Hentoff Layoff Won’t Silence the Man in the Skunk Suit

Nat Hentoff, now formerly a Village Voice writer, never figured as a master of the understatement in my thinking. He is outspoken, direct and forthright in his hard hitting columns.

Hentoff’s five decades with the New York alternative weekly ended with a telephone call from his editor. Two other Voice writers were also let go on December 30.

Reacting to the layoff, he told the New York Times, “I’m 83 and a half. You’d think they’d have let me go silently.”

Understatement!

Let him go silently? How could it have been done?

With other recent grasping (and gasping) strategies in the newspaper industry, I shouldn’t be surprised by the Hentoff Layoff. But you don’t let a journalist of his stature go silently. He has been making noise for 50 years.



And for good causes, not the least of which is First Amendment freedoms. The rights of free speech and religion are foundational. He understands this, writing and speaking of it frequently.

Take a stance, then take what comes -- that’s Hentoff. His pro-life stance in the 1980s encouraged those of us peacefully occupying the sidewalks in front of abortion facility doorways. He didn’t share our theology (he’s a self declared atheist) but saw the rightness of defending life at personal risk.

He expects the free world to use its freedoms to speak out for those less fortunate. His writing makes people uncomfortable – puts on his skunk suit and goes to a garden party, as one of his editor's once said. He makes me uncomfortable – the kind of itch that shouldn’t go away in a world of injustices.

He told the Times “in all due immodesty,” that he will be missed by Village Voice readers. What Immodesty? Of course they will miss him. In the same spirit, Hentoff’s closing column isn’t about himself; he again throws accolades to his mentors: I.F. Stone and George Seldes.

The good news: he’s not retiring. May he live – and fight – til’ he’s 100.

Top photo by permission of N. Hentoff



Liner notes in 1960s long play record "The Golden Flute of Yusef Lateef". Hentoff's book, At the Jazz Band Ball: 60 Years on the Jazz Scene is expected this year.