Newsmax Host Includes Ben Shapiro On List Of 4 'Black Conservatives'

Newsmax on Wednesday included right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro, who is white, on an on-screen graphic of “Black conservatives.”

“Left considers Black conservatives to be traitors,” the caption said.

“They’re out there, but they’re shunned because, boy oh boy, what they have to say,” Newsmax host Greg Kelly said of Black conservatives before the graphic came on screen.

As it appeared, he explained Shapiro’s presence by noting: “Ben Shapiro, not Black but one of the heroes of the movement.”

Shapiro has called systemic racism in policing a “leftist myth,” posted an explainer last year on “how to respond when you’re falsely labeled a racist” and once said “Arabs like to bomb crap and live in open sewage.”

The other three men on the list were former Milwaukee Sheriff David Clarke, former Housing Secretary Ben Carson and former GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, who died of COVID-19 in 2020.

Kelly cited the men as part of a rant mocking the media for being “obsessed” with systemic racism. “If I lived in a country where every system was systemically racist, I’d move!” he said.

He cited the existence of Black conservatives as evidence to support his argument.

“This really disrupts the narrative, and that’s why they are marginalized. They shouldn’t be. They should be celebrated and listened to, right?” he said.

There are multiple prominent Black Republicans the conservative network could have cited in Shapiro’s place. Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker or right-wing pundit Candace Owens, for example. Or North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who was interviewed on the network this week.

The network addressed its inclusion of Shapiro on its list after it was ridiculed on social media, arguing in a chyron, “Yes, white people can be champions of Black causes.”