Conservative columnist Matt Lewis wasted no time in calling out an MSNBC panelist for race baiting during a discussion on “Martin Bashir” on Wednesday after the panelist accused Lewis of deploying “white privilege to silence the black man on the panel.”
Lewis, a columnist for “The Daily Caller,” joined Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson and MSNBC’s Krystal Ball on “Martin Bashir” for a debate on Obamacare and immigration reform. Dyson, though, decided to suddenly change the topic of conversation to Oprah Winfrey, who alleged earlier this week that people dislike President Barack Obama because of his race, inciting a heated debate between Lewis and him.
“It took 10 minutes,” Lewis said, “10 minutes to get to the race issue.”
Dyson then accused Lewis of interrupting him, and after some heated exchanges, the Georgetown professor told Lewis not to “deploy the very principles of white privilege to silence a black man on the panel because you don’t want to talk about race.
“So be quiet,” Dyson said.
The conservative writer attempted to ask host Bashir if he would intervene and call Dyson out for his remark, though Bashir offered no help at all, telling Lewis to allow Dyson to speak.
“You can’t talk about policy solution,” Lewis fired back. “You can’t talk about politics without bringing up race can you? … Everything is race.”
Bashir attempted to get a handle on the panel, telling Lewis to let the professor speak.
“‘Please Matt?'” Lewis said back to Bashir. “What about please professor, who can’t talk about anything other than race?”
Letting Dyson speak, the professor then continued on a rant about Obamacare and race.
“The vast majority of Republicans are mindless and incapable of articulating a solid, serious, intellectual conception, or a political fix or remedy to the problem we have here,” Dyson said. “Thirdly, people like our disputed colleague here on the right fail to acknowledge that race plays a role…”
“This is a joke,” Lewis refuted as Bashir ended the panel.
Watch the exchange below.
