RUSH: I was making a joke after the protests in Charlottesville. I said, “Why don’t we just go ahead and ban Gone With the Wind? Let’s ban the movie. Let’s ban the book.” They’ve banned the movie. “Gone With the Wind is a landmark film, one which has been beloved since its record-breaking 1939 release. … Now, the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Memphis has decided to stop showing the film, as, in the words of one citizen, it has somehow been placed in the ‘tributes to white supremacy’ category. …

“Memphis based Orpheum Theatre, whose stated mission is to ‘entertain, educate, and enlighten,’ will no longer show [Gone With the Wind], theater officials announced Friday. ‘The Orpheum cannot show a film that is insensitive to a large segment of its local population,’ Brett Batterson, president of the Orpheum Theatre Group, said in a statement. The film was last screened at the theater on Aug. 11 and had been a 34-year tradition at the Orpheum.”

You make a joke about the left… I mean, it was a staple at this theater. It was a staple. It was a staple at theaters in Atlanta. I don’t know how many other theaters will now follow suit and refuse to show the movie, but these things are trending, and they are copycat. Once they start happening, other people want to get in on the bandwagon. So it’s probably just the beginning of such a thing.

The New York Times ran an op-ed recently wondering if football fans are racist. You knew this was coming. The sports media is all-in on Colin Kaepernick, and they’re all-in on the notion that white NFL owners are racist and are banning Kaepernick because he’s black (or half black) and because he disrespects the flag and all this other stuff. They’re ignoring the fact that, on balance, Kaepernick hasn’t been able to play, and they’re forgetting that Kaepernick was offered a contract by the 49ers. He walked out on his contract.

He said he didn’t want it. It’s not as though he was not offered a chance to play. He was. Here’s the excerpt from the New York Times op-ed. “Yet we should not be so sure that white fans’ willingness to support black athletes on the gridiron entails a genuine acceptance of racial equality, nor their inclusion of black people more broadly in the ‘we’ that is supposed to be No. 1.” What this guy is saying is that it used to be that white fans supporting sports figures who are African-American, people used to cite: What do you mean America’s racist? How can that be?

Look at the numbers of people that watch the NFL. It’s 75% black! Look at the number of people that pay for tickets, buy advertising. Look at the financial support that enterprise has, and you’re telling me that white people are racist? And this guy the New York Times is coming along saying: That doesn’t count anymore. You can’t say that white fans’ willingness to support black athletes means they are genuinely accepting of racial equality. You can’t say that. They could still be racist as pigs!

“Indeed, white acceptance of black entertainers and white exploitation of the physical labor of black persons long predates…” Did I not predict this? Folks, I’m gonna tell you exactly what this editorial’s about by reminding you of my prediction. When the world decided… Well, when the American left decided that the National Football League was going to become a target — and they did it on many levels. They did it on safety, the number of concussions. They attacked the NFL in any number of ways.

I mean, this started years ago, and I remember waving the flag trying to get people to pay attention. This is not gonna end, it’s not gonna roll off, it’s not just a one-off. They’re not gonna quit until they have created a public consciousness that football is bad, that football kills, that football maims, that football harms. They’re not gonna quit until they’ve been able to create a public consciousness that the game is bad. Once they succeed in that, then the NFL’s days as it exists are numbered.

I said, “Wait until these leftist activists figure out that they can equate this to slavery,” and I had people call me. “What do you mean? How in the world…?” I said, “Because who owns the teams in the NFL? Are they all not predominantly white? They are.” “Yeah, but, Rush, look at how much money they’re being paid!” “I know, but look at what’s happening to them! They’re dying early. They’re committing suicide. They’re suffering concussions and other injuries that are shortening their lives.”

I said, “It isn’t gonna be long before the left starts figuring this out and putting this all together and equating what’s going on here in the NFL to its own brand of white supremacy or master-slave circumstances,” and it’s now starting. The way the New York Times is getting into this is to suggest that football fans are racist. Well, they’re asking the question. They’re raising the specter of football fans being racist.

“[M]any…” This is from the editorial. “[M]any contemporary white fans’ responses to players of color — when those players express political views (like Colin Kaepernick), behave in ways that make them uncomfortable … or make mistakes … Many [white fans] are content to identify with black football players for as long as they are useful on the field, to imaginatively project themselves into the physical power and hypermasculinity that (fans imagine) they embody, and to discard and denigrate them when they don’t play their parts as expected…”

So, you see, even as far as the fans are concerned, African-American players are nothing more than temporary objects of admiration. It’s not for any reason other than the fans wish they could do what these players do. But when these players stop playing, when they reach an age where they’re no longer superstars, the white fans discard them like they never existed before — and that’s because the white fans are racist. “[T]o treat them, as Malcolm X put it when describing his own experience as a popular student and athlete in a predominantly white school, like mascots.”

So white fans of the NFL treat the players like mascots.

It’s not satire, folks. It’s not. This is what’s happening. It’s like this flap with the Southern Poverty Law Center. This is a fantastically illustrative event. The Southern Poverty Law Center, to the American left, is one of the greatest institutions of freedom and openness and non-racism — and it’s just a wonderful place, because that’s what they’ve been told that it is by the media. That’s how it’s been presented. But people who really know understand that the Southern Poverty Law Center is, in fact, one of the top five hate groups in the country.

They label any conservative group that disagrees with what they believe in as a hate group. For example, if you don’t believe in gay marriage and if you’re part of a group — be it religious or cultural — that does not believe in gay marriage and the Southern Poverty Law Center finds out about you? They immediately put you on their list of hate groups in America, because if you disagree with gay marriage, that means you automatically hate lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgenders.

So you get put on the list, and the left thinks that that list is inarguable. The left thinks that the Southern Poverty Law Center is just an absolutely magnificent organization which is identifying evil and hate through America. And that’s not what it is at all. It is its own brand of hate. So, after Charlottesville, Apple, Inc., and JPMorgan Chase both announce massive million-dollar donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Now, when you look at both of these companies, are they in the interests of antagonizing their customers? No. I mean, that doesn’t make any sense. So maybe they don’t really know what the Southern Poverty Law Center is. These are CEOs and what they think they’re doing is following popular public opinion. The CEOs happen to be, in both cases, extreme leftists, and that’s a relevant fact, and so their knowledge of and perception of the Southern Poverty Law Center is totally different than what the truth of the Southern — What kind of name is Southern Poverty Law Center?

Well, what is that? It’s a silly name and it’s not indicative of anything that they do. They hate the south. They’re not anything about poverty. They don’t do a damn thing about poverty. And in terms of law center? It’s just a name that is guaranteed to attract donations. But these CEOs and others who are making donations, and then making it possible for their customers to also donate to this group, you have to ask, are these CEOs literally trying to antagonize every conservative, every Republican? Which is more than half the country. Are they really trying to do that? Or do they just not know what the Southern Poverty Law Center really is because they don’t challenge anything that they see or read in their media.

Now, it could be a little bit of both or a lot of one and some of the other. But this is genuine ignorance to think the Southern Poverty Law Center is something that advances the American ideal is absurd. The Southern Poverty Law Center is its own brand of hate. It’s exclusionary, it’s discriminatory, it’s mean-spirited, it’s extremist, it is everything that it claims to stand against.

So this idea of just following along like if one theater cancels Gone With the Wind you can damn well guarantee there’s gonna be others. The New York Times comes along and says that NFL fans, white NFL fans are racist. What would even make one start thinking that way? You have to be a little bit race conscious to even start thinking that way.

I’ve often pointed out how racist can America really be when the wealthiest and most popular TV personality is an overweight African-American woman? How can that be? Well, according to the New York Times, it’s white guilt. White guilt is forcing people to watch Oprah. They feel sorry for the circumstances that Oprah had to face as a young girl and other African-American women, and this is the way they make it up to them, by offering fake and faux appreciation. They don’t really like Oprah, but it’s a hip and cool thing to do, and it sends a signal that they’re not racist, but in fact they are.

That’s how the left analyzes white people watching Oprah and now white fans of the NFL. They are secretly racist, or maybe in fact now openly racist. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. They are the ones who are race conscious, they’re the ones race focused, and, as such, they are doing everything they can to divide people in this country along the lines of race while claiming to unify and all this other happy malarkey.

So the fight and the effort to deal with it goes on. But it’s frustrating as it can be. A lot of it seems inexplicable. But if you understand liberals like I do, everything they do makes perfect sense, if you understand them, and it’s eminently predictable too.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Well, how about this headline: “Dear White Parents of Biracial Children: Having Mixed Babies Isn’t Enough to Excuse Your Ignorance.”

Well, now, remember when Hollywood starlets and popular music starlets like Madonna became fashionable to adopt African orphans. It became almost an accessory of sorts for women, hip women of Hollywood to adopt not an African-American, but an African orphan, actually travel there and adopt an African orphan.

It became a statement, it was clearly political in nature, and there was wonderful, great credit that was attached. One could no way be a racist, for example, and in fact to do something like that would be the epitome of humanity and big-heartedness and so forth. But even that wasn’t enough. It’s no longer enough for Hollywood starlets to adopt African orphans. This is kind of why we lose the battle for young skulls full of mush.

“Dear white parents of biracial children, What are you doing? How many times are you going to sympathize with and defend known racists before your children see a society built to destroy them, reflected in your eyes? I understand that not all of you hang out with known racists, but that is an extreme case of what I more often than not see with white parents of biracial children. Having mixed babies doesn’t justify the things you might do or say. Let’s take Kim Kardashian for example, who has two biracial children and a black husband yet she appropriates black culture and defended known racist Jeffree Star. Yes, I’m writing to white parents like you.”

So what this person is basically saying at Affinity Magazine, you don’t get to cancel your racism by marrying an African-American and having mixed race kids. That’s not gonna buy you anything. You can’t skate out of your racism by doing that. You realize there’s nothing, the way this is headed, there’s nothing anybody can do to demonstrate that they’re not racist, because no matter how far you go, it’s always gonna be said to be artificial.

It’s no different — remember when David Koch of the billionaire and hated Koch brothers donated something like 25 or $50 million to a New York Hospital, and the nurses union and other left-wing activists told the hospital to not accept it, that Koch didn’t really mean it, that his heart really wasn’t in it. He was just trying to salvage and purchase a reputation. Everybody knew that Koch is a racist pig and this donation was simply meant to buy his way out of it, and the hospital shouldn’t accept it because they shouldn’t let him get out of it that easily.

Well, that’s essentially what you’re saying here. You want to go out and prove you’re not a racist by adopting an African child? Not good enough. It’s superficial and you don’t mean it. You’re trying to buy your way out of your inherent racism. And now having biracial kids, mixed race kids, you’re just creating problems, you’re not solving your own racism here. The guy says, “I hate to be the bearer of bad news.” You know what the upshot of all of this is? Folks, I’m gonna tell you something.

This is getting so pervasive that — and I’ve thought this was gonna happen many times in the past when it hasn’t, so I could be a little premature on this one too. But this has gotten so over the top now that I think with the charge of racism being bandied about at virtually every event with everybody involved, I think a lot of well-intentioned people are starting to say, “Wait a minute, everybody can’t be racist.”

I think it’s gonna backfire on these people. Because everything is race to these leftists, everything in the world. That’s the dividing line, that’s the division, that is the way they are approving or disapproving of people, and I think it’s gonna backfire on them among people who are not politically focused and oriented on a day-to-day basis and who are not obsessed with this topic. I mean, you start calling people that don’t even think this way racist, innocent people not attached to political causes, and it’s gonna backfire.

Just like I think Antifa is gonna backfire big time on those people. They’re gonna do a lot of damage in the meantime. But I mean this stuff is getting absurd here now. By the way, Affinity magazine’s a magazine for teenaged girls, mostly black teenage girls. Did I not tell you that? Well, see, I did that on purpose. Well, no, no, no, I withheld that information on purpose.

It is a leftist magazine, pure and simple, just like all women’s magazines are now. I don’t care if it’s Vogue or Good Housekeeping or Happy Kitchen, whatever the magazine is — Well, (laughing) well, whatever. I mean, take your pick of your women’s mags, they’re all nothing but leftist rags. No offense to rags. There’s all kinds of those, too. People are getting tired of it. They’re tired of everything being race related, and they’re tired of being called racist when they’re not. And what’s happening is they’re converting people, turning people into racists.

Whoever is the author of this piece: “Now, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you and your child will not have the same experiences. Your mixed baby will branch out into a society that wants to hurt them, a society that looks like you. It is your job to educate them while at the same time educating yourself. Teach them what to do when pulled over by the police or followed by store employees. Teach them that their lives matter before someone else tries to tell them otherwise. In a country run by white supremacists, you need to be absolutely clear about your stance on certain issues. I think this quote from Desmond Tutu explains this quite well –”

And here’s the quote from Desmond Tutu. Remember Desmond Tutu, apartheid, South Africa, in the Nelson Mandela era? “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

“This is especially relevant to you,” writes this author, “because while you are busy being comfortable and complacent, your child is forced to have an opinion on any topic even remotely related to their racial identity. And because they will be grappling with this constant weight on their shoulders, you too will need to grow accustomed to it. … So when the latest news headline boasts, ‘*Insert Child’s Ethnicity* Person Committed This Crime –‘” no wonder these kids are screwed up.

You know, it’s no wonder that Colin Kaepernick is screwed up. How do you know that a woman wrote this? I didn’t tell you a woman wrote — Okay, you’re right, but she’s a junior high school student in Portland. She’s not a teacher. The person that wrote this is a junior high school student advising parents on mixed race babies and how it’s not buying ’em anything and how if they don’t raise their kids black, it’s gonna screw them all up. That’s exactly right. Yep. Right. Now, where did she get these ideas? You know, nobody is born thinking this way, I don’t believe.

“California Moves To Jail People Who Refuse To Use Transgender Pronouns.” Are you telling me you didn’t hear about this? This all happened last week. You didn’t hear about any of this while I was gone? “A bill has actually been passed in the State Senate and is now under consideration in the Assembly which would impose criminal penalties — including jail time — if you are found to be addressing a transgender person using pronouns which don’t match the gender they imagine themselves to be.”

So, in California, if you encounter a transgender who that day is imagining itself to be female, and you don’t say “her” or “she” or whatever, you could be guilty of a criminal act, fined, and perhaps jailed if you use the incorrect pronoun.

“A bill that passed the California state senate and is now moving through the Assembly could threaten jail time for anyone who refuses to use a transgender person’s preferred pronoun.” So it’s up to what they want to hear. You gotta know that. You gotta be able to read their mind. “The law is currently limited in its effects to nursing homes and intermediate-care facilities.”

Why? Why? Are there a bunch of transgenders in nursing homes, or is it the nurses that — (interruption) Oh. Oh. I see. They get a pass because they’re seasoned citizens and they don’t know, they’re beyond hope. All right, they’re already established racists and sexists and so trying to teach them about proper transgender pronouns in an old folks’ home would be not even worth the effort so since they’re already in the old folks homes we’re not gonna put ’em in jail since they’re already imprisoned in their own way. Oh, okay. So nursing homes and intermediate care facilities.

“If passed, those who ‘willfully and repeatedly’ refuse ‘to use a transgender resident’s preferred name or pronouns’ could be slapped with a $1,000 fine and up to one year in prison, according to the California Heath and Safety code. The state senate passed the bill 26-12 at the end of May.” I mean, this thing sailed through. “Since then, the Assembly Judiciary committee recommended the bill unanimously and the General Assembly held its first hearing on the legislation Wednesday.”

The Constitution? What about the Constitution when it comes to illegal aliens and sanctuary cities? The Constitution doesn’t exist, does it? No, no, there’s no free speech. You can’t say something that offends people and if a she is a he, and you refer to it as an it, you could be in big trouble.

The Antifa people, anti-fascist, what’s become obvious, they are the fascists, and they need to change their name to Profa. This is typical of what the left does. They name themselves exact opposite of what they are. They’re not progressive. They’re regressive. These people can’t stand progress. These people can’t deal with progress. There’s nothing progressive about your modern-day leftist.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: I said that! I said the writer of that Affinity magazine story was a junior in high school. That’s who the writer was, advising biracial parents on how having a biracial kid doesn’t buy you anything race-wise and you better be honest with the kid. You know, speaking of that, does anybody…? Do the initials RGIII mean anything to anybody? (interruption) What do they mean to you, Mr. Snerdley? (interruption) What do you mean, “the most fizzled quarterback”? (interruption)

Now, wait just a second! Wait just a sec. He’s an out-of-work African-American quarterback. He has played. He got his team to the playoffs one year, the Washington REDSKINS! (We happily, loudly say it here.) Nobody’s hiring him, either. Where are the protests for RGIII, Robert Griffin III? He’s not mixed race. He’s full-fledged African-American. He also happens to be conservative, but I don’t know that that matters. It might. But nevertheless, he’s an African-American, he’s a quarterback, and nobody’s hiring him.

Where are the people in the media thinking that the league is blackballing this guy? In other words, why all this attention on Kaepernick? Folks, it’s very simple. This is not hard to understand. I had the opportunity to explain this to some people recently who don’t look at events like this the way you and I do. They’re not political in nature. I said, “Have you ever…?” The person asked, “Why are they so interested in this Kaepernick guy?” I said, “It’s because he’s protesting the country, and that’s what makes it news.”

To leftists — wherever they are, media or elsewhere — this is a flawed country that is just soaking in injustice. And whenever there’s an example of it (and if they can really get race involved) then they’re gonna get behind it and never let it go. And that’s what Kaepernick presents them. They don’t care about Colin Kaepernick the individual. They couldn’t care less. Colin Kaepernick is the latest opportunity for the left to demonstrate that this is a flawed, racist country.

Don’t forget, the key element here in all of this is the media has mastered the art of making it look like their version of things is the majority version of things. That’s why there’s so little outrage or opposition to the media. In the case of the Indiana state religious freedom law, or the case Kaepernick, they make it look like the overwhelming majority of the American people are also mad at the NFL owners and mad at the league and think that Kaepernick’s being discriminated against. When, in fact, it’s the exact opposite.

A minority of people think that Kaepernick’s being shafted because of… He’s not being shafted. He walked out on an existing contract. The 49ers offered him a contract, a two-year deal worth a lot of money that he’s never gonna get now, even if some team does sign him. He walked out on a deal! They didn’t fire him. He walked out on it as part of his protest. But even if he hadn’t, you say RGIII can’t play? Well, Kaepernick can’t either. Kaepernick hasn’t been able to play the last two or three years. He did show potential.

But if a business doesn’t want to hire somebody who’s going to disrespect the flag in America, why should that business do it? Why should that business be made to hire somebody like that just to satisfy the media? But a lot of businesses cave to things like that by supporting the Southern Poverty Law Center or what have you. It’s the way the world works. But so far, the NFL’s not responding to that kind of pressure, because roster spots are too valuable and this guy can’t play. The fact is that he may not want to given the fact he walked out on a deal with the 49ers.