Guest post by Kristinn Taylor
It’s been two days since MSNBC host Toure Neblett made a shockingly racist and anti-Semitic comment to a person claiming to be a descendent of Holocaust survivors.
“The power of Whiteness” is what Neblett callously told a poster Friday evening on Twitter (screen name @hope_and_chains) who responded to Neblett’s praise for an article on so-called “white privilege” by saying, “My family survived a concentration camp, came to the US w/ nothing, LEGALLY, and made it work. #SORRYFORBEINGWHITETHOUGHYOUGUYS”
Neblett, who has maintained Twitter silence since Friday night, has been blasted on Twitter since then, most notably by @redsteeze who Tweeted Holocaust imagery with caustic comments on “Holocaust privilege” such as sarcastically calling concentration camps “gated communities.”
With the exception of Mediaite, the media has totally ignored this latest racist blast by a MSNBC host. An online search Sunday afternoon revealed no coverage of Neblett’s Holocaust slur.
Oliver Willis of the media watchdog group (LOL) Media Matters for America posted his agreement with Neblett’s racist, anti-Semitic comment on Saturday. Willis, like Neblett, is Black:
“guess there are some out there who dont like to think that a holocaust survivor had a leg up over a black/brown person due to skin color”
Neblett is promoted as an “inspirational speaker” at Keppler Speakers. One of his presentations is laughably described as:
“How Racism Functions Today and Ways to Deal with it to Get Success
“Modern racism is far more fluid and subtle than the racism of our parents and grandparents. We often encounter moments where we feel we have received racist treatment but if we tried to explain it to others they would not understand. So what do we do? In this speech, Touré outlines several concrete things we can do to combat racism, based on his interviews with psychologists and sociologists. He explains that racism is not truly a comment on you or your ability, but on the person who is being racist.”
While the media may be giving Neblett a pass for now, one wonders how long MSNBC and Keppler Speakers will wish to be associated with an “inspirational” Black Nazi?
