Why Is No One Upset That Tracy Morgan Called His Son A “Little Nigger”?

Morgan is an exaggerating insult comic, no different or worse than Lisa Lampinelli or Joan Rivers, who once referred to First-Lady Michelle Obama as “Blackey O” (as opposed to Jackie O Kennedy.) Regardless of Lampinelli’s and Rivers’ often brutally race-based jokes, both are still highly regarded in the same community now after Morgan’s job.

Further evidence of media bias is the fact that Morgan also referred to his son as a ‘little nigga’ he would stab. This was perhaps the most destructive passage among Morgan’s comments. His comedic focus was not on homosexuality, but on bullying, [Black] masculinity and manhood. Morgan correlated having a ‘gay voice’ with being vulnerable or feminine, a common perspective in communities of color. This includes among homosexuals, many who will lower the tone of their voice for more acceptance among each other.

A cultural interpretation of Morgan words could be, ‘My son better not allow himself to be bullied (like a bitch). He better be a strong [Black] man, and not weak, or there will be consequences.’ Morgan is a comedian. Of course he has no intentions of stabbing his son. Yet he is also a Black male comedian, with Black male American experience. In response to Morgan’s Nashville tirade, the level of outcry among Blacks, including those who identify as gay, has been relatively minor. Likely because many were able to culturally interpret Morgan’s comments…

While much has been made in the media, both mainstream and gay, about the “homophobic” nature of Mr. Morgan’s comments, no reporting or news analysis has covered Mr. Morgan’s statements of violence towards his son, or reference to him as a “little nigga.” While media analysis and opinion makers are worried that Mr. Morgan may be endorsing or at the very least encouraging hatred towards gay-identifying people, they are not similarly concerned that he may be endorsing or trivializing violence towards the most vulnerable of Black people – Black children. By using the Phrase “…stab that little nigger to death,” Mr. Morgan clearly was making an anti-Black comment. But for white controlled mainstream media this clearly is not an important issue.

– Cleo Manago, National Director of the Black Men’s Xchange, the nation’s oldest and largest community-based movement devoted to advocacy and empowerment for same gender loving (SGL), bisexual and gay-identifying African-descended males, responding to reports that during a Nashville stand-up routine that comedian Tracy Morgan said, “[My son] better talk to me like a man and not in a gay voice or I’ll pull out a knife and stab that little nigger to death.”

Manago added, “[In no way do I] condone any language or energy that promotes violence and agrees that Tracey should cease any behavior that does not affirm and lift the spirit of all people, particularly his people, Black people.”