy for not getting the ‘u’ in Gupta right. Come on. The only mispronunciation I sensed was Blitzer himself going ‘Saahnjay’.
This also brings up a personal vignette. I don’t look too much like Sanjay, nor is my last name ‘Gupta’, but many people over the years have called me ‘Dr. Goopta’, some of whom I was meeting on a weekly basis, and many of whom persisted inspite of repeated correction. So I don’t know why that was, but that was offensive not because they were stretching the vowel sound but because I was not Dr. Gupta!
And BTW, I don’t know what Breitbart’s politics are, but it sure looks like they are trying to do a number on Moore.
Definitely racist, there’s an undercurrent of it in the protectionist Left though they often try to mask it under faux concern for 3rd world waifs.
Not Moore, the populist, for sure. I wonder if his next movie will be on outsourcing (if it’s still a hot button issue in the next year or two), so he can come up with some maudlin story about the ramshackle homes and rampant poverty in Flint, Michigan. Maybe he can go confront Narayana Murthy in his office this time? It’s been at least 10 years since Roger and Me, right?
(I can’t believe Moore irritates me so much even when I agree with his basic tenets. Are there people on the right who feel that way about the Coulter-geist?)
Not racist… I think Moore is a very intelligent filmmaker who cons the public by misconstruing facts, but I wouldn’t say that he’s racist based solely on the 11 seconds that I saw.
louiecypher, I find your comment interesting (# 31) although you are going to have to back it up. I have certainly noticed condescension in the Iraq war debate – we gave them their freedom, they can’t figure out what to do with it, they need to get their act together – kind of rhetoric, although that comes from both the left and the right.
I can also think of organized labor’s opposition to H1-B visas although I can see their point that creating vast pools of temporary labor without rights to work-place representation or collective bargaining, is convenient for corporations (the same reason organized labor opposes the guest worker program). But I find it hard to bring myself to conclude that these objections are racially motivated.
yeah. i’m starting to feel it now. keep going.
Manju, since I’m on the left, I’m using protection, though.
There are many things wrong with Sicko but not the ones mentioned in the CNN report before the interview.
heck’s wrong with Dr. Gupta? Shoddy journalism on his part. No wonder Moore was pissed.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/news/article.php?id=10017
Not racist.
oh. you’re on the left, rahul. that explains it. i thought it wasn’t in yet.
Top. Bottom. Left. Right. Let’s call the whole thing off!
Moore is a slob and is just pissed off that most people would not want him fixing their refrigerator while Dr. Gupta inspires confidence in men and lust in women (and sometimes the other way around, nothing wrong with that). People who actually vote didn’t need Moore to tell them about the Carlyle Group or the corruption of power in the Bush administration
based on the post … before viewing the video … i thought he had used the M word 😉 To my horror, it was only a mispronunciation like most of the non-indians would do …
Not racist. Looks to me like he was making fun with his emphatic pronunciation of the reverential way Blitzer was going on about Gupta ‘risking his life’ for journalism and neurosurgery.
I agree with Chachaji. Someone’s trying to muck up Moore.
not racist. even if it was racist, there’s a lot of much nastier and unequivocal stuff out there. outrage is finite.
FWIW, i dislike moore & his politics.
yeah, i supppose you’re right rahul. you say ee-rock, i say eye-rack. let’s call the whole thing off.
I saw this on Drudge earlier today which is undoubtedly where the tipster saw it. Nuff said. Breitbart is a conservative media baron who is pals with the conservative Drudge. They will do anything to spin a story against a “liberal.” Much more interesting is the new asshole Moore tears Blitzer.
“The Drudge Report may have a right-wing reputation, but it leans left.”
Give me a break dude. I spend more time on Drudge then on SM. I think I know which way it leans.
They will do anything to spin a story against a “liberal.”
well, whatever. the video is the video. no one manipulated moore’s tone or terms. can we keep politics to the side for 0.01 nanoseconds and extract the question of racism outside of the an instrumental framework where we bludgeon our political moments for 0.1 nanoseconds?
What is clear from the video is that Moore has contempt for the fact that Sanjay was an “embed.”