MSNBC host Joy Reid is reportedly now facing renewed criticism for remarks downplaying the role of white Americans in culture and innovation, declaring that white people “can’t originally invent anything more than they were able to invent good music.”
Reid made the comments during an appearance last week on the Left Hook podcast hosted by New York Times contributing writer Wajahat Ali. The episode was titled, “How Mediocre White Men and their Fragility are Destroying America.”
“We black folk gave y’all country music, hip hop, R&B, jazz, rock and roll. They couldn’t even invent that,” Reid said, crediting black artists with the creation of nearly every major American music genre. She did not cite other cultural or scientific contributions beyond music, except to note vaguely that black Americans had improved “food” and “the economy.”
Ali, echoing Reid, added: “We make the food better. We make the economy better. We make the music better.”
Reid went further, invoking Elon Musk as an example of what she portrayed as misplaced credit for white achievement. “Even Elon Musk didn’t invent them damn Teslas. Two other men invented it. He just bought it,” she said.
In reality, Tesla’s two co-founders — Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning — are white.
The exchange comes at a time when cultural debates over race, merit, and achievement remain central to the national conversation.
Conservatives seized on Reid’s comments as yet another example of identity politics overtaking honest discussion of history and innovation.
The timing also coincided with President Donald Trump’s announcement that, as the new board chair of The Kennedy Center, he will host the 2025 Kennedy Center Honors.
Trump personally helped select this year’s honorees, a lineup that includes country legend George Strait, Broadway star Michael Crawford, disco icon Gloria Gaynor, rock band KISS, and actor Sylvester Stallone.
Trump said he rejected some potential nominees because “They were too woke. I had a couple of wokesters.” The move has sparked anger from liberals, including Reid, who complain that Trump is “taking over” The Kennedy Center and reshaping its prestigious awards ceremony.
Ali echoed Reid’s dismissive stance on white cultural influence, saying: “These people cannot create culture on their own. So they need to take over, dominate, appropriate, and control. Without black people, brown people, the DEIs, there’s no culture in America.”
He pointed specifically to Stallone’s inclusion as evidence of what he called white male fragility. “Sylvester Stallone became famous because Rocky is all about a white man, a mediocre white man who has no chance in hell of ever ever ever ever ever beating Apollo Creed,” Ali said.
In fact, Stallone’s fictional boxer Rocky Balboa ultimately defeats Apollo Creed in Rocky II.
The clash highlights the stark cultural divide in American public life. For Reid and Ali, the story is one of white mediocrity propped up by systems of privilege.
For conservatives, Reid’s dismissal of white innovation and Trump’s rejection of “woke” artists at the Kennedy Center represent two sides of the same debate: whether culture is built on grievance politics or genuine achievement.
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