Yet Another MSNBC Anchor Forced to Apologize Offensive Remarks

Onyx Truth Contributor:  J.S. Franklin

The “news” media outlet (if you can call them that) MSNBC has officially become the network of hate and hypocrisy. Following in the footsteps of a long line of sexist, racist, classist, elitist hypocrites MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry has become the latest member of the network forced to apologize for completely insensitive remarks, this time aimed at the family of Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

In a segment on Harris-Perry’s show which ran earlier this week a photo of Romney, his wife and their more than two dozen grandchildren was shown and Harris-Perry asked her “panel” to make up their own caption for the picture. Apparently the fact that Romney’s newest grandchild, Kieran, is Black (recently adopted) was cause for great amusement. Panelist Pia Glenn chastised the infant and the family by singing “one of these things is not like the other ones.” Another panelist, Dean Obeidallah followed by saying the picture “really sums up the diversity of the Republican Party, the RNC. At the convention they find the one black person.” Harris-Perry finished by expressing her desire to see Kieran Romney grow up to marry North West, daughter of Kanye West, because she thinks it be would funny to see Romney and West as in-laws.

While some might argue that nothing said here was overtly racist in nature the group still chose to make a mockery out of the fact that a rich White family would adopt a Black child. And this comes on the heels of Harris-Perry’s comments on the Megyn Kelley/Santa Claus episode where she said:

“If we cannot imagine you as racially different from ourselves, it’s because our minds are stunted by a history that still can’t fathom benevolence, and kindness, and intimacy in the bodies of those who are not like us. If we still doubt that you can embody every possibility of racial being, it is because we do not yet believe that every racial body is capable of making our sugar plum dreams come true. If we can’t imagine Santa across the racial divide, no wonder we have trouble creating an America without a racial divide.”

And yet somehow it is both hilarious and unconscionable to image that a family such as Romney’s would adopt a Black child. The media has hailed the likes of Madonna and Angelina Jolie as wonderful human beings for adopting across racial lines but somehow it’s not acceptable when Romney does it. The difference? Madonna and Jolie are devoted liberal Democrats while Romney is a religious Republican. So adopting a child of a different race is fine so long as you are a Democrat; but when you’re a Republican it becomes a target for public mockery. Is everyone clear on that double standard?

A day later Harris-Perry took to Twitter to apologize for the comments made on her show and with a wave of her smartphone she has been completely exonerated by her employers and pretty much everyone else. Despite the fact that MSNBC is still running stories about Phil Robertson and Jesse Jackson is still calling for the cancellation of Duck Dynasty, not hardly a word was mentioned nor a finger lifted in response to this incident.

It all boils down to politics. Harris-Perry and her comrades over at MSNBC are members of the Democratic Party, the party of tolerance and acceptance. Because MSNBC features several personalities of multiple ethnicities and sexual orientations it is perfectly acceptable for them to disparage people based on their race, religion or geographical origin. They’re from the Party of love and tolerance which means they are the only ones who are allowed to be intolerant of others. And boy does MSNBC have a history of intolerance. Courtesy of the Independent Journal Review here is a list of other MSNBC personalities who have made horribly insensitive and disparaging remarks that were completely wiped away by a simple apology:

• Ed Schultz apologizes for calling Laura Ingraham a slut.
• Martin Bashir apologizes for saying someone should defecate in Sarah Palin’s mouth.
• Michael Eric Dyson apologizes for calling conservatives “sexual rednecks” and “religious bigots.”
• Chris Matthews apologizes for MSNBC’s comparison of Mitt Romney campaign slogan to a phrase used by the Ku Klux Klan.
• Chris Matthews apologizes for saying he was glad Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast just in time for the election.
• Touré apologizes for charging Romney with the “niggerization” of Obama.

But clearly Fox News is the racist, intolerant, insensitive network right? Clearly MSNBC is the network of peace, love and acceptance. Amazingly all of these people are still on the air over at MSNBC, because all you have to do is make a simple apology on Twitter and you can basically get away with saying whatever you want, so long as you’re not a Republican.

photo credit:  Thomas Hawk