MSNBC host rips 'modern-day minstrel show' Sage Steele: She might be black, but she's not a legit 'black voice' — she's 'spewing ... nonsense' from 'powerful white Americans'

MSNBC host Tiffany Cross made it clear on her weekend show that she is no fan of embattled black ESPN anchor Sage Steele — or any other "black face" who does spout what Cross has determined is the proper rhetoric for American blacks.

People like Steele, activist and commentator Van Jones, and entrepreneur Carlos Watson, according to Cross, might be black but they don't have "black voices." Instead, the leftist cable host declared, they are just propped up "by wealthy or powerful white Americans."

What's that now?

Steele made waves in late September during an interview with Jay Cutler on his podcast, "Uncut." During their discussion, Steele had the audacity to offer a differing point of view on vaccines and on former President Barack Obama's racial identity and why he IDs as black while being biracial. Her comments led to Disney pulling her from the airwaves.

"Well, congratulations to the president, that's his thing," Steele said. "I think that's fascinating considering his black dad is nowhere to be found, but his white mom and grandma raised him, but OK. You do you. I'm gonna do me."

"Listen, I'm pretty sure my white mom was there when I was born," she added. "And my white family loves me as much as my black family."

Those comments did not sit well with MSNBC's Cross. She called Steele's remarks "half-witted" and "self-hating" and accused the ESPN host of being a "minstrel show" who was "spewing ... nonsense."

"That is undoubtedly a black face, whether or not she knows it," Cross said of Steele. "But it is most definitely not a black voice. Yet, I'm sure someone is giving themselves a big diversity pat on the back by having that modern-day minstrel show, 'Sage Step-and-fetch-it,' on the airwaves spewing her continued nonsense."

But Cross did not reserve her venom for only Steele. She also attacked Jones, whom she called "Jeff Bezos' black friend," referring to the Amazon founder's decision to give a $100 million grant to Jones to pass out to charities of his choosing. She took issue with Jones' willingness to compliment former President Donald Trump for honoring the widow of a fallen Navy SEAL.

She then attacked Watson, the founder of failed Ozy Media, for successfully fundraising for his startup by using his "gift of making white people comfortable."

Cross made clear that she believed she found a common thread among these "black faces" who don't have "black voices": White people propped them up.

"Carlos Watson. Sage Steele. Van Jones. What do these three folks have in common?" Cross asked. "Well, they're all people who've been prompted [sic] up by wealthy or powerful white Americans, and yet we, the keepers of the culture, don't really rock with any of them like that."

"Now obviously, the three of these folks are most definitely black faces," she continued. "However, they are not necessarily black voices. And there's a difference."

"There is certainly something to be said about wealthy and powerful white people elevating certain voices over others," Cross added in her attack on the three black personalities.

Cross then ended with a "word of advice" to the white "landscape of the rich and powerful": "Perhaps, instead of investing in people of color who make you comfortable, you many want to give a second look to those of us who make uncomfortable."

(h/t: Daily Caller)