Cunningham: “I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says”

Written by Lauryn Bruck

Published

Radio host Bill Cunningham stated: “I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says.” Cunningham also asserted that “Flavor Flav, 50 Cent, and Diddy” are “really in charge of the [Obama] Inaugural [Ball].”

During the “Stooge of the Week” segment of the October 10 broadcast of The Big Show with Bill Cunningham, Cunningham hosted a frequent guest, who was identified as Miss C and as a supporter of Sen. Barack Obama, to discuss the role of race in the presidential election. During the conversation, Cunningham asked her, “If he [Obama] loses, are you gonna burn down this town?” Cunningham later said, “I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says.”

In addition, after repeatedly airing a clip throughout the broadcast from Flavor Flav's show, The Flavor of Love, that lays out the criteria for joining “The Pimp Legion of Doom” as driving a Cadillac and having a perm, Cunningham stated that “Flavor Flav, 50 Cent, and Diddy” are “really in charge of the [Obama] Inaugural [Ball].” Cunningham added: “It's going to be the best Inaugural. Normally you wear - you wear, you know, black tails, white -- this is going to be a rap concert. I mean, it's going to be the best ever.”

From the October 10 broadcast of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham:

CUNNINGHAM: What are you going to do if he loses, Miss C?

MISS C: He won't lose.

CUNNINGHAM: If he loses, are you gonna burn down this town?

MISS C: There's too many good white people tired of white men.

CUNNINGHAM: White people are tired of white men?

MISS C: Yes. Yes. We've had 43 white men presidents, and we're in the lowest point of history. Our stock markets, our money, home foreclosures -- white people cannot lead -- white men. Now it's time for them to get out the way.

[...]

CUNNINGHAM: Will this town burn down if he loses?

CO-HOST: I don't know. What do you think?

CUNNINGHAM: Yeah. I think there will be 100 cities burning if Barack loses. Yeah, that's what the black intelligentsia says.

[...]

ERIC DETERS (700 WLW radio host): Is it true, Willie, that you've been playing this Flavor Flav. Is he really in charge of the Inaugural?

CUNNINGHAM: Yeah. Flavor Flav, 50 Cent, and Diddy.

DETERS: Oh my God.

CUNNINGHAM: It's going to be the best Inaugural. Normally you wear - you wear, you know, black tails, white -- this is going to be a rap concert. I mean, it's going to be the best ever.

Lauryn Bruck is an intern with Media Matters for America.