Ties to Black Radicalism & Anti-Semitism

Born in Boston, Massachusetts on March 20, 1971, Touré Neblett attended Emory University from 1989-1992. There, he founded the school’s black student newspaper, The Fire This Time, which heaped praise on numerous anti-Semites, black supremacists, and conspiracy theorists whom Touré helped bring to the campus as guest speakers. These included such notables as: (a) Conrad Muhammad, Louis Farrakhan’s then-“hip-hop minister” and a Nation of Islam fundraiser who routinely excoriated Jewish “bloodsuckers”; (b) H. Rap Brown, the former Sixties revolutionary who had exhorted black people to “wage guerrilla war on the honkie white man”; (c) Lenora Fulani, who once wrote that Jews “had to sell their souls to acquire Israel” and then “function as mass murderers of people of color to stay there”; and (d) Frances Cress Welsing, a self-described black supremacist who preached that white people were the genetically defective descendants of albino mutants.

Career as a Writer & Television Personality

Touré launched a writing career when he interned at Rolling Stone magazine in 1992. He subsequently contributed essays and articles to numerous additional publications such as Essence, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Playboy, Time, The Village Voice, Vibe, The Washington Post, and Ebony. He also attended Columbia University‘s MFA writing program in 1996.

After becoming CNN television’s first pop-culture correspondent in the early 2000s, Touré hosted such programs as: the Tennis Channel series Community Surface and MTV’s Spoke N’ Heard in 2003-04; BET’s Black Carpet from 2005-08; the reality show I’ll Try Anything Once in 2008; and Hiphop Shop on Fuse TV from 2009-12. Beginning on June 25, 2012, he co-hosted the MSNBC show The Cycle, where he often injected his thoughts regarding race into political conversations. Due to the program’s low ratings, however, it was cancelled on July 30, 2015.

In addition to his aforementioned activities, Touré has taught a course titled “Hip Hop History, Music, & Culture: The Pre-History,” at the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, part of NYU‘s Tisch School of the Arts.

Moreover, he has authored five books:

• Portable Promised Land, a short-story collection published in 2002
• Soul City, a 2004 novel set in an African-American utopia
• Never Drank the Kool-Aid, a 2006 collection of essays
• Who’s Afraid of Post-Blackness?: What it Means to be Black Now, a 2012 book on race in modern America, based on a collection of interviews that Touré conducted with more than 100 prominent African-Americans
• I Would Die 4 U: Why Prince Became an Icon, a 2013 biography of the entertainer Prince (1958-2016), based on a series of lectures which Touré had delivered at Harvard University in 2012

Further, Touré serves on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Nominating Committee.

Today, Touré is a freelance writer whose articles are archived in MuckRack.com.

9/11 Conspiracy Theorist

Early in his broadcasting career, Touré speculated on a number of occasions that the 9/11 terrorist attack on the Pentagon had actually been carried out by the U.S. government. In 2009, for instance, he posted an online tweet (accompanied by a hyperlink) saying: “This fascinating video raises questions about the Pentagon attack: 757 or missle [sic]?” On another occasion, he tweeted: “How could a plane crash into the Pentagon? And not appear on video cameras?? And leave little wreckage???”

Portraying America as Racist, Sexist, & Homophobic

Touré’s worldview is rooted in the premise that American society is inherently and irredeemably racist, sexist, and homophobic. When disco singer Donna Summer died in May 2012, for example, Touré suggested “there was a homophobic, and to a certain extent racist, response against disco … from large group of fans who wanted to proclaim the resurgence of white male power, of rock ‘n roll and punk.” “I have never seen a movement in America to crush a musical genre in the way that the sort of almost organized anti-disco movement rose up,” he added. “… [I]t reminds me of the discussion around marriage equality, that, ‘You can’t have this for yourself, you can’t have equality, you can’t be out and normalized in the public. You must be in the closest[sic] and quiet about what you love.’”

In June 2012 Touré asserted that many critics of President Barack Obama were racists. “This disrespect of this human being cannot be disconnected from the fact that he’s black,” he said. “…There is a basic, lesser humanity generally ascribed to black people.”

In August 2012 Touré was angered by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s recent claim that Barack Obama was running “an angry and desperate presidency” and a “[reelection] campaign of division and anger and hate.” “You notice he says anger twice,” said Touré. “He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama…. [T]his is niggerization. You are not one of us, and that you are like the scary black man who we’ve been trained to fear.”

In September 2012, Touré claimed that words like “welfare,” “crime,” “Muslim,” and “socialist” were likewise anti-Obama code words rooted in racism: “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.”

In a July 13, 2012 Washington Post article, Touré declared that hip-hop was “a music and culture whose undercurrent remains black male anger at a nation that declared young black men monsters and abandoned them, killing any chance they had at the American Dream.”

Touré believes that voter ID laws are part of a concerted Republican strategy to “constrain the franchise of people of color” by placing an excessive financial burden on nonwhite minorities, much as a poll tax would do. Specifically, he claimed in February 2013 that a disproportionate number of African Americans lacked a driver’s license (which could serve as a form of identification at the polls), and thus would need to take “time off from work to get one.”

When George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic man who had shot and killed a black Florida teenager named Trayvon Martin during a highly publicized 2012 altercation, was acquitted of murder charges by a jury in July 2013, Touré said the acquittal demonstrated that “in too many ways, we still live in the same America that Emmett Till lived in, an America where blacks are often judged to be a threat to order and citizens are able to destroy their bodies and be protected by the justice system, and the black community is left in pain.” Stating that he had found it necessary to tell his own children that “your ability to mollify white people could be the difference between life and death,” Touré lamented “the lesser worth of black bodies and the inherent criminality ascribed to them by some in this nation and the killability of black bodies, by which I mean the ease we can be killed with no legal ramifications.”

On February 14, 2014, Touré described Black History Month as a “sort of affirmative action, for facts—that one month where black facts are ushered to the front of the bus, and then in March, it’s back to the back of the bus.” Regarding those who perceive a double standard and ask why there should not also be a White History Month, he said: “It sounds like fish not noticing water … [or] being a kid with all the toys in the world, and going to a birthday party and getting mad because another kid has a toy.” “The lack of awareness is a big part of the problem,” Touré elaborated, claiming that if white people understood the degree to which their skin color advantaged them they would be more accepting of Black History Month:

“So I propose we shatter that lack of awareness. I’d say let’s do something entirely crazy. Let’s give white people their own race card! For some people, the term ‘race card’ has come to mean ‘a black person has mentioned race in an inappropriate way,’ but what I think it should mean is, ‘I’d like to use my race to get an advantage, please!’ And let’s be real, sometimes white people do that without even meaning to…. This race card can be used at job sites, shopping malls, police stops—wherever race matters! The genius of it is that it works just as white privilege does: you need do nothing to activate it. The advantage happens automatically, just like White History Month happens automatically.”

Approving of a Rap Song Celebrating Ronald Reagan’s Death

In a retweet which he posted in July 2012, Touré expressed his approval of rapper Killer Mike’s new song, titled “Reagan,” which claimed that President Reagan’s administration had plied urban blacks with illegal drugs and then profited from their incarceration. The song ended with the words, “I’m glad Reagan dead.”

Accusing the NRA of Secretly Celebrating Mass Killings

In December 2013, Touré asserted that the National Rifle Association secretly welcomed incidents like a deranged gunman’s recent massacre of 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut. “NRA membership booms in these moments,” said Touré. “Gun sales boom in these moments…. So in a perverse way—they would never admit it this publicly—but in a perverse way, these moments are actually good for them. So then, how do we expect them to really not want these moments?”

Pro-Abortion

In January 2013, shortly after the 40th anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling, Touré suggested that there is “something undeniably misogynist about the impulse to deny a woman’s dominion over her own body and limit her ability to shape her life—and impose another sense of morality on her.” Reflecting on a time when he himself had unintentionally impregnated a girlfriend, Touré said:

“She decided it was best to have an abortion and days later she did, we did, and in some ways that choice saved my life. I was not then smart enough or man enough to build a family or raise a child, and I only would have contributed to making a mess of three lives. Years after that I met another woman, married her, and after we decided to get pregnant, I went to her doctor’s appointments, our doctor’s appointments, with joy. It was a thrill to watch that boy grow inside her, but I must admit during that second trimester as we watched him move around on 3-D sonograms I saw how human and they were my life long belief in abortion rights was – let’s say – jostled.  It was life colliding with belief system.  I had to rethink my position, but in the end I remain committed to being pro-choice because I cannot imagine arguing against a woman’s right to control her body – and thus – her life.”

Contempt for Black Conservatives

In March 2013, Touré claimed that the prominent black conservative Ben Carson had “intellectual tumors in his mind,” as evidenced by his support for a variety of “unserious ideas” such as a flat tax. According to Touré, Carson has been cynically exploited by Republicans who “need” him to be their token “black friend” in order “to make themselves feel [that they are] not racist,” and to thereby “assuag[e] their guilt.” Moreover, Touré maintains that Carson benefits from “the GOP’s version of affirmative action, where black faces that can spit conservative game get raced to the front of the line.”

Supporting the Legalization of Marijuana

In early January 2014, Touré articulated his disagreement with New York Times columnist David Brooks’ recent column arguing against the legalization of marijuana — a position rooted in Brooks’ belief that the drug dulls the intellect of its habitual users. In response, Touré said that he knew, from his own his own “personal experience,” that “[y]ou can integrate a small amount of marijuana into your life without wrecking your mind or losing your life or losing your marriage or all these sorts of things.” Added Touré: “Brooks has this argument that if you smoke weed, it makes you dumber, right? I mean, like, I read his article, I feel like that made me a little dumber, too.”

Advocating Dialog with Islamic Terrorists

In June 2014, Touré stated that the most effective way of dealing with Islamic terrorism would be to show respect for the terrorists’ ideas and demands, engage in dialog with them, and help them to improve their economic circumstances:

“We need to talk to these people as a chance to maybe try to end this whole situation. We cannot kill our way out of this war on terror. We need to be able to talk to them…. As long as there is severe global poverty and chronically jobless young men around the world, a sliver of them will blame the United States for their problems and turn to terrorism. And unless we are talking to these folks, then we’re not going to be able to end the conflict. And a war-weary nation should want to do anything we can to actually end the conflict and diminish terrorism as much as we can.”

Tax Evasion

In April 2015, it was reported that between September 2013 and March 2014, New York State had issued tax warrants to Touré and his wife for more than $59,000 in unpaid taxes. In 2012, the broadcaster had criticized Republican politicians for being “afraid to vote for a modest tax increase of people who can totally afford it.” Similarly, in January 2014 he had tweeted that “regressive taxation & tax-avoidance” had “fueled inequality more than hard work.”

Sexual Harassment

Numerous times throughout 2017, Touré used the issue of sexual harassment as a focal point of attacks which he aimed at Republicans and conservatives. Some examples of tweets by Touré:

• “Another day, yet another sexual harassment scandal at Fox News. Does the place function like one giant men’s locker room?” — July 3, 2017
• “Trump is the Harvey Weinstein of politics.” — November 1, 2017
• “Here’s an idea: why not fight workplace sexual harassment by hiring *more* women? Or demand that the men you hire be professional. There’s always that.” — November 14, 2017
• “We are awash in stories about sexual harassment and assault. For many men it has been a revelation to learn that this happens all the time. And still you’re looking at every female accuser as a liar until proven beyond a shadow of a doubt? You’re complicit.” — November 14, 2017

But soon thereafter, a female co-worker of Touré — identified in the media as “Dani” — accused the television host of sexual harassment and alleged that he had asked her to engage in anal sex with him. The woman made her allegations in a social media post which was reported on by Essence magazine oin October 2020:

“Every Monday I used to work with him on a show in 2017 and he couldn’t stop asking me to do anal, how I looked naked, if I had sex over the weekend, what it would be like to fuck me, what his cum would look like on my face…I had to have the crew stay in the room w me while I got him ready…and when I left I called HR…he got fired instantly. He wrote me a huge apology for doing that in my DMs. Still have it. He did a 20/20 shoot in 2018 and I was there and he walked out. Told the producer that he was ’embarrassed bc he was inappropriate with a staff member.’ he really needs to take a seat.”

The woman then posted several screenshots of direct message exchanges from November 2017 where Touré had apologized to her and asked her to keep quiet about his offensive behavior.

In January 2019, Touré released an apologetic statement that said: “On the show, our team, including myself, engaged in edgy, crass banter, that at the time I did not think was offensive for our tight-knit group. I am sorry for my language and for making her feel uncomfortable in any way. As a lead on the show, I should have refrained from this behavior. I have learned and grown from this experience.”