Michael Eric Dyson On Herman Cain: He Will Say Anything To Curry White Favor
On Wednesday night, MSNBC’s Ed Schultz‘s brought on Georgetown professor and author Michael Eric Dyson to discuss Herman Cain‘s assertion that race is a non-issue for his supporters. In his segment, Schultz refers to our exclusive audio recording (Thanks Ed!) of Cain’s appearance on Neal Boortz‘s show.
In case you missed it, here’s a taste:
In their radio interview, Boortz asked Cain to define what it could possibly mean to be an “authentic black” person. Cain responded that he didn’t know, before proceeding to trace his family tree back to his ancestors’ experience as slaves in Georgia (which prompted Boortz to ask whether he had any relatives who may have been slaves on the South Carolina plantation owned by members of his family). Cain then called talks about “authentic blacks,” a “crass, desperate attempt to try and, here again, insult me. What do they mean by ‘authentic’?”
RELATED: Herman Cain On Obama: ‘Never Been A Part Of The Black Experience In America’
Cain had also told Boortz that many black Americans on the left, despite their claims to the contrary, end up being more bigoted than “the white people that they’re claiming to be racist.” Later on, he and Boortz agreed that Barack Obama has never been a part of the “black experience” in America — a sentiment which contradicts and undermines Cain’s earlier frustration at the idea that there exists such a thing as an “authentic” black person, who acts and thinks and speaks a certain way.
Dyson’s reaction to the Boortz interview?
He seems willing to say anything in order to curry white favor.
So. Responding to a sweeping and racially problematic assumption with more sweeping and racially problematic assumptions… Is that really an answer? Is it productive? Does it move the conversation forward, or simply help it circle faster down the drain?
It seems that, where discussion of Cain and race is concerned, people on both sides of the aisle — and most notably Cain himself, who seems to want to have things both ways — are left floundering in the muck as they try to point fingers rather than save themselves from drowning in this garbage. To assume, first of all, that Cain is a representative of some united and monolithic black experience simply because of his skin color is ludicrous. And for him to question Obama’s “blackness” — and to equate being black with being, as he phrased it, “po'” — is also ludicrous. Everyone loses in this conversation, and no one seems willing to disengage enough to maintain a critical distance or perspective and realize they’re doing nothing more than playing a game for political points rather than forming a coherent or productive argument.
Furthermore, for pundits to continue to frame Cain’s campaign of one of “selling out” his race by pandering to white Republicans — who, not sure if you’re aware, are apparently all uniformly afraid of black people — is, hi, also not exactly a noble demonstration of progressive attitudes towards race.
Again: Everyone loses. Always. Forever.
Have a look, via MSNBC:
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
