*MSNBC has suspended conservative commentator Pat Buchanan, according to Phil Griffin, the network’s president. The suspension comes from words in Buchanan’s book, “Suicide of a Superpower.” Buchanan has stated that President Obama arrived to the White House as a result of Affirmative Action and that the country “has been built, basically, by white folks.”
Griffin seems concerned about two of the chapters in Buchanan’s book, one of them titled “The End of White America,” and the other called “The Death of Christian America.”
The MSNBC president is quoted in the AP as saying “Because of the content of the book, I didn’t think it should be part of the national dialogue, much less part of the dialogue on MSNBC.”
I’ve only met MSNBC President Phil Griffin one time. He and I were on a panel together at the National Action Network Conference, hosted by Rev. Al Sharpton. Griffin seems like a nice enough guy, and we haven’t spoken since. But if we were to have another conversation, I’d ask him one simple question: How in the holy hayell is a man like Pat Buchanan still on your payroll?
I remember Columbia University Professor Marc Lamont Hill being fired from Fox News after one very quick, dirty and misleading smear campaign. I recall Rev. Jesse Jackson being fired from CNN because he had a child out of wedlock. Yet, Pat Buchanan has spent the last 40 years speaking and acting in ways that would put David Duke to shame, and the network continues to treat him like he’s just a regular guy.
In spite of how hard Buchanan has worked to prove to MSNBC that he is a bigot in analyst’s clothing, they have continued to reward him with a high salary, limousine rides and a national platform for his racially inflammatory remarks. This is another example of the same white privilege that allows Don Imus to continue making good money after referring to a group of black women as “nappy headed hoes.”
Not only does MSNBC need to fire Pat Buchanan, they need to ask themselves why they didn’t get rid of him long ago. Is it because so many millions of Americans think the way he does? Is it because they simply don’t care what he says? Or perhaps it’s the obvious – that disrespecting black people is at the bottom of the political priority list for most major organizations.
The saddest truth in the world for black people is that even our friends have a hard time respecting us. We end up stuck between Republicans who want to kill us and starve our kids, and Democrats who care about almost none of the issues that matter to our community. Over the last two months, when MSNBC celebrated reduced unemployment as a victory for the Obama Administration, they failed to make note of the fact that black unemployment has gone up over the same period of time. Our agenda only matters when it happens to be their agenda; but I argue that it’s time to speak clearly about the black agenda.
While I am not entitled to tell anyone how to react to Pat Buchanan, MSNBC or anyone else, I encourage people of color to honestly ask themselves whether our friends or our enemies have very much respect for our community. If this were the court of law and we were reviewing the evidence, I argue that the verdict would be abundantly clear. Firing Pat Buchanan is the least this network can do and the firing should be followed by an apology to us all. Buchanan brings few redeeming qualities to MSNBC, and President Griffin knows this.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here.
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Boyce writes——While I am not entitled to tell anyone how to react to Pat Buchanan, MSNBC or anyone else, I encourage people of color to honestly ask themselves whether our friends or our enemies have very much respect for our community
——————————————————————————————————————————————————-
I say really,you still don’t know the answer to that and you have a doctorate.I’m going to go one dumber,do we respect/love ourselves or our community? Going by the actions and words of many, I would say no and to me that’s more important than what anyone thinks about us.
Wow! Dr. Watkins really laid it down in this article.
“The saddest truth in the world for black people is that even our friends have a hard time respecting us. We end up stuck between Republicans who want to kill us and starve our kids, and Democrats who care about almost none of the issues that matter to our community”
But I couldn’t help associating this statement with what Ron Paul said at the recent Republican debate when they asked him about the racist newsletters.
His response was why they don’t ask him instead what he thinks on race relations. He said one of his heroes was MLK because he practiced the libertarianism discipline of peaceful resistance and disobedience. He then said he, Ron Paul, was the only one from the Republican or Democratic Party, who understands true racism in this country, and it is in the judicial system and has to do with enforcing the drug laws. He said, look at the percentages. The percentages of people who use drugs are about the same as with blacks and whites. But blacks are arrested and prosecuted way disproportionately, and they get the death penalty way disproportionately.
Now playing devil’s advocate, it’s easy to say that Ron Paul is going all out to profess this attitude with regards to race because of the heat he is taking for his newsletters. But even then, we really have to look at the fact that no Democratic candidate for president has ever been this candid on race. I mean, take Obama. He has a black AG, but will not allow him to steer his DOJ in a direction to address this racist system. Obama himself will never talk about the racism in the judicial system, and when Holder first brought up the topic of race, he was quickly scolded by Obama.
But what if Ron Paul is telling the truth about how he feels on race? Or if he at least is now a reformed man? That’s a lot of what ifs, but I’ve been waiting a long time for someone willing to start this dialogue, and we know Obama will never go there.
I’m not making any promises now, but I will be watching Ron Paul closely, because if he is sincere about how he feels on race, every black person has an obligation to reject Obama and the Democrats and support this man. And that is for more reasons than one. He’s also the only one willing to reject the Patriot Act and the NDA Act which Obama just signed. That is a law which allows the government to hold someone indefinitely without charge.
As Dr Watkins said, “The saddest truth in the world for black people is that even our friends have a hard time respecting us. We end up stuck between Republicans who want to kill us and starve our kids, and Democrats who care about almost none of the issues that matter to our community”
@Reds,are you serious,sadly u are.Paul is a racist,but you’re too busy tearing down President Obama 2 see it.U R SAD!!! But then there is PAKO123,who make Reds look enlightened.
Considering recent events, what exactly did I say which you found objectionable. Did you not see where I expressed reservations in all my comments regarding Ron Paul?:
“…what if Ron Paul is telling the truth about how he feels on race? Or if he at least is now a reformed man? That’s a lot of what ifs, but I’ve been waiting a long time for someone willing to start this dialogue, and we know Obama will never go there.
I’m not making any promises now, but I will be watching Ron Paul closely, because if he is sincere about how he feels on race, every black person has an obligation to reject Obama and the Democrats and support this man.”
What if he is sincere? Isn’t there enough at stake to give him a closer look? Remember, no one has ever been that candid on the racism inherent in the criminal justice system. And no one will be for a long time. Did you noticed how there were no follow up comments after he made the statement? Matter of fact, they cut straight to commercial.
You also have to remember that up until this point, there is a lot of confusion on where Ron Paul stands on race. He claimed never to have read the newsletters, and denounced it when he found out. Now that’s hard to believe that it took him that long. But there is also a claim out there that:
““As crazy as it sounds, Ron Paul’s newsletter writers may not have been sincerely racist at all. They actually thought appearing to be racist was a good political strategy in the 1990s. After that strategy yielded almost nothing — it was abandoned by Paul’s admirers.
You can attribute their “redneck strategy” to the most malignant kind of cynicism or to a political desperation that made them insane. Neither is particularly flattering.””
OK, where there is smoke there is fire, and Ron Paul is more likely blowing smoke. He did not vote for the MLK Holiday although he said MLK was one of his heroes. But that was some time ago.
What if Ron Paul is a reformed racist and wants to atone for his sins?
Just something to think about.
“The saddest truth in the world for black people is that even our friends have a hard time respecting us. We end up stuck between Republicans who want to kill us and starve our kids, and Democrats who care about almost none of the issues that matter to our community”
What a crock of psuedo ineellectual cap!
Dr watkins needs to relaize that his inetllectual capacity is less than 5% of Mr. Buchanan’s. What Dr Watkins seems to miss is the stark reality of the founding of this great country he calls home… that is, his freedoms and rights were ascribed , indeed, by white Christians
Boyce Watkins, as you said about Tavis Smiley, NEGRO PLEASE!
MSNBC should’ve fired Buchanan after he wrote “A Brief for Whitey.”
You helped in making Tavis our enemy and now you have the nerve to talk about MSNBC?
what about others like “you?” Are you really our friend or just friends with those in power?
Negro please!
The Compassion of Dr. Ron Paul