MICHAEL ERIC DYSON: Well, as you brilliantly articulated Ed, what they are saying is that black people and gay people don’t count. They don’t matter to the bottom line. They don’t figure in our calculations about what we think is offensive. And as a result of the Cracker Barrel crowd, that crowd that said, ‘Look, we are disgusted with you for removing the items of Phil Robertson and Duck Dynasty, we are moreover disgusted with the fact African-American and Latino and other ethnic minorities, along with gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual people have come together to say this is an outrage. And as a result of that, they have turned this into a matter of free speech.
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The irony, of course, they don’t want more speech to counteract their negative, vicious, offensive and vitriolic speech. So they’re mad at the fact we are challenging what they’re saying and we don’t have the right to free speech. A&E has made the calculation that African-American people and gay people don’t matter, not only to their bottom line, but won’t raise as hard a ruckus as the right-wing will, and those who are very supportive of the Duck Dynasty are the very people who need that insight.
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And by the way, Ed, what’s interesting, the right-wing has said, ‘Look, the grandson of Mr. Robertson happens to be an adopted biracial child.’ What difference does that make? The man who plunged a plunger deep into the behind of Abner Louima was himself dating a black woman when he did that heinous act. So there is no one-to-one correlation between particular domestic intimacy with a black person or a person of color and the behavior that you manifest that is either just or unjust. So all of this stuff is being brought up as a result of this. (The Ed Show, December 30, 2013)