MSNBC's "Morning Joe" hosts Mike Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough have come forward to address the controversy the sparked after suggesting hip-hop music inspired the racist Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity chant.
Instead of apologizing, the co-hosts stood behind their comments.
On Thursday, Scarborough noted that as someone raised in the south, he was simply trying to figure out where the kind of words included in the rant come from. Brzezinski tried to explain the remarks, saying, “We’re all trying our best here to figure out our way through this and yesterday the conversation got real and I think some people conflated it with other things, but there’s no moral equivalency between something like rap lyrics and what happened on that bus. Those kids made that decision, they made that choice and it was disgraceful, disgusting and chilling what they were saying. That separate conversation is only related in these stories because there was someone who was going to perform — who performed on that campus who cancelled, and is not going back to that campus, because he’s disgusted by what he saw happened. And he happens to be someone who has lyrics that are questionable, and that is a separate conversation. There’s no moral equivalency, but there’s a news connection.” (Think Progress)
Check out what the hosts originally said on the next page…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UR57wp4RUYE
Yesterday, co-host Brzezinski singled out hip-hop music and notably, rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
“If you look at every single song, I guess you call these, that [Waka Flocka’s] written, it’s a bunch of garbage. It’s full of n-words, it’s full of f-words. It’s wrong. And he shouldn’t be disgusted with them, he should be disgusted with himself.” (MSNBC)
Immediately following his comments, social media platform Twitter exploded with #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery as a top trending topic.
https://twitter.com/TheXDExperience/status/575662928365486080
The Blueprint 4: Willie Lynch #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery
— Jamilah Lemieux (@JamilahLemieux) March 11, 2015
https://twitter.com/tacojenkins/status/575653310922911746
https://twitter.com/KuhnBeardsKurse/status/575667408175788035
Big Willie Lynch Style – Will Smith #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery
— Marc Lamont Hill (@marclamonthill) March 11, 2015
"Run, D.M.C.!" #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery
— Robert A George (@RobGeorge) March 11, 2015
I Use To Own H.E.R. #RapAlbumsThatCausedSlavery
— Omar Holmon (@OmarHolmon) March 11, 2015
C.R.E.A.M. (Caucasians Rule Everything Around Me) #rapalbumsthatcausedslavery
— Bog Mummy, Take the Wheel (@yahhello1) March 11, 2015
https://twitter.com/curlyheadRED/status/575664771250458624
Nothing but more false equivalency from the Morning Joe crew.
You’ve stepped out of line yet again Morning Joe. Time for your careers to be demolished.