MSNBC’s Cenk Uygur Doesn’t Read Chart That Says ‘Black Separatists’ Are A Hate Group
It’s a cliche in American politics to attack the other side with some variation of “you can’t handle the truth,” but sometimes it’s hard to find any other way to describe moments when prepackaged political views and hard data collide. MSNBC host Cenk Uygur had one such moment today as he appeared to refuse to read data on a chart by his guest’s institution that showed black separatists groups were in the top three kinds of hate groups in America today.
Uygur’s segment focused on Rep. Peter King‘s recent comments on Islam and what he perceived to be a lack of communication between the authorities and Muslim groups. Uygur wondered why Rep. King put such an emphasis on Muslim groups when the reality, according to Uygur, was that right-wing hate groups were far more active in America than Muslim extremists.
“Let me introduce real facts here so that Congressman King can be educated,” Uygur boasts before showing a number of statistics from various research groups. Rep. King wasn’t the only one to get educated tonight, however, as Uygur read down a list of most prominent hate groups in America, listing the top three varieties of hate groups in America, classifying them before reading off the list as “right wing.” The statistics come from a recent study by the Southern Poverty Law Center that show there are currently 1,002 active hate groups in America.
“Topping the list,” he began, “[are] the Ku Klux Klan with 221 groups. They are followed with Neo-Nazi groups with 170 groups, and”– at this point Uygur stops for a beat, before ending the list with “that doesn’t make any sense.” What doesn’t make any sense? That the third largest hate group contingent in America are black separatist groups. Not exactly the first type of political group conjured up by the phrase “right-wing,” unless Uygur was willing to argue that the social conservatism often found in black separatist groups somehow made them right-wing or some other similarly stretched-out argument. Of course, the socially conservative black separatist groups on the SPLC’s list mostly appear to be chapters of the Nation of Islam, and slamming them would not exactly strengthen Uygur’s argument that focusing on Islamic groups is a waste. Uygur smartly didn’t try to argue that, but at its expense failed to argue anything at all, responding to the chart by just shaking his head and refusing to read the facts it gave him. He smoothed it out by introducing his guest, Mark Potok of the SPLC, who mostly avoided the troublesome statistic as well.
The segment via MSNBC below:
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
