Entertainment

MSNBC host Toure: Murder can be morally justified

Patrick Howley Political Reporter
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MSNBC personality Toure, currently a co-host of the cable network’s mid-day chat show “The Cycle,” declared on his blog Monday that it’s morally acceptable for slaves to kill their owners.

Toure made the declaration on toure.com, in a review of Quentin Tarantino’s new slavery-themed action film “Django Unchained.”

“For the descendants of slaves, who live in a world still tangibly doused in slavery’s residue, watching Django kill his oppressors could possibly feel cathartic. If murder can ever be morally justified by the presence of clear, undiluted, sustained evil — and I believe it can — then it is justified when a slave kills a master,” Toure wrote.

Toure spent the majority of his review discussing the film’s racial implications, ultimately concluding that “Django” is not racist because it depicts black slaves killing white slaveowners, and Toure finds that empowering.

“Django is heroic not just for rescuing his wife but also for spreading justice by putting slavemasters in the grave. It’s honestly baffling to me that smart people could find Django’s slavemaster killings as anything other than heroic,” Toure wrote.

“Killing a slavemaster does not reduce the slave to the slavemaster’s moral level. Nothing short of becoming a slavemaster could do that. Murder is the only fitting punishment,” Toure wrote.

Toure, who scarcely discussed in his review the film’s entertainment value or artistic merits, explained his specialized writing style in a September 6 Time editorial.

“Part of my job when I speak about politics is to speak up for black people and say things black people need said,” Toure explained in his Time piece.

“This mission has rarely felt so necessary as it has when racial code words recently entered the presidential election. These code words are ancient racial stereotypes in slick, modern gear. They are linguistic mustard gas, sliding in covertly, aiming to kill black political viability by allowing white politicians to say ‘Don’t vote for the black guy’ in socially-acceptable language,” Toure wrote.

Toure went on to explain that terms like “crime” and “dropping the work requirement from welfare” are deeply racist code words used by Republicans to appeal to the subliminal racism of their supporters.

“Django Unchained” characters, meanwhile, frequently use the “n-word,” prompting media controversy surrounding the film’s release.

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