I wanted to look for a more complete quote for that statement.
Unfortunately, I could only find it from Fox:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/29/beck-amends-obama-racist-comment-questions-belief-collective-salvation/Beck, 46, noted that he wasn't alive yet when King delivered his speech or the civil rights movement was in full swing, and he grew up in the Pacific Northwest, which wasn't a hotbed of civic activism during his youth.This is as good a demonstration of Beck's willful ignorance of history, both in seeking it out beyond his own experience and of ignoring, being separate from and/or misinterpreting/misrepresenting what is going on around him.
Here's the info from Wikipedia on where he lived at the time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_BeckGlenn Lee Beck was born in Everett, Washington to William and Mary Beck, who lived in Mountlake Terrace, Washington,<7> and sometime later moved their family to Mount Vernon, Washington<8> where they owned and operated City Bakery in the downtown area.<9> He is descended from German immigrants who came to the United States in the 1800s.<10> Beck was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended private Immaculate Conception Catholic School in Mount Vernon. At age 13, he won a contest that landed him his first broadcast job as a disc-jockey for his hometown radio station, KBRC.<11>
In 1977, William Beck filed for divorce against Mary due to her increasing alcoholism.<12> Glenn and his older sister moved with their mother to Sumner, Washington, attending a Jesuit school<13> in Puyallup. On May 15, 1979, his mother drowned in Puget Sound, just west of Tacoma, Washington.<13> A man who had taken her out in a small boat also drowned. A Tacoma police report stated that Mary Beck "appeared to be a classic drowning victim", but a Coast Guard investigator speculated that she could have intentionally jumped overboard.<13> Beck has described his mother's death as a suicide in interviews during television and radio broadcasts.<12><13>
After their mother's death, Beck and his older sister moved to their father's home in Bellingham, Washington,<11> where Beck graduated from Sehome High School in June 1982.
Here's information from the UW of some of the major civil rights issues going on in the Pacific Northwest at the time Beck lived here.
These actions and decisions were being covered in the papers (much of the time with a strong bias) and hotly debated by people in each area he resided.
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/CRcommission.htm#_ednref38University of Washington Law Professor Ralph Johnson suggested that the anti-Indian sentiment was the end result of a fundamental lack of understanding of Native American treaty rights coupled with the misconception that the Native Americans were catching all the fish—thus depleting the fish runs. Professor Johnson, who founded the Native American Law Center at the UW and whose work helped lay the foundation for the Boldt decision, stated that the treaties Native Americans signed with the United States government explicitly promised them unfettered access to their traditional fishing grounds.33 He testified that Native American fishing rights should not be politicized, “where a majority of citizens can tyrannize a minority.”34 Rather, the issue should be handled in the courts, where they had already been reviewed and upheld. Johnson continued by arguing against HR 9054, which would have abrogated Indian treaties, and refuted the notion that Indian fishing rights endowed them with privileged status in relation to white Americans: “widespread backlash feeling against Indian people … appalls me because we talk about Indians being supercitizens and I would like to find a number of supercitizens that were so impoverished.”35
After Professor Johnson’s panel finished testifying, the Commission heard a statement from John Hough, who was a member of the Washington State Fisheries Task Force. Hough requested that the Commission postpone his testimony so that the task force could have extra time to complete its report. The Commission agreed and then opened the floor to fifteen individuals who wanted to make a statement, limiting each person to five minutes. Once these individuals completed what they had to say the hearing concluded. With so many relevant issues unresolved, the Commission promised to return to Seattle to hear more testimony in the future. The Commission did return on August 25, 1978 and took additionally testimony on the fishing issues. In September 1980, the Commission published it findings from Seattle and other hearings across the country. The American Indian Civil Rights Handbook outlined the comprehensive rights that are guaranteed to every Native American and advised natives where to go if any of these rights were denied.
Local newspaper coverage was minimal in comparison to coverage of non-Indian fishermen trying to overturn the Boldt decision. However, articles and editorials did appear in newspapers from Bellingham in the north to Tacoma in the south.36 The overwhelming majority of articles were supportive of the Native Americans’ position. In fact, one Seattle Times article, commenting on the hostility between the Commission and Slade Gorton, specifically singled out Gorton for criticism: “Attorney General Slade Gorton, among the first witnesses, asked immediately, ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘Why are you here?’ “Said Gorton: ‘It is not reasonable to expect the state to accede to the demands of some of the Indians of this state.”37 Echoing the Seattle Times article, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reprinted Gorton’s racially charged remarks, “State Attorney General Slade Gorton yesterday described American Indians to the United States Civil Rights Commission here as ‘supercitizens’ who get special privileges based on race.”38 The native periodical Indian Voice also commented on how Gorton challenged the Commission as to whether it had the jurisdiction to meddle in Washington State’s Indian affairs. In addition, Indian Voice described how Commissioner Frankie Freeman chastised Gorton and Guzzo for using the slanderous moniker “supercitizens” in reference to Native Americans.
The Tacoma News Tribune and the Bellingham Herald did not center on the upper levels of governmental conflict. Both newspapers did carry one article that mentioned part of Professor Johnson’s testimony defending Indian treaty rights. But for the News Tribune and the Herald, the bigger issue was the local one. This is illustrated by the News Tribune’s coverage of testimony accusing Tacoma of discrimination against the Puyallup tribe: “Local governmental entities are skeptical of the Puyallup Tribe, Miss Bennett testified, ignore it when possible, and have utilized the press and other news media to spread ‘scare stories and monster stories about us.’”39 In the Bellingham Herald it was the contention between Whatcom County and the Lummi that garnered the paper’s attention: “Non-Indians are attempting to terminate the Lummi tribe, Indian witnesses countered.
Unger said the treaty with the Lummis should be abrogated.”40 For Bellingham and Tacoma the important issues were those close to home.
For more on Civil Rights and Labor History in this area:
http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/
http://www.historylink.org/
Now maybe Beck was distraught from the tragedies in his life at that point. and not paying attention to what was going on all around him. That's understandable given what's divulged about the deaths in his family and his own recounting of turning to alcohol and drugs at that time.
But to make a statement that the Pacific Northwest was not a "hotbed of civic activism during his youth" when it demonstrably was is false. And that he was unaware of that, couldn't be bothered to look it up now , or perhaps does not regard Native Americans' struggles for rights as part of the civil rights movement just adds more proof of his absolute willful ignorance.
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