Interesting (and possibly disturbing) comment by my BIL...

[Archae]

While having lunch with him and my sister, my brother-in-law put forward the idea that Clint Eastwood is a racist.

His evidence of this?

The movies he's made himself have racial themes and/or confederate sympathies.

"The Outlaw Josie wales" was written by Asa Carter, a Klan leader.
All the "bad guys" in the movie were Union, all the "good guys" were Confederates.

"American Sniper" turned out to have been the revisionist story of a guy who killed Afghans "for fun."

All the bad guys in "Gran Torino" were gang members of non-white nationalities.

I've only seen the "Dirty Harry" movies, and "Josie Wales".
So I'm not totally sure on this premise of my BIL's.

[Wounded Bear]

1. Hmmm, don't know about that...

I do know he was a pretty staunch Republican, which doesn't automatically make him a racist.

Never saw Sniper, didn't interest me, especially after the reviews I heard, or Gran Torina, which from the previews/reviews struck me as a fairly typical vigilante-style flick. There was a strain of that kind of "Bundy-esque" shit in a lot of his movies.

Other than knowing he was a Republican small town mayor in Coastal California, I don't know much about his personal rep.

[jaysunb]

2. I agree w/your BIL

And it has nothing to do w/ his movies, although there is certainly a pattern.

[MADem]

3. He's a chair talking lunatic, that we know.

Nothing shocks me anymore when it comes to racism.

I wouldn't be surprised.

It's not like he's down with the brown on a routine basis, either--I've never seen him hanging with anyone who wasn't melanin deficient, for example. Happy to be proven wrong...!

[Kingofalldems]

4. He also did "Bird."

[rug]

5. He's wrong about Gran Torino.

His character started out as a racist but as he grew to know, and protect, his Hmong neighbors, that changed. The bad Hmongs he was protecting them from were simply bad people.

[Lint Head]

6. Not all Republicans are racist but today if you

show me a racist I show you a Republican. Of course there are exceptions to every rule.

[SheilaT]

7. His talking to the chair thing

struck me as openly racist. It's more than possible I'm being overly sensitive here, but if not actually racist, it was still completely inappropriate.

[LiberalElite]

8. This was just posted in GD: Eastwood endorses Trump nt

[Archae]

9. Besides the Chair, now we know how stupid he is.