Dennis Miller has been scraping the bottom of the slime barrel ever since he decided to declare his fealty to the right-wing hate establishment. Apparently on Jay Leno's show back on August 27th, 2012, Miller felt the need to smear as a "stripper chick" the courageous Sacheen Littlefeather, 39 years after her brave and poised speech at the 1973 Academy Awards, where she refused on Marlon Brando's behalf to accept the Oscar for The Godfather, citing the awful portrayals of Aboriginal Americans in the film industry.
A story has appeared on the Indian Country Today Media Network website that details the incident, and the hurtful effect it has had on Littlefeather, who is currently undergoing treatment for breast cancer.
The subject came up on the August 27 airing of NBC’s Tonight Show while host Jay Leno was talking to comic and FOX-friendly pundit Dennis Miller. The conversation turned to Massachusetts senatorial candidate Elizabeth Warren:
Miller: Elizabeth Warren? Is that the chick that says she’s an Indian?
Leno [chuckling]: Well, yeah, no.
Miller: She’s about as much Indian as that stripper chick Brando sent to pick up his Oscar for The Godfather, all right?
Leno: Check that reference! Hang on, you mean Shawsheen [sic] Littlefeather?
Miller [audience laughter]: Sacheen Littlefeather. Of course I remember!
Leno: 1971 was that? Oh my God!
Miller: You know, I sent the Warren campaign a donation today, but just to piss her off I sent it in beads.
Dennis Miller has chosen to pander to the ugliest impulses of the Conservative movement, and it amazes me that he is still given a mouthpiece the size of the Leno show to spew his hate.
Jay Leno should be ashamed for allowing this racist shitbag to smear an incredibly brave woman (who is also a cancer survivor) on his show.
The Leno-Miller segment about Littlefeather mostly escaped the notice of the media, but that’s partly because she deliberately delayed responding to it. She is surviving a battle with breast cancer just this year, having only recently been officially declared in remission. “Having cancer has been the fight of my life. Staring death in the face changes your life,” she says. “Late-night TV has stooped to racism and bigotry. [Miller and Leno] came off as bitter, old white farts. Would they have gotten away with it if they had referred to Oprah as Aunt Jemima?”