Hate in the Mainstream

"She's a f------ r------. … We've got a r------ in Washington; we don't need one in South Carolina." 
– Republican South Carolina state Sen. JAKE KNOTTS, to a reporter June 3, referring to GOP gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, the daughter of Sikh Indian immigrants

"[T]here is a definitive factor played by racial genetics in intellectual achievement." 
– Marysville (Wash.) school board member MICHAEL KUNDU, in a June 3 E-mail to colleagues on why students of certain ethnicities struggle academically, citing discredited academic racist and Pioneer Fund chief John Philippe Rushton

"I grew up with n------, wops and Jews." 
– Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge DOMINIC AMATO during a June 14 court hearing, explaining to a black defendant why he could empathize in remarks that sparked a court investigation

"What kind of clothes people wear … what kind of shoes people wear, what kind of accent they have … sometimes it's just a sixth sense they can't put their finger on." 
– U.S. Rep. STEVE KING (R-Iowa) on the House floor June 15 describing the "common sense indicators" officers can use to spot undocumented immigrants

"We could now charge you with the most vehement anti-Black behavior in the annals of our history in America and the world." 
– Nation of Islam leader LOUIS FARRAKHAN, in a belligerent June 24 letter to national Jewish organizations seeking "sensible, intelligent dialogue"

"The vast majority of them are Indians, they're short, they're squat little Indians." 
– Talk radio host and Watergate ex-con G. GORDON LIDDY, describing Mexicans during the July 6 broadcast of Radio America's syndicated "The G. Gordon Liddy Show"

"You look like a f------ b---- in heat, and if you get raped by a pack of n------, it will be your fault, all right? Because you provoked it." 
— Oscar-winning actor MEL GIBSON, in a phone call taped by his estranged girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, that was posted on July 9 by Radaronline.com

"Now the army, if you will, of the extreme left is gathering, and they are coming to the conclusion of, 'Cops are bad, kill the cops, they're the oppressors.' "
— Fox News host GLENN BECK on the July 12 edition of Premiere Radio Network's "The Glenn Beck Program," claiming "extreme left" groups like the Gray Panthers and the Center for Constitutional Rights were among the "baby killers" behind the "well-coordinated riot" that followed the trial of a California police officer who killed an unarmed black man

Quotes on this page were compiled from media accounts, web pages, e-mail groups and Media Matters for America, a website that monitors the far right.