Sean Hannity is still using the widely-ridiculed Professor Derrick Bell video to paint President Obama as a racist. Never mind that Hannity sits on the advisory board of a charity run by “Thank God for slavery” and “slave ships are like flying coach” Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. Obama hugged tenured Harvard Law Professor Bell in 1990 during a student protest so he must be a closeted racist! To assist with the attacks (and inoculate himself from looking like a bigot), Hannity trotted out two of his like-minded African American pals – David Webb and Michael Meyers. Each overlooked Hannity’s own very disturbing record on race in order to use this flimsy pretext to accuse Obama of racial demagoguery.

Hannity opened the segment by pretending he was continuing to vet President Obama. But instead of holding any serious discussion about the views Obama holds, Hannity played some inflammatory clips of Bell praising the Fox News uber black boogeyman Louis Farrakhan (never mind that Bell was also seen saying he doesn’t agree with everything Farrakhan says) and something about living “to harass white folks.”

“Tonight, we continue to amass more of the radical statements that he’s made,” Hannity said with bullyboy gravity. 

Right-wing radio show host Webb said Bell is worse than Rev. Wright. Obama didn’t “just embrace” Bell, he taught him, Webb said. He went on to suggest that a person’s associations define  a man. “I want America to follow that narrative of analyzing the associations, as you want them to do, of really taking a look at what forms a man’s opinion,” Webb said.

Hannity did his best to capitalize on the hug. “It’s funny because some are saying, ‘Oh, that’s just a hug between a professor.’ Who is he hugging? And then you look at the bigger picture of the president’s friends.”

Meyers is usually presented as some kind of civil rights advocate – with some justification – but his record in that regard is spotty, to say the least. Our Alex did an excellent analysis of Meyers’ history of both civil rights cred and of forming alliances with forces with an interest in disenfranchising the very people he supposedly represents. One thing seems indisputable: Meyers dislikes Obama and is regularly willing to team up with Hannity in playing the race card against him and other African Americans.

Meyers said, “The anthem of the civil rights movement has always been, which side are you on? You choose sides. You either choose for racial reconciliation or you choose racial polarization. You choose racial harmony or you choose racial lunacy… The friends and allies and the mentors of Barack Obama chose racial idiocy… Any time you have the empowerment of black ideology, you have, you have I think, the endorsement of racism… Obama’s sin is the sin of not just hugging it’s the sin of omission because he is the intellectual and the intellectual must – the scholarship of the intellectual must refute, refute racial idiocy. You can not be silent.”

In that case, we’d like to know how Meyers can justify Hannity sitting on the advisory board of a charity run by Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson. We recently found an old video of Peterson saying,

“I’ve often said that, ‘Thank God for slavery,’ because, you know, had not, then the blacks over here would have been stuck in Africa… Everybody and their Mama are trying to get out of Africa and come to America and so God has a way of looking out for folks and He made it possible by way of slavery to get black folks into this country.

…I thank God that He saw fit for me to get here. Never mind that, you know, (my ancestors) were sold… by Arabs and blacks to white folks… The ride over was pretty tough but you know, it’s like riding on a crowded airplane when you’re not in First Class. It’s a tough ride. But you’re happy when you get to your desitination… I thank God that he got me here and to show my appreciation to the blacks who suffered as the result of coming here, and Arabs and blacks who sold us to the white man, the white man for going there and getting us and bringing us here, I want to say, ‘Thanks.’”

I’ve written to Hannity at [email protected], tweeted him @SeanHannity, Fox News @FoxNews and David Webb @DavidWebb Show asking how they justify Hannity’s association with Peterson. But so far, nobody has responded.  You can also write to Webb via his webmail.

Meanwhile, check out this touching interview Ed Schultz did with Professor Bell’s widow. She talks about her war veteran husband who was beloved by students of all races and backgrounds and asks, “Have they no sense of decency?” at Fox. Sadly, the answer is loud and clear.

UPDATE: MSNBC's Ed Schultz video is no longer available and I could not find any replacement.