Amid calls to change the name of John Wayne Airport in Southern California, the late actor's son rejected conflating a one-time Playboy interview "out of context" with brandishing his father as a racist.
Ethan Wayne, told CNN's "Smerconish" it "would be an injustice to judge someone based on an interview that's being used out of context."
"They're trying to contradict how he lived his life, and how he lived his life was who he was," Ethan Wayne continued. "So, any discussion of removing his name from the airport should include the full picture of the life of John Wayne and not be based on a single outlier interview from half a century ago."
Among those calling for the renaming of the airport include an L.A. Times columnist who was struck by the following Playboy interview quote from John Wayne:
"We can't all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don't believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people."
Revisionist history will misinterpret the comments made over the course of the two-day interview conducted generations ago, according to Ethan Wayne, who appreciated host Michael Smerconish's willingness to present the entire scope of the interview as opposed to a mere clip of it.
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