The liberal’s ice is colder

By Shun Smith

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV.

In a contemporary take on Mark 10:25, it is easier for black liberals to rebuke white Americans than it is for a black man to vote Republican. After Tiffany Cross’s recent departure from MSNBC, many blacks in the media gnashed their teeth on Twitter (despite declaring to depart the platform if Elon Musk took ownership of it) about how (roll the r) racists and right-wing media pundits led to her firing. Surprisingly, but also not, Cross’s defenders seemingly overlooked the bigoted comments against white Americans that she and her guest regularly spouted on her weekly program.

With increasing regularity, this vitriol is now commonplace. Cross’s predecessor, Joy Reid, wears the crown for racial slander. Recently, Reid claimed republicans talk down to their voting base. On the contrary, however, researchers at Yale and Princeton found that after analyzing the democrat and republican campaign speeches delivered to audiences, democrats were more likely to use a less competent vocabulary when speaking to minority audiences.

If you have ever watched Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, or even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez orate to an audience with a significant black and brown presence, they tend to lose the letter g at the end of words, use Ebonics, and even speak with a southern drawl. As off-putting and patronizing as this may be, Reid, Cross, and their Black liberal cohorts find assailing conservatives as their favorite pastime.

At NBC Universal, the key figures are, of course, Caucasian. One would ask, why would the top executives allow broadcasting that demeans a possible viewer base? What is the incentive? Is there no camaraderie among (in the voice of Dave Chapelle) “the whites?”

A few rungs down the leader, Rashida Jones, a black woman, serves as president of MSNBC. Before taking the role in February 2021, Jones cut her teeth as the Senior Vice President of NBC News. Rashida Jones’s leadership may have played a part in the direction of the network’s divisive programming and could be the decision- maker on Cross’ firing.

Not to be forgotten in the race for divisive news broadcasting, the social media journalist and news figures are gaining ground. Ascot wearer-in-chief Roland Martin has developed his brand of racial rhetoric. Martin was a major contributor at CNN but came under fire after being accused of attacking the real rainbow coalition (LGBTQ+). He may have been one of the first people to fall victim to an errant tweet against a socially protected class.

After parting ways with CNN, Martin gained a daily show at NewsOne Now. While there, he wasn’t far from controversy. Martin became embroiled in the Hillary Clinton town hall debate fiasco and the infamous Clinton dance lesson. There must’ve been something alluring about Clinton that made Rollie jeopardize his journalistic integrity, as well as his dignity, by gyrating on stage alongside her.

Now freed from NewsOne, Martin presents himself informally in both attire and display, with his contributors pontificating on alleged white racist events, name-calling black conservatives, and even going so far as creating a “Crazy A$$ Karen” segment on his daily streaming show, Roland Martin Unfiltered.

Credit where it’s due, unlike most of the individuals identified in this article, Roland Martin is a credible journalist, owns his platform outright (based on the available public data), and he has mostly separated himself from liberal white executives and their media. Martin’s Black Star Network (BSN) has done a decent job of promoting content creators, and BSN penned a contract with the HBCU’s Gulf Coast Athletic Conference to provide social media amplification. 

Jemele Hill, who became somewhat of a household name while working for ESPN in 2017 for calling President Trump a white supremacist, has made a post-sports journalism career of identifying racism through tweets. Once Hill and sports journo bestie Michael Smith took over the desk of Sportscenter (SC6), the ratings tanked. Hill released a barrage of tweets, some of which violated ESPN’s social media policy, leading to her suspension. It wasn’t the tweet calling the sitting president a white supremacist either. Her suspension came from a second tweet criticizing Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and suggesting sponsors should pull the advertising from the team.

After leaving ESPN, Hill spent the last four years bouncing around from one liberal establishment to another. She manages to fill her time labeling white Trump supporters as racists and activists through tweets. She joined The Atlantic as a staff writer where most of her publications on black men have just a hint of misandry and had two failed shows, one on VICE TV and the other on the ill-fated CNN+. You would be hard-pressed to find another Twitter user with over a million followers who went about their dislike for whites as much as Hill. Defying belief, she puts that disdain aside to collect her paycheck.

Last but not least, a man rising in the ranks of the racial rhetoric is host Rashad Richey. A local Atlanta radio host and political strategist-turned-progressive podcast host, Rashad Richey is somewhat of a Roland Martin-lite. Richey became a contributor for The Young Turks (TYT) with his show Indisputable with Dr. Rashad Richey. TYT is one of the longest-running progressive media sources.

Keyword searching for “racist” on Richey’s YouTube channel, which hasn’t even been around for two years, yielded staggering results. The r-word has been used over 300 times in just the title and video descriptions alone, and this was before my finger became weary from scrolling.

If I were a content subscriber to Rashad Richey’s channel, I would leave his show every day wondering if I had traded places with Rembrandt Brown and been sucked into a Sliders (one of the most underrated Sci-Fi shows) wormhole that sent me to an alternative reality in which “negros” were still drinking from colored water foundations. Richey once called himself a thug and gang banger because of his CVS receipt-length rap sheet filled with misdemeanors, criminal trespass, and a felony conviction that he compiled in his youth. Now reformed, Richey’s programming looks to racism as the major problem facing black Americans, not the 2022 version of the young Rashad Richey terrorizing the communities. 

With so much racism abound, black hosts in liberal media have navigated the so-called treacherous waters and been elevated to chief positions. They have not only survived but thrived from disparaging “the man,” who you’d think would fear their harsh truths. This would also have to include the white backers and executives that fund these operations. Unless there is an unsaid rule, the liberal’s ice is colder, his broadcasting deals better, and his treatment of black pundits are better. The only distinction provided to viewers is that republicans and Trump supporters are most definitely racist.