Last night, on All In With Chris Hayes, Nancy Giles and Jay Smooth were discussing race, in light of Starbuck’s recent announcement that it would try to foster racial discussions in its stores. During the discussion, Giles made one crucial slip-up: she assumed Smooth was white.
During the conversation, Giles, of CBS Sunday Morning, all but outright accused Smooth of “talking Black,” playing his trademark “How to Tell Someone They Sound Racist” video.
“I can’t not tease Jay about the kinda like ‘brotha’ way he was kind of talking, like, ‘Hey,’ with the rap music in the background, and like down with the people,” said Giles.
Smooth tried to give her an out, saying, “I’m a rap guy.”
But Giles kept right on going: “Yeah, I know, but it’s another interesting, funny thing about race. Like, there would be some people that would feel that you co-opted something like that, and other people might feel like that’s his background and that’s really cool, too.”
Smooth’s response was simple and flawless: “It’s also interesting because I’m actually Black, but you assumed otherwise,” he said. “And this is the sort of awkwardness that we can look forward to at Starbucks across America.”
Watch the full segment below. The awkward moment begins at the 5:20 minute mark
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51Rl6RfcEzI
Not surprisingly a Thug Life spoof clip has already been made.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znV4AA9CNJU