During a much contested CNN panel, Marc Lamont Hill accused President-elect Donald Trump of parading “mediocre Negros” in order to look like he is making an outreach effort to minority communities.
“To keep bringing comedians and actors and athletes to represent black interests is demeaning, it’s disrespectful and it’s condescending,” Hill said, questioning Trump’s decision to meet with entertainers but not black policy-makers. “Bring some people up there with some expertise, Donald Trump. Don’t just bring up people to entertain.”
Bruce Levell, executive director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump and former GOP chair for Georgia, then challenged Hill to say what had happened during a meeting between Trump and Steve Harvey.
“I don’t see how anything I’ve said would prompt that question,” the African-American studies professor said. “Unless Steve Harvey turned into a policy analyst in the behind-the-scenes meeting, it doesn’t matter whether I was there. My concern is the people he’s trumpeting up and putting in front of the cameras.”
Levell then continued to insist that Hill didn’t know what had happened at the meetings between Harvey and Trump and between Trump and other black celebrities, but Hill wasn’t having any of it.
“It was a bunch of mediocre Negroes being dragged in front of TV as a photo op for Donald Trump’s exploitative campaign against black people,” Hill said. “And you are the prime example of that.”
You can watch the moment below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=MZEM32BL7CU