Today on MSNBC: “The Black Agenda” hosted by black people expert Ed Schultz

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The sight this week of MSNBC’s nearly all-white anchor line-up hyping the network’s Sunday special, “The Black Agenda” hosted by Ed Schultz was almost beyond parody, but not quite.

The show was branded as “hosted by Ed Schultz” most of the week, but someone decided to add Tamron Hall, the network’s one African-American anchor, to the branding at some point. After some criticism, the network also highlighted Al Sharpton’s involvement.

The special airs at noon today. We took a stab at marketing it ourselves. “The Black Agenda with Ed Schultz: Because who knows more about black people than a guy from… North Dakota?”

This is an instance where white liberals’ utter assurance of their pristine sensitivity on race issues ironically bred a really boneheaded idea and ad campaign, which many minority commentators perceived as rather insensitive. I can imagine Schultz, confident in his role as liberal representative of all who may be oppressed, let his hubris convince him he was clearly the right host for this show, lending it an unfortunate “MSNBC: Black People Love Us!” tone.

Mary Katharine Ham