CNN commentator Van Jones says that after Larry Wilmore’s performance at Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, he will never be a guest on the comedian’s late night talk show.
“Comics tell jokes – some funny; some not. But nobody (not even black comic) should call POTUS “my n-word.” #NotCool #NerdProm,” Jones tweeted Sunday. “Not that I’ve been asked to do so recently. But I will never appear on any program with @larrywilmore as a host. #Disgraceful #NerdProm.”
Jones, who is a black political activist, took offense at Wilmore’s use of the n-word while ending his remarks at the ritzy D.C. event.
“Yo Barry. You did it my n——a,” the host of Comedy Central’s “The Nightly Show” said as a salute to President Obama in his final year in office.
Responding to a tweet from another Twitter user, Jones explained Wilmore’s gesture to Obama did not possess the respectful meaning that was probably intended. “[T]he n-word? Directed at the first black president? At his last #WHCD? Nah. Never. That’s the PRESIDENT. Respect starts at home.”
Jones said he was fine with the rest of Wilmore’s performance, which included an extended bit about how Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. But it was the n-word finish that “stung.”
“Rest was fine. Everyone’s fair game,” Jones said. “Some jokes worked. But after 7 yrs defending O from racist attacks, that stung.”
Jones isn’t the only one not impressed with Wilmore’s salute.
The New York Daily News’ Leonard Greene tweeted, “By dropping N-word on Obama, Wilmore broke cardinal rule of cutting-edge humor – he was’t funny.”
At an MSNBC after party, civil rights leaders and MSNBC host Al Sharpton said Wilmore’s use of the n-word was in “bad taste.”
However not everyone seemed perturbed by the remark, viewing it as an opening to a wider discussion about race.
“I wish white people were as offended by police brutality and mass incarceration as they are by black people using the N-word. #WHCD,” tweeted Brandon Patterson of Mother Jones.
I wish white people were as offended by police brutality and mass incarceration as they are by black people using the N-word. #WHCD
— Brandon E. Patterson (@myblackmindd) May 1, 2016
