Michael Eric Dyson on Nancy Mace’s Flirting Claim: ‘I Ain’t Tryin’ to Hit on this Woman on No Day’

DYSON: “Hey, my friends, Michael Eric Dyson here. Just want to clear something up, a vicious untruth and rumor that’s being spread by Congresswoman Nancy Mace claiming I was trying to hit on her, so I’m trying to figure this out. So, this is our complete text exchange that she says proves I was trying to hit on her. We were on CNN together. She was vicious. She was nasty. She refused to call Kamala Harris by her right name. We had a bitter exchange about that. She claims in the interview that I called her racist when I went out of my way to say she wasn’t a racist. I said, ‘You’re a wonderful woman, but let me say this to you, because I know you probably didn’t understand this or mean it, but when you call Kamala Harris out of her name, that is perpetuating a legacy of inequality and of white subordination of black people.’ ‘Oh, so you called me a racist.’ No, I didn’t. So she’s looking for some reason to try to exploit the situation. This is the text exchange I sent her. Abby Phillip, the host of the show, suggested we take pictures. I said, ‘Let’s take a picture.’ She said — Abby said, ‘When you post it, then tag me too, and then we’ll have fun.’ Because the whole point was two bipolar opposites, Michael Eric Dyson on one side, Nancy Mace on the other. So I sent her and she said, ‘Great pic.’ And I said, ‘Shh, don’t tell anybody. We look good together,’ with a laughing face and a kissy face. And my point was, ‘Shh, don’t tell anybody, because we are bipolar opposites. You’re on one side of the spectrum and I’m on the other side of the spectrum.’ And she said, ‘Ha-ha-ha.’ And I said, ‘Well, you’re gorgeousness makes the photos, so there’s that.’ And a little smiley face. Again, I’m just saying that trying to be nice to her in the belief and the effort that if I’m nice to her and I prove that we don’t have any bitter consequences from our fracas on television, that we can be relatively kind to each other. And I’m being nice to her. There’s no hitting on you. I said, ‘By the way, I’ve spoken twice at the Citadel.’ She said, ‘Oh, that’s awesome,’ and sent three American flags, and I hit the exclamation point. She put a heart on the ‘Well, you’re gorgeousness makes the photos, so there’s that.’ Then she removed the heart two days later, because she knew she was up to some mayhem. I ain’t try to hit on this woman on no day. Then, later on, she called me and Keith Boykin, my fellow panelist, ‘boys.’ So here I am trying to be nice to her, to be gracious to her, to compliment her, to suggest that she was, you know, a human being, that she had been wonderful, I said she looked gorgeous that night, now she’s trying to turn this into me hitting on you? She removed the heart. These are other people that I interacted with recently, my friends, some of them. My friend Allison, I said, ‘Nice. You look gorgeous. Look out, Texas, here she comes,’ talking about that. Nell Painter, a world renowned historian, on her Instagram, I posted after she posted about she’s a Mary Ellen von der Heyden Fellow in Letters of the American Academy in Berlin, in public, I said, ‘Gorgeous and brilliant all at once,’ a heart with — a face that’s smiling with hearts and a kissy face, right= I said, ‘Keep up the great work.’ Then there is my friend Terry who I was giving tickets to for the Democratic National Convention. I said, ‘You know I can if I will. Everybody and their mama want these tickets for today. You look gorgeous as always. Then my colleague Lisa at Vanderbilt, when we took pictures, I sent them to her and I said, ‘Me and Miss Gorgeous.’ And then, Councilwoman Mary Sheffield, who is a council woman in Detroit, and I said, ‘Gorgeous and brilliant leader.’ Bless you and thank God for your courage, strength and leadership.’ And then my dear friend Susan Taylor, a renowned editor, ‘Queen,’ that’s what I call her, ‘so good to see you today, you look gorgeous as always, and you’re soul-inspiring conversation was uplifting as always. Feel better. Love y’all.’ And then finally, to Dana Bash, I congratulated her on the interview she did with Kamala Harris, and then on another interview, ‘Saying people of color are eating cats, that’s racism.’ I was quoting her. I said, ‘Thank you, Dana Bash. Besides being brilliant and courageous, you also look gorgeous.’ And then I put a — a power hand and a smiley face with — with hearts. I ain’t hitting on Nancy Mace. I often acknowledge people’s gorgeousness, and men’s too, by everybody. So my point is that this is a woman trying to exploit the situation, trying to pretend as if I was trying to hit on her. She literally has that text exchange that I read the whole of you — a whole of it to you. I ain’t trying to holler at her, I ain’t trying to be with her. I have not dated white women. Not that that’s a problem. All three of my wives have been seven to eleven years older. Again, where in that text exchange am I hitting on you? No, what you’re trying to do is generate nastiness and viciousness because you’re so bitter, because you got your butt whipped that night, because I told you then that what you’re doing is wrong. And let me correct one thing I did say. That night I said you’re a wonderful woman, and then I said, ‘I know you don’t intend to do this.’ And she said, ‘Oh, are you calling me a racist.’ And of course I said, ‘No, I wasn’t.’ Let me correct myself. You are a racist. You are a racially charged, small-minded, bigoted person who was trying to exploit a situation to try to make me believe — to make people believe that I was hitting on you when I’ve just now read the entire exchange, which is false. I’ve told — I’ve read other exchanges with people where I have called them gorgeous and wasn’t trying to hit on them. And so your attempt is sad and sorry, but you’re bigoted, racist attempt will not succeed. Ain’t nobody trying to holler at you. And if you’re that desperate that you need a black man to holler at you, I’m not the want to do it. There are plenty on your side who can do that, ma’am, but you got the wrong brother in me. Again, vicious, misleading, lying, distorting and trying to pretend as if somebody’s trying to holler at you when that’s the furthest thing from my mind. My mistake was being gracious to you trying to say, oh my God, we are opposites, but we can still be gracious to one another. I can still compliment you. I can still say nice things to you.’ There was no attempt to do anything, but to be gracious to you, but you have proved to be what I said you weren’t: a vicious white supremacist racist who is incapable of accepting the generosity and kindness of a black man. You are a sorry, sick soul.”