The Democratic Party of Orange County this week demanded in a resolution for John Wayne’s name, statue and other likenesses be removed from the local airport.
The document cites “a national movement to remove white supremacist symbols and names [that] is reshaping American institutions, monuments, businesses, nonprofits, sports leagues and teams, as it is widely recognized that racist symbols produce lasting physical and psychological stress and trauma particularly to Black communities, people of color and other oppressed groups, and the removal of racist symbols provides a necessary process for communities to remember historic acts of violence and recognize victims of oppression.”
It clarified that there are “numerous calls” to remove John Wayne’s namesake from the airport due to his “white supremacist, anti-LGBT, and anti-indigenous views.”
The paper references a 1971 interview with Playboy magazine where Wayne is quoted as saying, “I believe in white supremacy” and “I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves.”
The Democratic Party of Orange County suggests that the airport simply be restored to its original name, Orange County Airport.
Wayne died in 1979, with credits in many Westerns such as The Searchers and True Grit, for which he won an Oscar in 1970.
