If you read this week’s Editor’s Note or Dan Gibson’s blog post yesterday, you might have noticed that there appears to be a slight, uh, “disagreement” between local conservative talk show host James T. Harris and the editor of Tucson Weekly, a conclusion to which Harris is trying to duck like Floyd Mayweather did Manny Pacquiao.
Obviously, this is a thing I find completely hilarious for a number of reasons, not the least of which is Harris’s somewhat deluded thinking that he’s like Tucson’s conservative, radio version of Jon Stewart (the catch, of course, would be that Jon Stewart is actually somewhat funny).
But Harris’s sense of humor (“Obama is gay, lol”) and obsession with making references to the Matrix aside (because there’s nothing fresher than constantly making references to 14 year old films that influenced the half-baked philosophies of many a high schooler in the early 2000s), I’ve gotta say this:
The dude’s fans are starting to pull out this weird fixation on race, apparently owing to the fact that Dan is a white male (shock!) and Harris is a black male (gasp!).
Starting with the Arizona Daily Independent, who mention the conservative conservatism of conservative Harris a few conservative times in accusing Dan of hating a conservative black conservative:
The only way a simple mind can reconcile the fact that a conservative can be funny, bright, conservative, and black is to hate him. For most bright people, dissonance rarely creeps in because they understand that two different truths can occupy the same space.
Then this comment from that ADI opinion:
- Arizona Daily Independent
Then these, from Harris’s Facebook page:
- Well, obviously.
Now, let’s be honest here: There’s no way to lightly accuse someone of racism, particularly in this day and age — yet it seems to be the first fall-back when two people of different races disagree. In this case, it seems fairly out of place. After all, a person’s skin color doesn’t necessarily correlate with how competent they are at their job.
As Michael Jackson sang, “it don’t matter if you’re black or white, so long as you make an effort to not be shitty at your job.”*
One last note to tie the whole thing together (race, politics and Harris’s lack of interest in dialogue); let’s check out a 2008 CNN clip in which Harris was asked to discuss race and politics within the frame of his status as a prominent black conservative:
If you please, start up the video above at 3:20 for the relevant point here:
I would really appreciate it if people would just back up off of the name-calling, because it gets nowhere in the dialogue … I’m all for back and forth, I’m all for dialogue, I’m not for name calling … I don’t call people who vote for Barack Obama names. That is their choice. I’m sick and tired of people bleeding all over me for their insecurities.
Now then, from Harris’s blog:
It reminds me of a scene from the movie “Tropic Thunder” because ‘I, I ma-ma-ma-made Dan confused.’ Yes, Simple Jack. The movie within the movie. The James T. Harris Show is stuck in Simple Dan’s head and is making his head hur, hur, hur, hurt.
So to be clear James, it looks like you’re all for name-calling when it suits your purpose — you’re willing to step aside and let your listeners drag people who disagree with them through the mud, and you’re all about alluding to someone being retarded when they disagree with your baseless accusations.
At least it makes sense that you’re unwilling to #hugitout with Dan about this, judging from your CNN appearance: apparently you learned that it’s way easier to run away from a dialogue when you don’t let it start in the first place.
*I might have gotten those lyrics wrong — it’s been some time since I listened to Dangerous.
This article appears in Jun 6-12, 2013.
If you want to honestly look at who plays the race card most of the time, it is the liberals in this country. Liberals expect that every black person should be first and foremost liberal and democrat and when they aren’t and don’t parrot the liberal line with regards to politics, they are labeled Uncle Tom, oreo or a self hating black.
It’s funny to me that I voted for James T in the local talk host category for this year’s BOT.
He’s the only one I could listen to for more than ten minutes.
I have no problem with conservatives, but James T. Harris comes across as a phony. He loves to get your attention by appearing progressive with extreme personal fashion and then he opens his mouth and spews an extreme right wing agenda with a phony twist. It’s all presented with an effort to shock. The rightwingers eat it up as they love to flaunt their token black conservative on people and rub him in your face. Thanks 104.1 The Truth for giving us such boring programming in the afternoon.
Robert, I’ve heard this accusation flung out a number of times, but a past use of the race card by one party doesn’t necessarily make it okay for the other party to try whipping it back out.
Personally, I think crying “racism!” is often a poor accusation, designed to deflect blame away from the initial argument, no matter which side is using it.
James T Harris is hilarious! Obviously you never listen to him. And he has an obsession with racism. I’ve lived long enough to know that it’s the stingy person who sees stingy people everywhere. It’s the unkind person who sees unkindness everywhere. Its the racist who sees racism everywhere. Remember the old adage. When you point a finger at someone, you have three fingers pointing back at you. It’s truer than you think.