MSNBC Host Says White People Should “Sit This Out” When It Comes to Discussion Around Will Smith Slapping Chris Rock

Tiffany Cross interviewed actress Yvette Nicole Brown and TheGrio contributor Michael Harriot on Sunday.

During the interview, Harriot claimed the incident was an example of “how black people relate to each other” in a way that white people do not understand, “even though it happened to everybody [watching the ceremony].”

Following up, Brown said, “On Twitter, many of us were like, ‘Y’all sit this out for your protection,’ because when we need to have a conversation, we’re gonna have it.”

He said, “Some people use their words, some people use their hands. It is what it is. In the black community, we understand that.” Later adding that “violence is [not] the answer.”

Cross then said she would “try to put this in context for our white fellow countrymen as best I can,” she said, “In reality, truly black America, there’s a commonality amongst us all.”

“If we went to a white person’s home and it was their family dinner, we were sitting at the table, and the mother hauled off and slapped the father, and everybody at the table has an opinion,” Cross added.

“If I weigh in as the guest in this home and say, ‘Yeah, you guys are terrible,’ everybody’s like, ‘I’m sorry. When did you get an opinion? This is our family table.’”

She said, “That’s what this moment felt like for many of us. There’s a nuance to what happened.”

As you know, Smith has since apologized to the Academy and Chris Rock while also resigning from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Recently there have been reports that Smith’s agency debated dropping him.