“I don’t buy into the notion of white privilege. I think that’s a liberal, political construct.”
Two of the biggest names in talk radio — Rush Limbaugh and Charlamagne Tha God — discussed the killing of George Floyd and racial tension in America on Monday.
During a conversation on Charlamagne’s show “The Breakfast Club,” Rush brought his conservative view to light as Charlamagne held his progressive stance, but the two were in solidarity over Floyd’s tragic death at the top of the program.
Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, died after white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kneeled on his neck for several minutes in Minneapolis, Minnesota on May 25. Chauvin was arrested on Friday and faces 3rd-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
“There shouldn’t be legalized murder — George Floyd, by everything I’ve been able to tell, was a good guy,” Limbaugh said. “I think that cop should be charged with first-degree murder.”
Limbaugh also advocated for the arrest of the three other officers who were involved with the incident.
However, the bonding session between the two radio hosts was short lived after Charlamagne said, “RIP to George Floyd but that was not an isolated incident, this is a regular occurrence. How are you going to use your privilege as a white male to combat this prejudice?”
“I don’t buy into the notion of white privilege,” Rush replied. “I think that’s a liberal, political construct right along the lines of political correctness.”
“It’s designed to intimidate and get people to shut up and admit they’re guilty of doing things they haven’t done,” he continued. “I don’t have any white privilege.”
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“You’re being delusional,” Charlamagne fired back.
Rush also said he wouldn’t use the term “white privilege” because he didn’t want to “give one iota’s of an inch to liberalism.”
“You know what white privilege is?” Charlamagne said. “What happened to George Floyd would not have happened to a white man.”
Charlamagne and his two co-hosts, DJ Envy and Angela Yee, argued that police brutality is a reflection of America.
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“To me, and I know you’re going to disagree, this is not America,” Limbaugh replied.
“Oh, no, it’s definitely America,” Charlamagne said.
“It’s not what we can be. It’s not what we have been,” Limbaugh argued. “We’re the greatest nation in the history of the world and we haven’t achieved that.”
“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 that America does work. But it works for the people it was designed to work for. It doesn’t work for everybody else the way it works for you.”
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Limbaugh retorted, “It can. That’s the point of America, it can for anyone who wants to adapt to it, for anyone who wants to take advantage of the unique opportunities that exist in the U.S.”
The hosts of “The Breakfast Club” then turned to their attention to why Black deaths keep happening at the hands of white cops.
“As long as there is a system of white supremacy, there will always be these situations,” Charlamagne argued.
Rush didn’t agree with Charlamagne, calling white supremacy a “construct,” before revealing the show was coming to an end and he hoped they could talk again sometime soon.
“Not if we just going to dance the whole time,” Charlamagne said. “If you’re just going to have some honest conversation with us and stop telling us things like white privilege doesn’t exist and you don’t know what white supremacy is, if we can do that, yes.”
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