Christopher Hitchens Rips Wanda Sykes: "The Black Dyke Got It Wrong"

Buried at the end of Chris Rovzar and Jada Yuan's fantastic White House Correspondents' Association Dinner party report is an incendiary quote from Christopher Hitchens about the evening's entertainment, comedienne Wanda Sykes:

"The president should be squirming in his seat. Not smiling," he said. "The black dyke got it wrong. No one told her the rules."

Rovzar and Yuan note that Hitchens was the "last man (barely) standing" of the evening.

WATCH SYKES' FULL PERFORMANCE HERE.

Other highlights of the always amusing NYMag writers' report include an in-Jada's-face interaction with Tom Cruise, a shoe-less Meghan McCain, an allergy-stricken Elizabeth Banks, and several anecdotes on "Gossip Girl" cast members.

Read their full report here.

Comments

[richdibo]

Some posters would like to see a war of words, humor and wit between Christopher and Wanda. Having read some of Mr. Hitchens' writings and viewed videos of his speeches and interviews, he would be one of the last people I would challenge.

To wit, his eulogy for Jerry Falwell: "If you gave him an enema, you could bury what's left over in a match box.

[Witkacy]

And here we watch Hitchens ride off into his senescence, just as did his dear Orwell, as is his pal Martin Amis, and so on. Now he's Bob-Dornan-gone-to-Oxford.- Great.

[ignoranceequalsfear]

The fact that he referred to her by her race and sexuality at all, shows he's racist and homophobic. Had he simply used her name, SHE DOES HAVE ONE, rather than calling her a *black* dy.ke, noone would be talking about this.

Despite the fact that he would deny being a bigot, he clearly has biases or he wouldn't have called her what he did. Period.

He is an extremely intelligent man. He should get sober and confront his bigotry. Think of how much of a better writer, spokesman and human being he could be. I hope he has the courage to do so and doesn't hide behind his intellect in fear.

[slb83]

This is beyond the fact that there is a common perception he's a total (expletive) jerk. In my mind, he is no different than the white liberals I work with who say they voted for Barack Obama, yet they look to me to act as a janitor regardless of the fact that we have the same job title and responsibilities that does not involve emptying worker's garbage, and regardless of the fact that WE HAVE HOUSEKEEPING THAT IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THAT! Then get mad when I say no in a polite way. It's not about your deliberate actions, but the fundamental assumptions about people who are black like me that you have relied on since the day you were born. Pisses me off on more than just an occasional basis, but nonetheless, it's reality. Goodnight.

[slb83]

2) The fact that he even mentioned that "no one told her the rules" is very problematic since this was a roast, which by definition, is where comedians or other guests are allowed to make comedic insults, outlandish remarks, or praises to or on behalf of a person who takes them in good faith. What rule did she break? Was she out of her place for making jokes that a man, particularly a white heterosexual male, could make, with desirable and undesirable media consequences, without his race and sexuality being the centerpiece of someone's dislike of a joke? 3) It is my experience that alcohol tends to make people think aloud. If he thinks racist/homophobic thoughts or are bound by those assumptions, then that makes him racist, homophobic, and sexist from a sociological/social psychological perspective, particularly since he implied that there was some rule that she didn't abide by within a situation where she was clearly allowed to make her jokes.

[slb83]

There are so many people that would suggest that Hitchens is not racist, sexist, and homophobic because he is a so-called well meaning white liberal ( side note: they forget that he supported the War in Iraq and had to actually get waterboarded in order for him to accept that it was torture, when our past legal rulings and decorated military veterans, who actually got waterboarded for training purposes during Vietnam, said that it was torture.), because he is, nothing more than, a well meaning white liberal who is free-thinking and blah blah blah, or he was drunk and blah blah blah.

I'm going to be very direct here on my opinion. He is a racist, sexist, and homophobic white liberal for which I think are the following reasons. 1) A white male bringing up someone's race and sexuality, in a derogatory fashion, within a situation that does not warrant such a remark should make you suspicious to say the least. Yes Wanda is Black and lesbian, and many people in the audience probably knew that either by observation or background knowledge. The question should not be: "she is black and she is a lesbian, what’s the problem?" The question should be: why is this even relevant?

[olddognewtrick]

Way to go Chris. Too bad you can't run for president!

[rockerdelight]

Is he an alcoholic? Love his articles in VF but when he appears on MSNBC , I always think he is about to keel over. Very distracting appearance

[AGarcia]

Coming from the guy who went out of his way to attack the character of Mother Theresa... it's a compliment.

[TFDNYC]

Christopher Hitchens is a terrific writer and a great intellect. His Orwel essays are nothing short of genius. GOD IS NOT GREAT is another gem. Too bad he's such a pompous a$ $ in person.

Oh how I loathe megalomania and money lovers!

[Malkin71]

As much as I agree with Hitchens on religion vs. atheism, torture (he had himself waterboarded, his opinion carries more weight, period) etc. he is not the ideal messenger. He is a dislikable guy in spite of his being right more often than not.

Wanda Sykes is great.

[Retrofuturistic]

It will cause people to have less respect for Hitchens, intellectually, when he resorts to misogynistic, racist, and anti-gay epithets.

[Hirnlego]

Hitchens Uncut

http://www.cbc.ca/thehour/videos.html?id=1121355844

[AGarcia]

Really banal interview.

[jackson1015]

My money's on Wanda in this cat fight.

[jackson1015]

Even Keith Olbermann has said Wanda Sykes went too far. Pu-leeze. She's the only one out there with the balls to tell it like it is....and I love her for it.

[wagthedog1001]

As she said, we told those jokes the next day.