Ronald Reagan's Daughter Says Audio of Her Dad Calling African Diplomats 'Monkeys' Made Her Cry
BY ALEJANDRO DE LA GARZA
AUGUST 1, 2019
Patti Davis, daughter of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, has spoken out after audio emerged of her father calling United Nations diplomats monkeys during a taped 1971 conversation with then-President Richard Nixon.
In a segment of the tape published in a July 30 article in The Atlantic, Reagan, who was then the governor of California, can be heard expressing his frustration to Nixon over the United Nations voting to recognize the Peoples Republic of China with the help of delegates from African countries.
To see those, those monkeys from those African countries damn them, theyre still uncomfortable wearing shoes! Reagan says on the tape, as Nixon laughs.
In a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday, Davis wrote that listening to her fathers racist remarks made her cry. There is no defense, no rationalization, no suitable explanation for what my father said on that taped phone conversation.
More:
https://time.com/5642040/ronald-reagan-daughter-racism/?xid=homepage
renate
(13,776 posts)This must be heartbreaking for her.
JI7
(89,259 posts)brewens
(13,604 posts)But maybe he watched that kind of language at home.
stopdiggin
(11,329 posts)come from a place where we have to, humbly and with great sorrow, recognize that prior generations were racist. It's a heartache, but the only thing we can really do about it is lead better lives. I greatly commend this woman for sincerely confronting, acknowledging and apologizing. What more can she do?
JI7
(89,259 posts)empedocles
(15,751 posts)marble falls
(57,136 posts)in fact, he was so bad that that I didn't even realize that PoC were what he called n--------.
I don't think I understood that he was a racist until I was a teen when my racist dad made it clearer for me. He hated PoC as a group and at the same same time had so many individuals as friends. He forced the bank in Houston to cash his employees' paychecks and open accounts for them and to make car loans to them by threatening to move.
Its hard to see the racism when you are living so close to racists as a child. Its a shock when you realize what was going on around you. That you love someone who hates irrationally. I think this is a problem a lot of baby boomers and older had, the racism was cultural and almost polite for the middle class in the mid west.
Jim__
(14,082 posts)I know, we were still denying the reality at the time. But the government had already existed for over 20 years.
yerop
(89 posts)The ongoing shame and disgrace
madaboutharry
(40,214 posts)Did he not publicly use phrases like "Welfare Queens" and "Strapping young bucks" along with pounding away at "State's Rights" themes? Those comments are racists and were said for the benefit of white voters.
All of that was said in public 40 years ago. So, as much as I think that Patti Davis is a good person and a kind person, she isn't being honest with herself.
no_hypocrisy
(46,146 posts)I wanted to die when he was talking trash like that at my brother's wedding rehearsal and ceremony -- and my brother is a Sufi (a denomination of Islam).
Dan
(3,576 posts)What the African nations think of us, hearing TRUMP now, and the comments of former presidents Reagan and Nixon then.
With Putins puppet Trump disparaging our allies, making the word of America meaningless with both friends and foes, what does the future hold for us?
China is going to own us, and we as a nation will be alone in this world. But maybe that is Trumps goal, because once we are an island we will have no choice but to MAGA.
The damage that fool and the GOP is doing - will outlive us all.
Words matter!
kimbutgar
(21,172 posts)He said even then in the 60s he was a white supremist because he used the black panthers as a rallying cry against black people. His monkey comment didnt surprise me.
shadowmayor
(1,325 posts)Her daddy made a lot of people cry - many times for things worse than racial slurs.
LessAspin
(1,156 posts)Last edited Fri Aug 2, 2019, 07:35 PM - Edit history (1)
James Garner on Ronald ReaganIn Case You Forgot Ronald Reagan Was A Dick
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017355078