Does Quoting Steve Martin's The Jerk Make This Politician a Racist?

JeanneSager — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:30:00 GMT

By all accounts, Paul Pugmire might be a jerk. But a racist? I'll let you be the judge.

The Salt Lake City Utah City Council candidate quoted Steve Martin's classic The Jerk on the Website reunion.com early in 2006 - not in campaign-related literature. Pugmire, who is white, began an introduction to his old classmates "I was born a poor black child in Mississippi. No wait, that it something else. Quick summary since HS . . . "

It was almost word for word how Martin began The Jerk, the '79 classic that sits on the American Film Institute's top 100 funny movies (100 Years . . . 100 Laughs). And, surprise, surprise, the person slamming Pugmire most for the comment isn't the NAACP representative in Salt Lake City but the chairman of the city's Republican party. The Republican Chair is black, yes, but he's put up a candidate against Pugmire for council. Pugmire is a Democrat.

Although dubbing a movie (or book) a classic doesn't mean it can't be racist, The Jerk (in case you've been living under a rock) is pretty harmless. It might be the guy's version of Clueless. Or maybe the 1979 version of Forrest Gump? White guy Navin Johnson was adopted by black sharecroppers in Mississippi as a child. The movie begins with him living away from his family, a homeless bum telling his story (hence the narration, "I was born a poor black child . . . "). As dumb as a box of rocks (but apparently not the ones you've been living under), he stumbles from one adventure to the next and comes out on top of the world in the end - back with his family in Mississippi and thanks to his foster father's wise investments, much wealthier. It's one of those stories that lends credence to the thought that racism isn't something our kids are born with. It's something they (unfortunately) learn as they grow up. Martin's Navin never learned a difference between black and white, and he's proud of his family.

Of course, the movie was a comedy. And an often quoted comedy at that. The NAACP is Salt Lake City readily accepted Pugmire's apology and issued statements saying his comments might have been in poor taste but were not mean-spirited. I'd tend to agree with them - especially in light of the feelings I had walking away from the Jerk (and not the ache in my ribs from laughing so hard). Republican Chair James Evans says they show Pugmire thinks poorly of African Americans. What do you think?

Source: Salt Lake Tribune

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