During a handover segment with his colleague Don Lemon on Friday, CNN blowhard Chris Cuomo told the black Lemon, “I’m black on the inside” as he cited the words of the theme song from the 1970s sitcom Good Times.
“I had somebody hit me with something today that hurt,” Cuomo blathered. “She said to me, ‘You know, I don’t have to tell you about how I’m living with my family and how set back we are by this because there was a TV show that was all about it in the ’70s and it is the reality for too many people of color all over the country.’”
Cuomo went on to sing some of the show’s theme song lyrics. Chuckling, Lemon asked how he knew the words to a series about a black family living in a public housing project in Chicago.
“You know I’m black on the inside,” Cuomo responded.
Lemon did not challenge him on this, but imagine if Cuomo had been a conservative saying he was black on the inside. Lemon would have interrupted the show to rake him over the coals.
In any case, Twitter exploded over the cultural appropriation. “It’s f–ing offensive,” tweeted Sister2Sister magazine managing editor Aisha Staggers, who said that “Black is not a costume.” Another ripped Cuomo as a “spoilt, entitled guy raised in money and privilege, who is only on tv because of his surname.” Rev. Mary Dande said she “had to turn off the television because I’m not here for that nonsense. CNN needs to have some sensitivity training with their on-air personalities,” she tweeted.
One Twitter commentator joked that by being “black on the inside,” Cuomo was really referring to his heart.