ColorOfChange.org, a group dedicated to Black political and social change, is circulating a petition asking MSNBC to immediately fire Buchanan. In a memo to its members, dated Oct. 31, it said: “If Buchanan didn’t have a powerful media platform, he’d be just another person with outdated, extremist ideas. But it’s irresponsible and dangerous for MSNBC to promote his hateful views to an audience of millions.”

In his latest book, Buchanan writes in a chapter titled, The End of White America: “Those who believe the rise to power of an Obama rainbow coalition of peoples of color means the whites who helped engineer it will steer it are deluding themselves. The whites may discover what it is like in the back of the bus.”

He also defends New York taxi drivers who refuse to pick up African-American males.

“If [conservative political commentator Heather] MacDonald’s statistics are accurate, 49 of every 50 muggings and murders in New York are the work of minorities. That might explain why black folks have trouble getting a cab. Every New York cabby must know the odds should he pick up a man of color at night.”

Unfortunately, that kind of talk – based on non-existent “facts” – is nothing new for Buchanan, a former editorial writer for the right-wing St. Louis Globe-Democrat who later served in the Nixon White House and ran unsuccessfully for president.

Buchanan’s extremist views have been subject of reports published by media watchdog groups Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) and Media Matters as well as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Below are Buchanan’s own words:

·       “First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever  known…Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans…Where is the gratitude?” [Syndicated column, “A Brief for Whitey,” March 21, 2008]

·       “This has been a country built, basically, by white folks in this country who were 90 percent of the entire nation in 1960 when I was growing up, Rachel, and the other 10 percent of the entire nation were African-Americans who had been discriminated against.” [The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, July 16, 2009]

·       “In the late 1940’s and 1950’s…race was never a preoccupation with us, we rarely thought about it…There were no politics to polarize us then, to magnify every slight. The ‘Negroes’ of Washington had their public schools, restaurants, movie houses, playgrounds and churches; and we had ours.” [Buchanan’s autobiography, Right From the Beginning, 1990]

·       “Even Richard Nixon found the views of his former speech writer, Buchanan, too extreme on the segregation issue. According to a John Ehrlichman memo referenced in Nicholas Lemann’s The Promised Land, Nixon characterized Buchanan’s views as ‘segregation forever.’ After Nixon was reelected, Buchanan warned his boss not to ‘fritter away his present high support in the nation for an ill-advised governmental effort to forcibly integrate races.’” [Salon, Sept. 4, 1999]

·       “Near the end, Buchanan added angrily: ‘Conservatives are the niggers of the Nixon administration.’ The political right, Buchanan thought, was getting nothing but rhetoric.” [Richard Reeves, President Nixon: Alone in the White House, Page 295.]

·       “Buchanan’s memo, written April 1, 1969, said Nixon should observe the first anniversary of the civil rights leader’s death by doing no more than issuing a statement. ‘There is no long-run gains, and considerable long-run risks in making a public visit to Widow King,’ Buchanan wrote. He characterized King as ‘one of the most divisive men in contemporary history’ and: ‘Initially, the visit would get an excellent press but…it would outrage many people who believe Dr. King was a fraud and a demagogue, and perhaps worse,’ the memo said. ‘It does not seem to be in there interests of national unity for the president to lend his national prestige to the argument that this divisive figure is a modern saint.’” [Associated Press, December 12, 1986]

·       “…Both the GOP establishment and conservatives should study how and why white voters, who delivered Louisiana to Reagan and Bush three times, moved in such numbers to [White supremacist David] Duke – and devise a strategic plan to win them back.” [Syndicated column, December 23, 1991]

·       “George Bush should have told the [NAACP convention] that black America has grown up; that the NAACP should close up shop, that its members should go home and reflect on JFK’s admonition: ‘Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.’” [Syndicated column, July 26, 1988]

 Buchanan, appearing on Al Sharpton’s “PoliticsNation” program in August on MSNBC, referred to President Obama as “your boy.” More recently he agreed with Herman Cain’s assertion that Blacks have been brainwashed into supporting Democrats over Republicans. In an interview on CNN, Buchanan said, “I think what he’s saying is they bought a lot of liberal propaganda on the liberal plantation and I think he’s right.”

Color of Change is right for seeking Buchanan’s dismissal. In 2008, the National Association of Black Journalists gave Buchanan its “Thumbs Down Award” that goes to an individual or news organization for especially insensitive, racist or stereotypical reporting or commentary. It is time for MSNBC to give Buchanan the boot.

George E. Curry, former editor-in-chief of Emerge magazine and the NNPA News Service, is a keynote speaker, moderator, and media coach. He can be reached through his Web site, www.georgecurry.com You can also follow him at www.twitter.com/currygeorge.