By C. Douglas Golden September 20, 2024 at 6:00am
It’s one of the odder claims of the left this election season, and the last few to boot: Mispronounce Kamala Harris’ name and you’re engaging in a form of white supremacy and/or racism.
Since it’s taken on added importance thanks to the veep now being atop the Democratic ticket, just let me set everyone straight: It’s “comma-lah.” Heaven knows that’s important. So important, in fact, that CNN contributor and academic Michael Eric Dyson took GOP Rep. Nancy Mace to task over it last month — and then sent weirdly flirty messages to her afterwards.
Which are now in the congressional record, thanks to Mace producing the receipts on Thursday.
The big reveal happened during a session of the notoriously raucous House Oversight Committee, in which Mace noted that many liberal eminences — including former President Bill Clinton, the Rev. Al Sharpton and even President Joe Biden — have mispronounced it.
However, Mace singled out Dyson, who had a tendentious exchange with Mace on CNN last month in which Dyson said Mace’s mispronunciation of the vice president’s first name perpetuates “the legacy of white disregard” for black individuals.
“When you disrespect Kamala Harris by saying you will call her whatever you want, I know you don’t intend it to be that way, that’s the history and legacy of white disregard for the humanity of black people,” he said, later adding: “You’re a white woman disrespecting a black woman.”
This is the whole exchange, if you have eight minutes of your life to waste. Little except the tension will be important going forward:
Mace noted the appearance during the Thursday hearing.
“I would like to also enter into the record a screenshot of a text message I received from the esteemed professor from Vanderbilt, Michael Eric Dyson,” she said.
“After my CNN interview begged me for photos in this text, he says, after calling me racist on CNN.”
The messages show five photos of the two together taken sometime during the process of her appearance on CNN, and includes the text from Dyson, “Shhh don’t tell anybody. We look good together!” Included were a laughing face and then a kissy-face emoji.
After Mace responded with the laugh, Dyson responded: “Well your gorgeousness makes the photos, so there’s that!” Along with that was another smiley-face emoji.
Congresswoman Nancy Mace just officially entered into the Congressional record her messages from an unhinged CNN panel host hitting on her in private after blasting her as a “white supremacist” during on-air meltdown for mispronouncing Kamala’s name 🤣
This is the way. pic.twitter.com/Olw5Uf8p7L
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) September 19, 2024
From Mace’s official account, along with her own kissy-face emoji:
— Nancy Mace (@NancyMace) September 19, 2024
Mace was clearly having fun with the matter on X, as well:
https://t.co/fNWUuWgRaL pic.twitter.com/PYM85jVveF
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) September 19, 2024
Listen, if you’re going to make a pass AT LEAST be able to bench 225. https://t.co/oxZnK9wYnB
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) September 19, 2024
As you may suspect, Mr. Dyson was not having quite so much fun, insisting he’d never called Mace a racist and insisting that she was misrepresenting a text thread that was suggested by CNN host Abby Phillip after a tense segment:
In the Instagram caption, however, he did include this: “I must admit one error about her: although I claimed she wasn’t a racist, she is indeed a sorry racist who is seeking to distort the truth and tell lies, but as you’ll see here, she’s trafficking in untruths,” he wrote.
“And I guess me calling Rev. Jesse Jackson gorgeous in my article about him in the Chicago Sun Times means I was trying to hit on him? I suppose me calling Rev Freddy Haynes a virile man and a honeyed slice of masculinity means I was hitting on him? Or calling Boris Kodjoe gorgeous meant I was hitting on him? I don’t usually respond to nonsense, but I had to get this off my chest.”
Well, yes, those weren’t in text threads, those weren’t people you’d just had terse encounters with on TV and that still doesn’t mean it doesn’t come across as creepy.
That being said, comments in the Chicago Sun Times about a man we all know is a bit different than comments in an iMessage thread. The fact Dyson doesn’t seem to get this — or doesn’t seem to claim to get this — doesn’t help his cause.
But it does seem a lot worse than mispronouncing Kamala Harris’ name, either way.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.
C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014. Aside from politics, he enjoys spending time with his wife, literature (especially British comic novels and modern Japanese lit), indie rock, coffee, Formula One and football (of both American and world varieties).
Birthplace
Morristown, New Jersey
Education
Catholic University of America
Languages Spoken
English, Spanish
Topics of Expertise
American Politics, World Politics, Culture
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