Irwin Tang believed that his book, Gook: John McCain's Racism and Why It Matters would cause a big stir. Despite its documenting McCain's support of white supremacists, among other disturbing habits, the book has garnered little interest. Tang believes that when it comes down to it, most Americans are too busy trying to survive to deal with racial oppression.
Paul Revere Books
The it Works Publishing
12111 Forsythe, Austin, TX 78759
www.irwinbooks.com
Gook: John McCain’s Racism and Why It Matters
garners gasps of shock but few book sales
"I hate the gooks," said John McCain, when asked about his continued use of the racial slur. "I will hate them as long as I live."
Gook has gone viral. At least the video has. While tens or hundreds of thousands have watched an interview with Irwin Tang concerning John McCain’s use of the anti-Asian slur "gook," only hundreds have read the extremely disturbing book, Gook.
Author Irwin A. Tang is concerned. "The book contains a great deal more information about McCain’s disturbing racial biases, and his overwhelming desire to start and maintain wars." According to Tang, war and race overlap in the racial slur, "gook," which has its roots in various U.S. wars dating back to the conquests of the Philippines and Haiti. The racial slur broke through to the mainstream American vocabulary during the Vietnam War, when a famous saying went, "The only good gook is a dead gook."
The central focus of the book, however, is John McCain’s support of racist policies and white supremacists. Tang has been shocking radio and television audiences with facts easily accessible to any researcher in the United States.
"John McCain has given so much money to the white supremacist Richard Quinn, that it’s questionable whether Quinn’s hate group journal, the Southern Partisan, could be published without McCain’s support." Tang’s book touches on McCain’s long relationship with political consultant Richard Quinn, who runs a headquarters of sorts for white supremacists and "neo-Confederates." Quinn has at times served as a spokesperson for presidential candidate John McCain.
Tang’s passion comes out when he questions why McCain endorsed and raised large sums of money for hate group lecturer George Wallace, Jr. "There were hundreds of thousands of Republican candidates that John McCain could have endorsed in 2006," says Tang. "McCain chose to go from city to city making speeches for a man who had just given the keynote speech for the largest hate group conference in the nation." According to Tang, "George Wallace just needed to put the white hood on, he had been invited so many times to rally forth this national hate group."
The hate group Tang writes on is the Council of Conservative Citizens, whose website focuses on African American rapists and overweight Mexican Americans, among other "issues." The Council of Conservative Citizens is a reincarnation of the White Citizens Councils, which were known among African Americans as "the uptown KKK," because the organizations used corrupt politicians and police to oppress and intimidate African Americans.
"Nobody accidentally uses the racial slur ‘gook,’" says Tang, "And there is a long list of equally disturbing acts and speeches delineated in the book." And while many have heard Tang on YouTube and the radio, the full force of his book has yet to make an impact. "Even though we say fighting racism is important," says Tang, "in the end, economically squeezed Americans don’t have the time to fully educate themselves, even about a presidential candidate."
Irwin Tang is the author/co-author of five books, including the history, Asian Texans, and the true story When Invisible Children Sing. Tang is best known for a public tangle over race with Shaquille O’Neal. Gook is available at www.irwinbooks.com and Ingram and Baker & Taylor book distributors; ISBN 0967943343. For review copies, interviews, talks, or book cover images, please call 512.554.5431 or email Paul Revere Books at the.it.works.publishing@gmail.com.
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