MSNBC host calls RNC a 'modern day minstrel show'

A guest-host on MSNBC compared the use of black speakers at the Republican National Convention to a "modern-day minstrel show", on Sunday, prompting criticism from conservatives.

Tiffany D Cross, who was filling in for Joy Reed on the network's "AM Joy" show, made the claim as part of a larger argument suggesting the Republicans' inclusion of diverse voices was an insincere attempt at selling the MAGA worldview to people of colour.

"If you watched the Republican National Convention last week, you'd almost think that the Republican Party was the one welcoming people of colour, given the big display of diversity. The convention featured more than a dozen African-American speakers alone," Ms Cross said.

She then suggested that the RNC's roster of black speakers was an act of tokenism.

"But don't be fooled that the party of Trump has suddenly warmed to the same people that Trump's policies and sometimes his rhetoric directly harms," Ms Cross said. "As friend of the show Elie Mystal wrote so eloquently in The Nation, 'Republicans invited a cadre of professional black friends to validate Donald Trump and make white people feel a little less racist while still very much supporting white supremacy.' I mean, I watched the Republican convention, and seeing the slew of black speakers that they had, it really did look like a modern-day minstrel show to me."

"To call it a 'minstrel show' is a needlessly nasty and insulting way for Cross to make her point, but it was clearly intentional," Aaron Colen, a writer at The Blaze, a right-leaning news website, wrote. "...Cross's attack is just another version of what Democratic nominee Joe Biden has said - if you're not a Democrat, you ain't really black."

On Fox News, Rob Smith - a frequent Fox contributor who works with Turning Point USA - also lashed out at Ms Cross.

"[Ms Cross and MSNBC contributor Jason Johnson] should be ashamed of themselves. Their behaviour is despicable, and that sort of racist hatred that is coming from the left tells me they have turned into exactly who they hate," Mr Smith said.

Ms Cross defended herself on Twitter on Sunday.

"In case you were confused (but I know y'all weren't), #Trump's crowds hosts Black faces. NEVER Black voices. They listen to folks who #MAGA is comfortable with. Folks who #Harriet would have never invited to the underground," she wrote.

In the Nation article Ms Cross referenced, Mr Mystal says the "Republicans are engaging in tokenism at their convention if you listen to the content of the speeches given by Black speakers instead of being preoccupied (as I suspect many Republicans are) with the fact that they are talking while Black."

"Close your eyes, and you will hear their silence on issues of racial and social justice. The Black speakers, like the rest of the Republican Party, offer no agenda to extend economic or social opportunities to people of colour. They offer no policy prescriptions to address police brutality or violence against Black people," he wrote. "They offer no rebuttals to the assaults on voting rights or immigrant rights the Trump administration engages in. And they've been as silent about the disproportionate toll Covid-19 has taken on communities of colour as Herman Cain."

Mr Mystal said that instead "of an agenda, the Black people were just there to say, 'Thank you white folks,' and fade off-screen."

The RNC's roster of black speakers included Senator Tim Scott, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron and Jack Brewer and Herschel Walker, both former NFL players.

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