Civil rights lawyer apologizes after accusing Black Fox host of ‘White privilege’
A civil rights lawyer and CNN analyst made quite a gaffe on Tuesday night.
She was forced to apologize to a Fox News host after telling him Tuesday on a live broadcast that he benefited from “white privilege.”
The problem: The Fox host is Black.
CNN legal analyst Areva Martin was embroiled in a heated debate with Fox Nation and Sirius FM host David Webb about what makes certain people more qualified for certain jobs over others when Webb told her that when seeking a position, he focuses more on experience than skin color, Mediaite.com reported.
Webb also stated that he’d never seen race as a barrier when it comes to finding work, according to the Daily Mail.
“I never considered my color the issue; I considered my qualifications the issue,” Webb said on his show, Patriot.
And that’s when Martin jumped in to check Webb: “That’s a whole ‘nother conversation about white privilege: the things that you have the privilege of doing that people of color don’t have the privilege of,” Martin, also cohost of CBS’ Face the Truth, told Webb.
The Fox host asked, “How do I have the privilege of white privilege?”
Martin responded, “David … by virtue of being a white male you have white privilege.”
“Areva, I hate to break it to you, but you should have been better prepped,” Webb told Martin. “I’m black.”
Webb told Martin, “You see, you went to white privilege. This is the falsehood in this. You went immediately with the assumption. Your people, obviously, or you didn’t look.”
Webb wasn’t having it.
“You’re talking to a Black man … who started out in rock radio in Boston, who crossed the paths into hip-hop, rebuilding one of the greatest Black stations in America and went on to work at Fox News, where I’m told apparently Blacks aren’t supposed to work, but yet, you come with this assumption, and you go to white privilege,” Webb went on. “That’s actually insulting.”
Martin owned up to her mistake.
“I apologize,” she told Webb. “I was given wrong information.”
Webb, a supporter of Donald Trump and a contributor to the conservative Breitbart News, took to Twitter to mock the analyst, posting Wednesday morning that he would appear on Fox News “to talk qualifications and earned privilege over false narrative of #WhitePrivelege (sic).”
On @FoxNews @foxandfriends at 6:20am to talk qualifications and earned privilege over false narrative of #WhitePrivelege @cvpayne @FoxBusiness @foxnation #RealityCheck @SiriusXMPatriot @SIRIUSXM https://t.co/taJxF3OCp3
— David Webb (@davidwebbshow) January 16, 2019
