CBS commentator Nancy Giles accused radio DJ Jay Smooth of 'co-opting' black culture while discussing Starbucks' new Race Together campaign on MSNBC, and things got massively awkward when he told her he was actually black.
As Raw Story reported, the racial incident began after show host Chris Hayes played a clip from Smooth's YouTube channel, "How to Tell Someone They Sound Racist."
After watching the clip, Giles clearly assumed Smooth was a rap-obsessed white guy.
"I can't not tease Jay about the kinda, like, brotha way he was trying to talk. Like, 'Hey,' with the rap music in the background, and like 'down with the people,'" she said, laughing.
"I'm a rap guy!" said Smooth, who in fact hosts a hip-hop radio show at WBAI New York.
"Yeah, I know, but it's another interesting, funny thing about race," said Giles, gearing up to accuse Smooth of appropriating black culture.
"Like, there would be some people that would feel that you co-opted something like that, and other people might feel like 'that’s his background and that’s really cool, too.' These are conversations, you know, 'Yo, like ya know, yeah, if somebody takes my wallet' — I mean it’s really interesting."
It was clear Smooth was trying to determine how long he should let Giles go on before stopping her, but stop her he did.
"It’s also interesting because I’m actually black, but you assumed otherwise," Smooth countered. "And this is the sort of awkwardness that we can look forward to at Starbucks across America."
MSNBC's morning show, "Morning Joe," was previously sponsored by Starbucks, from 2009 to 2013.
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