MSNBC’s Tiffany Cross slams Tim Scott for American racism claims

"A lesson I’ve learned: Don’t argue with people Harriet Tubman would have left behind," Cross said on her show Saturday

May 2, 2021

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott garnered much pushback last week following his rebuttal to President Joe Biden‘s address to Congress. By uttering the words, “America is not racist,” many critics took aim at that notion, and one of them was MSNBC host Tiffany Cross.

“On this one, you’re not only on the wrong side of the aisle, Sen. Scott, but you’re embarrassingly on the wrong side of history as well,” she said in a monologue during her Saturday program, The Cross Connection.

During a nationally televised response to Biden’s Wednesday address to Congress, Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, said instead of uniting the country as promised that the Biden administration and Democrats were in fact “pulling us further and further apart.”

While Scott spoke on topics from infrastructure to reopening from COVID-19 lockdowns, he zeroed in on the topic of race. Despite speaking on his personal bouts with discrimination, Scott declared, “America is not a racist country.”

This became a lightning rod for many, including Cross, who delivered a rebuttal of her own. She began by insisting that Scott does not speak for all Black Americans and that his words were only a representation of a small group of Black conservatives who follow the GOP to ascend in prominence.

“Tim Scott does not represent any constituency other than the small number of sleepy slow-witted sufferers of Stockholm Syndrome who get elevated to prominence for repeating a false narrative about this country that makes conservative white people feel comfortable,” Cross said, while offering images of the likes of Candace Owens and Pastor Derrell Scott as examples.

Cross didn’t hold back with the name-calling, either, referring to Scott as a “token,” a “clown” and a “tap dancer” who was doing the bidding of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is spearheading an effort to block teachings of Nikole Hannah Jones‘ 1619 Project from federal grant programs, according to The Hill. She feels this is one of the numerous ways that the GOP is attempting to revise history by ignoring the tradition of racism in America to avoid dealing with its “uncomfortable truths.”

In addition, Cross pointed out Scott’s statement along with his anecdotes about being pulled over by police and other discriminatory acts, along with his past support of anti-lynching bills was contradictory.

“Please, senator, say more about how un-racist the country is, while you trot out that tired line about going from cotton to Congress to clown,” Cross said.

“Perhaps, this was merely Sen. Scott’s audition to be Sam Jackson‘s understudy in the film Django because, as a descendant of the enslaved and damn near a daily survivor of institutional racism, I can assure you the question, “Is America a racist country?,” is one that has been asked and answered many times over, yet we still love America not for what it was but for what it could be.”

Cross pointed out that the GOP’s attempts to institute sweeping voter restrictions is one very real example of racist actions. However, Cross stated that people like Scott couldn’t be reasoned with.

“And moreover, a lesson I’ve learned: Don’t argue with people Harriet Tubman would have left behind,” she said.

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