Despite the apology offered by Federal Trade Commissioner Paul Rand Dixon to consumer advocate Ralph Nader for calling him a “dirty Arab,” Jewish organizations said today that they were holding to their views that Dixon still owes all Americans an apology and that there is no place in the government structure for people who use racial slurs.
Benjamin R. Epstein, national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, in a telegram to Dixon, said that as a human rights agency, “we feel strongly about name-calling or stereotype slurs made against anyone anywhere. We believe it is incumbent upon you to make a public apology not only to Mr. Nader, but to all Americans.”
Bertram H. Gold, executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, in a letter to Calvin J. Collier, Federal Trade Commission chairman, expressed the hope that the incident would lead to the general realization that “such bigotry and vulgarity are quickly rejected by Americans of all races and creeds.”
Richard Cohen, spokesman for the American Jewish Congress, said his organization is gratified that Dixon apologized for the racial slur. “Racial, religious and ethnic slurs should have no place in the vocabulary of government policy makers,” he said, “or indeed, of any Americans. We are just as opposed to the phrase ‘dirty Arab’ as we are to ‘dirty Jew.'”
Nader, who received Dixon’s letter of apology, said he considered it only a half apology since Dixon did not apologize for the “more conventional obscenities” Dixon hurled at him. Dixon had also referred to Nader as a “son-of-a-bitch.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
