Melissa Harris-Perry: Abraham Lincoln Was ‘My Favorite Kind of Racist’

Melissa Harris-Perry: Abraham Lincoln Was ‘My Favorite Kind of Racist’ (Mediaite)

The slow news-fueled firestorm around an MSNBC panel on Sunday’s Melissa Harris-Perry show has obscured everything for the past few days, including other parts of that show which were entertaining and provocative. One such moment occurred during the segment that followed the now-infamous Kierangate spot, a review of possibly-racist tweets from 2013. When one panelist observed the conservative tendency to name-check President Abraham Lincoln, who “was kinda racist,” host Melissa Harris-Perry responded that “Abraham Lincoln was my favorite kind of racist.”

After discussing the RNC’s problematic tweet about Rosa Parks “ending racism,” panelist Jamie Kilstein volunteered that “My newest pet peeve with the Republicans, I was watching MSNBC, I was watching and they brought on a white racist Republican,” he began, to a mock-astonished “No!” from Harris-Perry.