By Debbie Schlussel

With all the political correctness and boy who cried wolf baloney, it seems that no-one pays attention when a real ethnic slur is uttered. They’re too busy attacking Rush Limbaugh for comments he never made.

ABC/ESPN college football analyst Bob Griese was suspended for a game when he uttered an ethnic slur on live TV, saying that Colombian driver Juan Pablo Montoya was not listed in the top driver standings because he was “out having a taco.”  Yes, that’s bigoted.  I wouldn’t like it if someone said I didn’t do this or that because I was too busy having a bagel with lox.  Griese apologized twice on the air and he was suspended for just one game.  That’s an appropriate response. (No Rush Limbaugh treatment for him.)

Bigots: ESPN’s Bob Griese & ABC Radio/WJR’s Steve Stewart

(Griese isn’t exactly the most verbally classy dude. When his son Brian Griese’s NFL team was close to beating the NFL undefeated season record he set, he publicly wished for his son to fail so he could hold onto his record. Father of the Year, this guy.)

But, then, there is Detroit’s ABC Radio/Citadel Communications station, WJR–which runs the syndicated talk shows of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Vannity, and Mark Levin.  Last week, WJR’s program Director Stephen Stewart, the station’s second-in-command, who also hosts a show on the station, repeatedly referred to Black people with the phrase “Ho’ Dee Do’.”  It’s a reference to a racist joke about Black men running to catch an elevator.  “Ho’ Dee Do’ ” = Hold The Door–get it?  I was shocked that in today’s day and age, Stewart (who also doubles as a volunteer police officer) would utter that on the air unphased. . . and get away with it.  It’s at least on par with Griese’s comment, and probably worse.  And, unlike Griese, he never apologized and, instead, laughed at his unoriginal, cheesy, and racist joke.

Stewart works in the Fisher Building–a building where the majority of the employees are Black and presumably take the elevator–and it’s in the middle of a Black neighborhood in a Black city.  It’s clear he was referring to Blacks in a derogatory way.

And Stewart–who makes his station a home to local jihadists on which to spew their unchallenged baloney–uttered his “Ho Dee Do’ ” slur on the evening radio show of uber-liberal Mitch Albom, without a single admonishment from Albom or his Black sidekick Ken Brown (hey, he wants to keep his job).  I was surprised, especially when Albom’s producers kept re-running the clip on later shows, with everybody laughing.

But, it seems, none of the usual Black race merchants and hustlers seem to care about Steve Stewart’s racist slur because they all love to go on WJR to spout their BS and can’t miss out on the forum.  Also strangely silent:  Stephen Henderson, the Black editorial page editor of the Detroit Free Press, who told me he takes offense at my use of Dearbornistan to describe the corrupt, Third World Republic of Dearborn, Michigan. . . even though “istan” means “land of,” and there are no Arab “istans.”  Hey, he also often appears on WJR, too.

So, do you agree?  Isn’t “Ho’ Dee Do’ ” racist?  Should a program director of a major radio station in a major market be able to mock Black people on the air, this way, and then get away with it?  Do you agree with the one-game suspension of Griese?  In Stewart’s case, he should probably be fired, since he’s a top official of the station, should have known better, and what he said was so blatant and uttered on the air.

In the past, I’ve spoken out against the hypocritical, racist critics of Don Imus and Michael Richards (both of whom did utter racist comments and deserved criticism) because those “critics”–Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson–are the biggest bigots of the bunch, and I thought the reaction was disproportionate.  But in this case, a one-game suspension at ESPN seems fair and appropriate.  The total ignoring of Stephen Stewart’s comments in a majority Black city is absurd.