https://youtu.be/HRePyZeaOYA?t=1m18s
A Black professor’s attempt to have a civil, mature conversation about race proved too much to handle for Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who launched into a full-on fit.
Dr. Ricky L. Jones, who pens opinion pieces for Louisville’s the Courier-Journal, stopped by Carlson’s show Monday to discuss his latest op-ed titled, “Was James Baldwin Right When He Called White Americans Moral Monsters?” It wasn’t long before the conversation flew off the rails.
“I’d encourage people to read the piece,” Jones, a professor of pan-African studies at the University of Louisville, said after Tucker accused him of pegging all white folks as moral monsters. “Actually, that was the conclusion of legendary writer James Baldwin after many years in America.”
“I simply posed the question as to whether or not Baldwin was right when we place some of the behavior along lines of race into historical context,” he explained.
The answer didn’t satisfy Carlson, however, who tried to twist the argument by questioning if it’d be okay to describe Black people as moral monsters without being labeled a racist.
“Do you think one person’s race affects their moral standing?” he interjected before cherry-picking a quote from the piece describing whites as “brutally mean and inhumane.” “Aren’t these your words? Tell me what you meant by it.”
“I’m going to be patient with you. I’m going to be patient with you and let you ask and answer the questions you like to,” Jones replied, growing frustrated but remaining calm. “But we’ll run out of time, television is certainly a short platform. Again, I encourage —”
“You said it five times,” Carlson jumped in again. “Why don’t you answer my question, which is, would it be okay for me to write the sentence, ‘Why are black Americans so brutally mean and insensitive. If you would, please answer the question.”
“I’m answering the question,” Jones said. “The first thing that I would do, what I would not limit myself in a very myopic way to one sentence of a piece. I would endeavor to read the article?”
Watch more of the discussion in the video above.
