Radio host Anthony Cumia fired after violent, racist Twitter rant

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Savage. Animal b*tch. C**trag.

Those are just a few of the names Anthony Cumia used on Twitter to describe a black woman he claims punched him multiple times in Times Square.

Those are also the words that got Cumia fired from SiriusXM.

Cumia, who is one half of the middle-aged dude-bro SiriusXM radio show “Opie and Anthony,“ recently took to Twitter for hours to blast this unnamed black woman.

He claims that he was taking pictures of the street in Times Square and this woman happened to get into the frame but assumed that he was taking pictures of her and got agitated to the point of physically attacking him.

In the picture that Cumia posted that he claims is the pic that got the woman upset, she does appear to be the center of it.  There seems to be nothing pictureworthy otherwise. Does that justify the punches he alleges flew after it? No. Assaulting someone is not okay.

What also is not okay is launching into a ridiculous, racist, sexist tirade.  Cumia alleges that after the woman started punching him, five black men also started verbally harassing him. All of this with nary a cop in sight of the NYPD-heavy Times Square. Okay.

Some of Cumia’s tweets redefine the slang ‘NSFW.’

https://twitter.com/AnthonyCumia/statuses/484245268850692097

https://twitter.com/AnthonyCumia/statuses/484265243283976192

The above examples are pedestrian compared to the more outrageously offensive tweets.

Cumia had detractors on Twitter and on the handful of sites that covered his Twitter rant, but he also had ardent defenders who sought to make excuses for him. “He didn’t call black people animals, he called a specific black person an animal. The article is trying to make the tweets more provocative then they were. Mr. Cumia may not be the most racially sensitive gentlemen, but calling these tweets racist is a stretch,” wrote a commenter on the Hollywood Reporter.

It is not a stretch to attach the label racist when a man calls a black woman an animal and a savage and is also insensitive enough to say that he hopes a “homeboy beats her to death” and that he hopes “she gets killed.”

This is precisely the type of language that leads to deadly consequences. Pushing the clock backwards and making it socially acceptable to talk about black people as objects less than human puts our country on a dangerous path towards a level of violence we have not yet seen.

Today, we have people of all races, legally armed to the teeth as well as the dope boys in the city and good ol’ boys in the sticks who are stocked with various firearms legal and not. Starting an all out race war, which calling open season on black women could lead to, is not a good idea. It’s not okay to call all black people sub-human and it’s not okay to call a particular black person sub-human.  Why? Black people are human beings! There are no exceptions to that.

It is not the first time Cumia has publicly shown his racist streak. “They hear slavery and racism and use it as an excuse to take the path of least resistance which is selling drugs and f–king rolling people for money,” said Cumia in a recent discussion about race relations. His racist remarks over the years are too long to list hear, but Jezebel has gathered a few choice quotes.

The “Opie and Anthony Show” does not have a significant black (certainly not black woman) block in their viewing demographic. So a boycott of the show would not be effective.  Boycotting advertisers could be a possibility. The hosts were suspended in  2007 and lost advertisers after the show aired a controversial segment with “Homeless Charlie” who talked about raping Condoleezza Rice.

But it’s not about money. It’s about being a moral human being, and Anthony Cumia has shown that he lacks basic respect for and holds time worn stereotypes about black people. As a black woman, I feel particularly violated by his violent, racist, sexist commentary.

SirusXM released the following statement:

SiriusXM has terminated its relationship with Anthony Cumia of the Opie & Anthony channel. The decision was made, and Cumia informed, late Thursday, July 3 after careful consideration of his racially-charged and hate-filled remarks on social media. Those remarks and postings are abhorrent to SiriusXM, and his behavior is wholly inconsistent with what SiriusXM represents.

Follow Demetria Irwin on Twitter at @Love_Is_Dope and connect with her on Facebook.