Author and radio host Lenard Larry McKelvey, known professionally as "Charlamagne tha God," went H. Rap Brown on ESPN's First Take television show Monday. He claimed America earned every bit of the social unrest over its 400 years of white supremacy. The militant Brown said during the racial unrest of the 1960s, "If America don't come around, we're gonna burn it down," and McKelvey said people are ready to just that now.
Co-host Stephen A. Smith introduced McKelvey as a guest on the First Take program, prompting a long, bitter tirade painting America as a vile, racist society and excusing the people engaging in lawlessness across the nation. He raised the specter of burning down the country and said America has given people a reason to go crazy:
"I would like to tell people, man, if you gonna point a finger at the looters, the protesters, rioters, whatever you wanna call them, before you point finger at them, point every single other finger you got back at America. This is what happens when a country promises liberty and justice for all, but only gives you liberty and justice for white folks. This is what happens when one of the wealthiest countries in the world doesn't understand the plight of the poor and the have-nots. You got 40 million people out of work, unemployment the highest it's been since the depression era, people cooped up in the house the last few months waitin' on stimulus checks. Yet during this whole process we continue to watch the rich get richer in this country.
"And not to mention, ain't no good gonna come to America until they do right by black folks. Period. You can't continue to brutalize and kill descendants of God's children that built this country. Understand what that does to us? You know, mentally and emotionally? All this country needed was a reason. America has given black people 400-plus years of reasons to go crazy. I'm actually shocked that we didn't snap a long time ago.
"This country continues to deny us equality, justice and just plain decency. You know ... what you have in this country right now is a perfect storm of people who are ready to burn this society of white supremacy to the ground and America earned every bit of this. ..."
Before 500 cheering supporters in Cambridge, Md., in 1967, Brown threatened to burn America down. His disgusting rhetoric lives on today, through Charlamagne tha God.
Michael Eric Dyson, an author, preacher, professor and radio host, also appeared on First Take to defend looters. Citing a Los Angeles Times op-ed by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar decrying racist America, Dyson said "lootings, uprisings and violence and the like pales in comparison, as Mr. Jabbar has said, to the viciousness that black people are subjected to daily. White people loot, too. Black people face looting in corporate America, black people face looting in offices."
Max Kellerman, a First Take co-host and hardcore leftist, turned the discussion toward a defense of Colin Kaepernick, who protested police brutality and racial inequality as an NFL player in 2016. "Colin Kaepernick looks pretty good now, doesn't he?" Kellerman insisted.
