Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's Deadline: White House on MSNBC, Vanderbilt University professor and former MSNBC analyst Michael Eric Dyson went into a rant against "mediocre white men" as he reacted to a clip of Congressman Matt Gaetz (R-FL) raising concerns about the influence of Critical Race Theory in the U.S. military during a recent committee hearing.
After MSNBC contributor Tim Miller reacted favorably to the answer Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley gave to Gaetz, Dyson called MAGA supporters "maggots" -- and then pretended the slur was accidental. Now imagine the MSNBC reaction if anyone on Fox called Obama superfans "maggots."
I agree with brother Tim in speaking about, you know, the maggots -- I'm sorry, the MAGA -- that is so corrosive in this, you know, political moment. And can I tell you, Nicolle, that, as a black person, as a black intellectual, as a black person with a PhD from Princeton University who's taught at several Ivy League schools, isn't it interesting before black and brown and minoritized and racialized groups could get in -- before women could get in, those were the gold standards -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vanderbilt, University of North Carolina, and on and on.
Without naming any names as to whom he was complaining about, Dyson asserted that he has been criticized whether he was educated or not:
And when we get in, all of a sudden, it becomes the bete noire -- it becomes a benchmark of your being a sellout. So you tell us we're too dumb to get in. And then, when we get in, you tell us we're too much of an egghead to identify with the common people. I'm confused. Which one is it?
After acknowledging that academics can get too based in jargon to make sense to the average American, saying Jesse Jackson explained that to him, he took aim at what he called "mediocre mealy-mouthed snowflake white men."
But I resent as an intellectual and as a black person in America that we have taken the brunt of anti-intellectualism. We have borne the brunt of being disloyal to this nation. And we have stood by to see mediocre mealy-mouthed snowflake white men who are incapable of taking critique, who are willing to dole out infamous repudiations of the humanity of the other and yet they call us snowflakes and they are the biggest flakes of snow to hit the Earth. They are incapable of criticism. They are incapable of tolerating difference. They're scared of, "Oh, my God, critical race theory is going to kill your mother."
Speaking of white men who can't handle a critique, maybe Dyson should have taken on Chris Rufo on Joy Reid's show. This rant went on and on. He continued:
And they don't even know -- they are not critical -- they have no race, and they don't understand theory. And yet they are allowed to wax eloquently about the means and limits of rationality in this country, and they couldn't save themselves if the world depended on it. And I am tired of hearing mediocre white men take to their pulpits to excoriate women and trans people and bisexuals and black folk and every other thing that ain't them.
This latest example of incendiary rhetoric on MSNBC is sponsored in part by VMWare. Click on the link to let them know what you think.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's Deadline: White House
June 23, 2021
5:45 p.m. Eastern
NICOLLE WALLACE: There's something else about this story that to me makes it feel lasting and important. We don't need to grope around for any more evidence that for the Republican party, nothing is sacred. Not the chain of command, as Tim is pointing out. Cotton and others are looking for people to go straight to them, not up their chain of command. Not the service of the United States military. Not the men and women who give their lives to protect our democracy, and not the democracy itself that they are so eager to see move in the wrong direction.
MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: No, absolutely right. I agree with brother Tim in speaking about, you know, the maggots -- I'm sorry, the MAGA -- that is so corrosive in this, you know, political moment. And can I tell you, Nicolle, that, as a black person, as a black intellectual, as a black person with a PhD from Princeton University who's taught at several Ivy League schools, isn't it interesting before black and brown and minoritized and racialized groups could get in -- before women could get in, those were the gold standards -- Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Vanderbilt, University of North Carolina, and on and on.
And when we get in, all of a sudden, it becomes a betes noires -- it becomes a benchmark of your being a sellout. So you tell us we're too dumb to get in. And then, when we get in, you tell us we're too much of an egghead to identify with the common people. I'm confused. Which one is it? When Richard Hofstadter talked about intellectualism in America, he was talking about the fact that they chose Eisenhower over, you know, a more well-heeled and thoughtful Democrat who was thinking seriously about this nation, and yet they called him an egghead -- a pointed-head intellectual.
Now, I'm critical of certain distancing rhetorics that intellectuals can carry out. I'm certainly critical of the obscurantist language we can sometimes use. Jesse Jackson once told me, "If you say something I can't understand, that's a failure of your education, not mine." So I get that. But I resent as an intellectual and as a black person in America that we have taken the brunt of anti-intellectualism. We have borne the brunt of being disloyal to this nation. And we have stood by to see mediocre mealy-mouthed snowflake white men who are incapable of taking critique, who are willing to dole out infamous repudiations of the humanity of the other and yet they call us snowflakes and they are the biggest flakes of snow to hit the Earth. They are incapable of criticism. They are incapable of tolerating difference. They're scared of, "Oh, my God, critical race theory is going to kill your mother."
And they don't even know -- they are not critical -- they have no race, and they don't understand theory. And yet they are allowed to wax eloquently about the means and limits of rationality in this country, and they couldn't save themselves if the world depended on it. And I am tired of hearing mediocre white men take to their pulpits to excoriate women and trans people and bisexuals and black folk and every other thing that ain't them. It is time that we in America take back this country for certain. And to seize the reins of authority so that rhetorics of compassion, discourses of empathy and love in the most radical sense possible would prevail.And that means we read everything. I read right-wing stuff every day. I ain't no right-winger. I try to understand and get beneath what it is that drove that rage, but it doesn't make me full of rage. So I think it's necessity for us to be open-minded. And women and people of color and sexual minorities can lead the way because the white guys are flubbing it up in big fashion, and Matt Gaetz and Josh Hawley and Mitch McConnell and Mr. Manchin and all of them are in the same boat.
WALLACE: Michael Eric Dyson, Tim Miller, I thought Gen. Milley would be the best thing I saw today, but you guys came very, very close.
Editor's Note, 06/28/21, 10:42 a.m. Eastern: This post has been updated to reflect the fact that Dyson is a professor at Vanderbilt University after having left Georgetown in 2020.
