John Wayne Airport Could Be Renamed Due to Actor’s Old Racist Comments

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California Democrats in Orange County are calling for the county to rename John Wayne Airport and to remove all likenesses of Wayne from the airport due to the actor’s “racist and bigoted statements” made decades ago.

“The Democratic Party of Orange County condemns John Wayne’s racist and bigoted statements, and calls for John Waynes’ name and likeness to be removed from the Orange County airport, and calls on the OC Board of Supervisors to restore its original name: Orange County Airport,

Ada Briceño, chair of the DPOC, says the move to rename the airport is similar to the efforts to rename U.S. military bases named after Confederate icons.

“There have been past efforts to get this done and now we’re putting our name and our backing into this to make sure there is a name change,”

“It is widely recognized that racist symbols produce lasting physical and psychological stress and trauma particularly to Black communities, people of color and other oppressed groups,”

The renewed calls to remove Wayne’s name from the airport come after a Twitter user shared an old Playboy interview in which Wayne said “I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”

“I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility.”

“I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves,”

“I had a black slave in The Alamo and I had a correct number of blacks in The Green Berets. If it’s supposed to be a black character, naturally I use a black actor,”. “But I don’t go as far as hunting for positions for them. I think the Hollywood studios are carrying their tokenism a little too far.”

Jorge Alonso BroBible avatar
Brobible sports editor. Jorge is a Miami native and lifelong Heat fan. He has been covering the NBA, MLB and NFL professionally for almost 10 years, specializing in digital media.