By Andrew L. Jaffee

National Public Radio’s (NPR) firing of Juan Williams had less to do with his (benign) remarks about Muslims on airliners, but more about finding a pretext to dump him. Just yesterday, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller stooped to name-calling against Williams, stating, “that whatever feelings Williams has about Muslims should be between him and ‘his psychiatrist or his publicist — take your pick’.” This belies the deep resentment NPR held against Williams for his “controversial” views. Many at NPR probably considered Williams an “Uncle Tom,” just as the same left-wing epithets were tossed at great minds like Condi Rice and Colin Powell. Williams’ Muslim remarks were just a pretext for NPR to do what it’s wanted to do for a long time: Fire Williams and derive perverse pleasure from it. Here’s Williams being “controversial,” speaking the truth, caring for his own community with passion, and encouraging self-responsibility:

… A streak of self-determination rises at every turn in the history of black American leadership. But since the stunning success of the modern civil rights movement–the steady rise since the Brown decision in the number of college-educated black people, as well as the concurrent growth in incomes, home ownership, and black elected officials–the strong focus on self-determination has faded, at the moment when its impact could have been the most powerful. In its place is a tired rant by civil rights leaders about the power of white people–what white people have done wrong, what white people didn’t do, and what white people should do. This rant puts black people in the role of hapless victims waiting for only one thing–white guilt to bail them out. …

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller not only suffers from white guilt, but most likely wants to maintain her subconscious notion of superiority over the people she claims to want to “help,” and keep them where they are so she can maintain her self-gratifying, haughty position of “helping.”