4. John Wayne
John Wayne was the embodiment of the all-American hero in the two decades prior to the end of the Second World War. His aura of raw masculinity and steely determination seemed to reflect the nation’s mood and he quickly became one of Hollywood’s most revered actors. His greatest part remains the role of Ethan Edwards in The Searchers, an eternal outsider with highly racist views of the Native American race.
It’s hard to tell where Ethan Edwards ended and John Wayne began, however. The actor’s views on Native Americans were depressingly vile, claiming that they were being “selfish” in not being over keen on being annihilated by settlers and that they deserved to lose their lands. The staggering racial views didn’t end there; Wayne also went on to say that he wasn’t in favour of equality between white and black people until “the blacks become better educated”.
While many seek to defend Wayne as merely being a product of his time, the fact remains that, no matter when you said it or how you justify it, such racist views clearly mark you out as a toilet of a human.
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