Melissa Harris-Perry Apologizes for Romney Family Adoption Remarks
Latest“One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same,” sang actress Pia Glenn after Harris-Perry displayed a photo of all the Romney grandchildren from Christmas Eve.
Glenn then added, “And that little baby, front and center, would be the one.”
Fellow panelist Dean Obeidallah then followed up with a remark that, while less about adoption, still managed to touch a nerve amongst conservative bloggers and critics.
“It really sums up the diversity of the Republican party and the RNC, where they have the whole convention and they find the one black person,” Obeidallah joked.
While Harris-Perry herself didn’t say anything offensive about the littlest Romney, she has taken to Twitter to offer a sincere apology to anyone she might have hurt with the segment on her show:
Seems pretty damn sincere.
For their part in the controversy, both Pia Glenn and Dean Obeidallah have issued individual responses.
In a statement to CNN, Obeidallah responded:
Occasionally my jokes have been known to ‘cross the line’ and I can assure you that in the future some of my jokes will do that again. My joke on MHP was not intended in any way to mock the Romney family or the baby they adopted. Rather it was a joke about the lack of racial diversity that we see at the Republican National Convention. I apologize to the Romney family and especially the baby if any of them were offended by that joke.
Glenn, after initially defending her comments, ultimately issued an apology, tweeting:
While it doesn’t cancel out the offensiveness of Glenn’s original statement, it’s worth noting that the barrage of attacks coming her way on social media are exceedingly sexist and quite possibly more racist than anything Glenn said on air.
Ah, what a lovely world we live in. On a brighter note, that Kieran Romney (the one at the heart of the controversy) is one cute baby.