Piers Morgan Tried to Whitesplain Racism to Me on TV
Two years ago, I debated the ex-‘Good Morning Britain’ host — and he was exactly who you’d think
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This month, Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan clashed on air with three Black people — his colleague, Alex Beresford, and two GMB guests — over his dismissal of Meghan Markle’s charges of racism in the royal family. Royalist Morgan was determined not to let a pesky inconvenience like white supremacy spoil his whitewashed view of England’s first family. In the space of two days, he was roundly rebuked on his show by all three, ultimately quitting GMB.
Watching the trio of YouTube clips sparked an uncomfortable flashback for me. Two years ago, I had my own on-air encounter with Morgan as a GMB guest discussing the delicate race issue. Nobody stormed off the set to cool off, as Morgan did during his heated March 9 confrontation with Beresford. Morgan didn’t resign afterward. Still, I left the London GMB studio that day in February 2019 feeling some kind of way about him.
A GMB producer extended an invitation to me earlier that morning to be interviewed about a then-brewing Liam Neeson controversy. The fallout had started several days earlier when the actor told a reporter how he’d once sought to avenge the rape of a female friend by a Black man. In retaliation, he spent a week roaming the streets at night “with a cosh,” looking for any “Black bastard” to bash. He used air quotes when he said “Black bastard” to indicate his frame of mind at the time.
It was a horrifying recollection; I’m thankful Neeson came to his senses before anyone was hurt. In sharing it, though, he put a bull’s eye on his back, and Morgan was ready with a loaded gun. He seemed to want to condemn Neeson as racist in the present tense. On his show, I tried to explain that it wasn’t as cut and dry as saying Neeson was racist in 2019 because of something that happened in 1979. Morgan, though, did what he does best — played judge, jury, and the only person whose opinion mattered.
He may have thought he took a progressive stance by emphatically calling out racism. To me, he was just another White guy whitesplaining racism to…
