NRA's Nugent Reacts To Criticism: “I'm Like A Black Jew In Nuremburg 1938 And The Brownshirts Can't Stand Me”
Written by Timothy Johnson
Published
National Rifle Association board member Ted Nugent compared himself to a “black Jew” in Nazi Germany while discussing widespread criticism he has faced after making a series of inflammatory comments on race.
Since the July 13 acquittal of George Zimmerman, Nugent has used his media platform to stereotype African Americans as violent and make disparaging comments about deceased Florida teenager Trayvon Martin. As a result, he has faced calls for his removal from the NRA's board of directors, criticism in cable and print media, and a boycott of an upcoming concert in New Haven, Connecticut.
Responding to his critics during an August 1 interview with Mark Reardon on NewsRadio 1120 KMOX, Nugent said he was “like a black Jew in Nuremberg 1938 and the Brownshirts can't stand me. So I'll just keep derailing their trains, shall we say.”
During his appearance Nugent also addressed allegations of racism, claiming that he is in the “top one-percent of anti-racists.” As evidence of this, Nugent later claimed that he was “the only artist, black or white, who has ever showed genuine reverence for those masters, those black American masters that created the greatest music in the world. No black artist has ever done that”:
REARDON: And what do you do at every single show, and you did here in St. Louis and you often do it on my show, Ted Nugent the racist, according to the New Haven, Connecticut, editorial board gives praise over and over to who?
NUGENT: For 50 years now, Mark, I literally genuflect at the altar of the great black artists from America, the Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Lightnin' Hopkins, Moses Allison, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, Sam & Dave, The Motown Funk Brothers, The Temptations, The Four Tops, are you kidding me? All good music is propelled by what Little Richard invented.
So I have always done this on every concert, I think its six-thousand-four-hundred-and-some concerts now. But of course, I am the only artist, black or white, who has ever showed genuine reverence for those masters, those black American masters that created the greatest music in the world. No black artist has ever done that.