Talk radio kings try listening for a change
Rush Limbaugh and Charlamagne tha God debate white privilege on “The Breakfast Club.”
Doesn’t that sound like the premise for an SNL skit? Until Monday, the idea that Limbaugh, the flame-throwing lieutenant of right-wing radio, might wander into the foxhole of a popular syndicated show devoted to Black issues seemed about as likely as Taylor Swift and Scooter Braun getting hitched.
But if this pandemic has taught me anything — beyond the fact I need a bigger house, new hobbies and way more hats — it is to expect the unexpected.
The interview begins with a setup from the Club’s DJ Envy:
“Today we are having a candid conversation with fellow broadcaster Rush Limbaugh. Why are we having this conversation with someone whose historical viewpoints differ so significantly from ours and who we represent? Because the dialogue has to be open beyond who we know, or who we talk to every morning.” Exactly. If any good is to come from the barbaric murder of George Floyd, public figures with contrary viewpoints need to lay down their bayonets and find some common ground. Or as Jane Goodall once put it: “Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don’t believe is right.”
And here, there is a rare starting point of agreement: What happened to Floyd was the opposite of right. It was so beyond wrong it feels like a shared nightmare. The sight of that poor man on his stomach in cuffs, pinned to the asphalt with a police officer kneeling on his neck like it was a yoga mat, can’t be unseen. Even as Floyd said he could not breathe, even as he cried out for his mother, officer Derek Chauvin just kept casually kneeling with one hand in his pocket and the ho-hum expression of a traveller on a shuttle bus.
It was like watching a bored sociopath drown a kitten for nine horrifying minutes.
The inhumanity on display was the reason Limbaugh wanted to talk to Charlamagne.
He wanted to express how “sickened” and “disgusted” he feels.
That may sound banal. But considering the source, it’s not. From his hot takes on slavery to his mockery of Colin Kaepernick, Limbaugh has spent years shrugging off racism by contributing to it. So early in the interview, Charlamagne tha God — not to be confused with Charlemagne the King of Franks — asks why Limbaugh is suddenly taking an active interest in police brutality on Blacks.
“I’m fed up with it, Charlamagne,” Limbaugh replied. “To me, this is not America. It’s a sad—”
“—Oh, no, it’s definitely America,” Charlamagne shot back. Limbaugh: “It’s not what we can be, it’s not what we have been. We are the greatest nation in the history of the world and we haven’t achieved that on the basis of—”
Charlamagne: “—For who though, Rush? I think it’s easy for you to say because you’re a white male and that comes with a different level of privilege.
“And I do think America does work. But it works for the people that it was designed to work for. It doesn’t work for everybody else the way it works for you.”
Limbaugh: “Well, it can. That’s the point of America. It can for anybody who wants to adapt to it, for anybody who wants to try to take advantage of the unique opportunities …”
I suspect that exchange was the first time Limbaugh fans — he also broadcast the interview to his audience — heard “white privilege” in a context not power-sprayed with ridicule. And that the American Dream is still up for grabs may truly baffle listeners of “The Breakfast Club.”
That’s why this interview was such a welcome respite from the polarized bickering and silo shouting, which itself has become a knee to the neck of possible change. To accuse everyone of racism or to suggest racism does not exist at all are two sides of the same trick coin.
Heads or tails, and the winner is the status quo. Limbaugh made an important point. As the peaceful protests during the day in cities across the U.S. give way to lawlessness when the sun goes down — vandalism, looting, agitators brawling with police
— the narrative is getting disfigured as the memory of the victim begins to vanish.
“The George Floyd story is being lost,” he said. “I don’t want to forget about George Floyd.”
He’s right. And the story is being lost because America is at war — with itself.
Did this interview yield a working blueprint for how the country declares a truce and heals? Not exactly. Is Limbaugh any more willing to believe in “white privilege,” which he sees as a liberal construct? No. Is Charlamagne less likely to see systemic racism? No. Were there moments that felt like you were eavesdropping on a debate between an astronaut and a flat-Earther? Sure.
But the two started a dialogue and, as Goodall notes, that’s how change happens.
If George Floyd’s death is to not be in vain, listening is the only path forward.
To accuse everyone of racism or to suggest racism does not exist at all are two sides of the same trick coin