Soundbite: Touré Blasts Niall Ferguson’s “Child’s Understanding of Race”

VIDEO

by Rachel Sklar | 12:40 pm, August 19th, 2009

» 3 comments

toure niall ferg “Niall Ferguson has many things: a position teaching at Harvard, a column in the Financial Times — and a child’s understanding of race.”

— Touré on MSNBC, in response to Niall Ferguson’s FT column where he likened Barack Obama to Felix the Cat because they were both “black and lucky.”

Touré went on to make his case to Morning Meeting host Dylan Ratigan, which I found highly quotable:

Touré: I and many others find it intellectually immature and offensive to link the optical blackness of a cat, or a shoe, to the cultural blackness of a person. And I can’t believe the Financial Times saw fit to publish that. Are there no editors over there?

Ratigan: He’s just making a comment — he’s just he’s just he’s just he’s – it’s poetic license.

Touré: It’s not poetic license. There’s no there there.

and

Ratigan: He’s adding his own flair, his own flavor, his own je ne said quoi.

Touré: Yeah. Would you say George Wallace was adding his own flavor?

The whole exchange was a great example of cable news getting it right: Engaging discussion with a knowledgable guest and a host who provides just enough of a foil to make it interesting, plus great chemistry between the two. Video below:

The best takeaway from this:

Ratigan: People don’t know what to do with a black president. Some people do not know what to do with a black president.

Touré: Criticize him without it being around race.

There you go. Simple enough for even a cat to understand.

barack obama, dylan ratigan, Felix the Cat, morning meeting, msnbc, Niall Ferguson, Paul Krugman, Soundbite, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Toure

http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Taj-Bozeman/661000669 Joshua Taj Bozeman

You race-obsessed are offended by nearly everything on the planet, so most of us tend to tune out when you open your mouth.

It’s absurd.

What the hell is the “cultural blackness of a person?” Obama is somehow from a different culture than white Americans? He probably grew up the same way most of us did, but because he’s half black, you automatically assume he personifies some sort of mythical cultural blackness that sets him apart from any white American.

Nothing good can come when you look at the world and all you can see is skin tone.

Note to cartoonists ’round the world- you can compare Obama to cartoon characters, just be damned sure that character doesn’t contain any black coloring at all, lest you be accused of being a racist. This nonsense from you folks HAS to stop and it has to stop now. Your childish obsession with all things race is tearing this country apart.
Hannity Hussein

“Some people do not know what to do with a black president.” Ahhh More like some racist people ie. Dylan Ratigan don’t know what to do with a black President.
It’s called projection.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Joshua-Taj-Bozeman/661000669 Joshua Taj Bozeman

lol. Looks like Toure here is a kook. While on MSNBC, he went on this rant about racism at protest rallies, even though he cited no evidence of racism outside of his claim that “white people” were bringing guns to a rally when a black man was president.

Don’t follow that tortured logic? Don’t worry, neither do any of us with brains in our skulls. Because there’s no logic to be found.

Turns out, Toure, MSNBC, and the media as a whole can’t seem to get their basic facts straight. The semi-automatic weapon Contessa Brewer reports was being carried by a white man…well, MSNBC edited the video and looped it, cutting out the part where we see the guy’s face.

Turns out the guy with the gun was, you guessed it- BLACK!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=scE-VrpnU9M&NR=1

You race-hustling fools should be ashamed of yourself. It’s people like you who are destroying this nation with your constant cries of racism. You folks are doing nothing but setting back race relations several decades.