Stupid White Men
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 Stupid White Men U.S. cover |
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| Author | Michael Moore |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Released | 2001 |
| ISBN | 0-06-039245-2 |
Stupid White Men ...and Other Excuses For the State of the Nation! is a book by Michael Moore published in 2001. As of April 2003, it had spent 50 consecutive weeks on the New York Times bestseller list (eight weeks at #1) for hardcover nonfiction and is in its 43rd printing. It is generally known by its short title, Stupid White Men.
The book is highly critical of recent U.S. government policies in general, and the policies of the Bush administration in particular. Moore's A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable was originally published in this book.
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[edit] Publication issues
Moore completed Stupid White Men shortly before the September 11, 2001 attacks. His publisher, HarperCollins, initially refused to release the book, fearing bad publicity in the wake of this event (despite an advance printing of over 50,000 copies).
HarperCollins wanted Moore to rewrite 50 percent of the book. They asked him to tone down criticism of the president. They also wanted to change the title to Michael Moore: The American; delete two or three chapters, including one called "Kill Whitey!", and insisted that Moore himself would have to pay the cost of printing the revised book. If he didn't comply, they would simply abandon the project and pulp the books already printed. In the book, Moore suggests that Rupert Murdoch, owner of News Corporation and HarperCollins, "passed down" this decision.
On December 1st, Moore found himself making a presentation in New Brunswick, New Jersey. He told the audience about the struggle to get his book published and that the only copies in existence were about to be recycled and probably would come back as Rush Limbaugh or Bill O'Reilly books. Moore read the first chapters of his book to the group. "You're probably the only people in America who will ever hear these words," he said. He asked the people in the room that day not to go to the media and make a big deal about it. In the audience that day was Ann Sparanese, a librarian from Englewood, New Jersey. She did not take note of his warning about going public.
Sparanese sent word to various email lists including SRRT (Social Responsibilities Round Table) and Library Juice, explaining Moore's predicament. She expressed that "this battle wasn't just one man's struggle with a publishing house, but was a battle to preserve free speech and to stop censorship".
Two days later HarperCollins phoned Moore. "What did you tell the librarians?" they asked. "We're getting hundreds of letters a day from angry librarians. Do you know how much business we do with these people?"
HarperCollins eventually gave Stupid White Men the green light but not before informing Moore "you are out of touch with the American people." They handed him the list of cities for the book tour. There were only three listed: Ridgewood, New Jersey; Arlington, Virginia; and Denver, Colorado. The message was clear to him; HarperCollins wanted no association with his book: Moore was on his own.
Despite HarperCollins' predictions, the book became enormously popular, becoming the largest-selling nonfiction book for the year 2002 at such major outlets as Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com, and occupying the #1 spot in the U.S., the UK (including being the number one seller on Amazon.co.uk before a British printing was even proposed), Germany, Ireland, and elsewhere.
The book was subsequently criticized in another book, Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, which Harper Collins published.
[edit] A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable
A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable (full title "A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable with As Many Afflictions As Possible") is a satirical prayer written by Michael Moore and published in chapter 11 ("The People's Prayer") of the book. It is one of the most remembered sections of the book and is often referred to in its own right, rather than just in the context of the book itself.[citation needed]
The text of the prayer asks God to create circumstances in which (mostly unnamed) powerful figures in the American establishment are given problems or situations which affect 'ordinary' Americans, including requests that:
- every member of the House of Representatives to contract cancer
- all senators from the southern United States to become addicted to drugs
- the children of senators in the Mountain Time Zone to become gay ("really gay")
- all White American political leaders "who believe black people have it good these days" to become black-skinned overnight
- bishops in the Roman Catholic Church (who are by tradition always male) develop unplanned pregnancies
Moore's message in the prayer is that if all political figures experienced the same level of injustice and misfortune as average American citizens, the former would be more empathetic towards the latter and make better leaders. His tongue-in-cheek conclusion is that the effect of God answering the prayer, in terms of the benefits it would bring to the majority of people, would outweigh the damage to the smaller number of afflicted members of "the Comfortable".
Moore cites in support of his argument, examples of notable figures who have become more sympathetic towards particular problems or situations when they have become personally affected themselves, including:
- Nancy Reagan's support for stem-cell research, upon learning of the possibilities that it may hold for the treatment of Alzheimer's Disease, which her husband, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan contracted in later years
- Dick Cheney, who is regarded as holding somewhat liberal views on gay rights for a member of the Bush administration, and whose daughter Mary Cheney is a lesbian.
[edit] External links
- Moore's Homepage
- Free online bonus chapter
- A Prayer to Afflict the Comfortable is reproduced here
[edit] References
- Moore, Michael (2001) Stupid White Men ISBN 0-14-101190-4
