A CNN legal analyst learned the hard way that preparation is key when calling in to debate during a radio segment.
Areva Martin was part of conservative David Webb’s eponymous “David Webb Show” radio show on SiriusXM Patriot Tuesday and the pair discussed experience being more important than the color of an applicant’s skin when it comes to obtaining a certain job.
CNN legal analyst Areva Martin mistakenly thought SiriusXM Patriot host David Webb was white. (Frazer Harrison/Getty Images/Cindy Ord/Getty Images for SiriusXM )
“I’ve chosen to cross different parts of the media world, done the work so that I’m qualified to be in each one,” Webb said his Jan. 15 broadcast segment with Martin. “I never considered my color the issue, I considered my qualifications the issue.”
“Well, David, that’s a whole, another long conversation about white privilege, the things that you have the privilege of doing, that people of color don’t have the privilege of,” Martin, a civil rights attorney, responds.
“How do I have the privilege of white privilege?” asks Webb, who also works as a Fox News contributor and hosts “Reality Check” on the streaming service Fox Nation.
“David… by virtue of being a white male you have white privilege,” Martin starts her response, which was interrupted by Webb so he could correct her about his true race.
“Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should’ve been better prepped. I’m black,” he says.
After a brief beat, Martin says, “I stand corrected” but Webb lets her have it for assuming he was white.
“This is the falsehood in this: you went immediately with an assumption,” he says. “Your people, obviously, or you, didn’t look. You’re talking to a black man who started out in rock radio in Boston who crossed the paths into hip-hop rebuilding one of the greatest black stations in America and went on to work on Fox News … but yet you come with this assumption and you go to white privilege. That’s actually insulting!”
Martin explained she was given the wrong information and apologized, while Webb acknowledged privilege as a general concept exists. However, he dismissed the idea that skin color could influence it.
Meanwhile, Martin’s mistake was the joy of conservatives online.
“LMAO!!! – Areva Martin was just being interviewed on the David Webb Radio show and accused him of having white privilege because of his pro Trump opinions – David Webb is black!!”
“Remember that name, Areva Martin. David Webb destroyed her. Her argument was failing and she decided to claim he had ‘White Privilege.'”
“Did you think this had something to do with “white privilege”? #AskingForAFriend Also, way to take the typical Dem cop out and blame someone else for your mistake and then try to apologize to make it better instead of just owning it. #yougotnocred.”
. @SIRIUSXM Patriot Host @davidwebbshow mistakenly accused for his "White Privilege" by @CNN Analyst @ArevaMartin. pic.twitter.com/WPh6bXPbgy
— SiriusXM Patriot (@SiriusXMPatriot) January 15, 2019
