Touré Calls Tucker Carlson Remarks 'Brain Dead,' Carlson Asks, 'What's a Touré?'

Touré, the Madonna figure of MSNBC's "The Cycle," took a moment to call remarks made by The Daily Caller and FNC "Fox & Friends" Co-host Tucker Carlson "brain dead" in a column by WaPo's Jonathan Capehart. This morning's subject matter involved a tweet by Clark Hennessy, Social Media Editor for The Daily Caller, who quipped that GOP Chairman Reince Priebus was the HNIC, in reference to lyrics by a rapper, Fashawn. Capehart writes that blacks can use the phrase for a whole host of reasons but whites look strange if they do. "To use this phrase and not be black requires a level of cultural literacy that would be as rare as it would be impressive." Hennessy is not black. He's a native of New Zealand, who, as we reported previously, came to the publication about a week ago. As the column moves on, it's clear that Touré is Capehart's go-to source. Capeheart notes that he asked Carlson about the tweeter's identity and about what action, if any, was taken against Hennessy. He quotes Carlson's entire email, which says in part, "I realize it’s habit on the Left to hunt for racists under every bed, but you won’t find one here. The employee who wrote it was making a reference to his favorite hip hop song. Not everyone understood the allusion (including me), and — even worse — there was a typo in the tweet. So we deleted it. But the tweet certainly wasn’t intended to be malicious or racially-tinged. And by the way, isn’t Reince Priebus white?" Capehart then asks the nation's leading expert on African American racial matters -- 42-year-old Touré, of course -- to react to Carlson's statement. Touré's qualifications on the matter include that he's a music journalist and host of Fuse's "Hiphop Shop." Rev. Run from Run DMC officiated his wedding. He's also the author of several books involving race, such as Soul City, Who's Afraid of Post-Blackness? What It Means To Be Black Now, and I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon. Speaking of racism, while at Emory, Touré founded a black student newspaper that has been critiqued by The Daily Caller as "militantly anti-white." And maybe in the most ironic twist of all, in August of 2012, Touré caused a stir by stating that by calling President Obama "angry," GOP nominee Mitt Romney was tactically engaging in the "niggerization" of the president. Touré later issued an apology. The story was covered by the usual suspects -- WaPo, Mediaite, Newsbusters, Breitbart.com and The Hollywood Gossip. Capehart wrote, "When I asked Toure for a reaction to Carlson’s response, he said that what’s 'even more offensive is Tucker’s brain-dead 'the left looks for racists under every bed,’ as if we’re here searching for racism. They love the idea that it’s we who mention racism who are the problem rather than racism itself being the problem.'" Carlson's reaction to all this? When asked for comment Carlson told FishbowlDC, "Are all of Capehart's columns that dumb? I've never read one before. I couldn't even understand his point. There's been a change in standards on the op-ed page I see. No wonder the Washington Post is dying." We reached out to Capehart for comment. He told FishbowlDC, "Mr. Carlson's inability to understand my point, any point, is well-known, which explains his initial clueless response." Carlson also addressed Touré's remark that he and Capehart weren't declaring racism by saying, "I do know when I'm being called racist, and of course that's exactly what Capehart is saying. It's always the first refuge of the stupid." He also wondered, "What's a Touré?"

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Touré Calls Tucker Carlson Remarks 'Brain Dead,' Carlson Asks, 'What's a Touré?'

Betsy Rothstein

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Betsy Rothstein