MSBNC Host Accuses Truck Drivers of Racism

BUCK: In trucking — the profession of truck drivers — is there a lot of racism? “Is everything racist?” is the question that is always be asked on MSNBC. Welcome back to the Clay and Buck show here. We’re talking about supply chain issues. We’re talking about how we can get more — and one thing. When you’ve been doing radio as long as Clay and I have, you know that some of the people that are riding along with you the most consistently day in and day out are truck drivers. They’re the reason that we actually have commerce in this country. It’s great to get things to the port. We appreciate our stevedores? Is that the proper/appropriate term? Is that?

CLAY: That feels like a really old-school term. I’ve seen that term before.

BUCK: The dock workers.

CLAY: Longshoremen? I think it’s Longshoremen.

BUCK: Longshoremen? Okay.

CLAY: Stevedore. That’s a good question. I think of that as somebody that worked on a train back in the 1870s, but maybe I’m wrong on that.

BUCK: No, it’s a person employed or engaged on a dock to load and unload cargo from a ship.

CLAY: Would that be the same thing as a longshoreman?

BUCK: Yes. Well, actually, no. Let me check. I gotta see. We’re learning these in real time here — and, of course, the people that do these jobs are saying, “Come on, Clay and Buck. Get it together.” Oh, yeah, it’s the same thing. Same thing.

CLAY: I think longshoreman is the preferred term. You’re not allowed to say “stevedore.”

BUCK: I don’t think you get in trouble. I don’t think anyone’s gonna punch you if you say “stevedore.”

CLAY: You’ve alienated the entire package plant community out there.

BUCK: Whatever the preferred nomenclature may be, the point here is that we’ve got a lot of them in this audience.

CLAY: “Flight attendant” versus “stewardess.”

BUCK: But anyway.

CLAY: I think you offended everyone.

BUCK: We got a lot of people driving trucks listening to this show, and we so appreciate you ’cause some of you are in the truck and you’re listening for maybe the whole three hours of the show. And so thank you for that. And so that’s just why… This just annoyed me, man. This just set me off. MSNBC is having a conversation about how we get more truckers on the road.

CLAY: Which is important.

BUCK: Which is important.

CLAY: Massively important.

BUCK: And we all want. We just want safe, skilled truck drivers out there getting commerce done, and MSNBC turns it into — big surprise — a discussion about racism.

TIFFANY CROSS: How can the industry be more welcoming? ‘Cause, I have to tell you, I’ve talked to a lot of truck drivers in preparing for this segment, and most of these truck drivers are people of color. And they talk about, you know, hearing some of the racism over the CB. You know, this is, again, an industry populated by a lot of white men over the age of 55. This group of people overwhelmingly voted for Trump. Some people have talked about, you know, aggressive truck drivers cutting them off or not being helpful. So obviously the more populated it is with people of color, I think you’ll see less of that. But how can you encourage people to come and disrupt this space when it seems a bit unwelcoming?

BUCK: There’s so much there, Clay. First of all, so if there’s more people of color, then inherently there will be less rudeness among the drivers? What is she even saying?

CLAY: I’m just calling BS on the open of that where she claimed that before she went on the show to talk about this subject, she talked to a lot of truck drivers.

BUCK: Did not happen.

CLAY: I would wager a monster amount of money that she did not talk to a lot of truck drivers. She may have talked to a truck driver. She might have had somebody’s dad who she sent text messages to or something. There’s no way she did substantial research for truck drivers, all right? And there are over 11 million open jobs right now, a huge number of open jobs, especially given what’s going on with our transportation supply chain snafus, our disaster that’s going on right now are directly related to truck drivers.

And, Buck, I’ve heard from a lot of truck drivers that even though they are solitary inside of their cabin much of the day driving in their trucks, that they are going to be required to get the vaccine because many of them are employed by larger entities that employ over a hundred people, and a lot of them are gonna quit, potentially. So we’re not only going to have a truck driver shortage as exists right now. The Biden mandate, if it’s actually implemented, is gonna make things even worse.

BUCK: Isn’t it funny, you and I actually do hear from truck drivers on a regular basis. I think that’s funny with the MSNBC. I came out a lot of… I get messages from them I think every day.

CLAY: That is a massive portion of our listenership. As you point out, they’re in the car or in their trucks all day.

BUCK: And I hope some of them are pulling the horn for the Clay and Buck show right now. I don’t know. I think it’s called the horn, right? Whatever that is. Anyway, the point is —

CLAY: The horn in the transportation industry right now. The horn, the stevedores. I actually would love to know from people out there — they can tweet us or call in — how frequently is the term “stevedore” used? ‘Cause I feel like this is something that I haven’t seen since —

BUCK: I think it’s up there with “haberdashery” or something. It’s still technically correct but you don’t really hear it as much. Look, the point here about MSNBC is that we ask this question rhetorically: Do they really think is everything about race, and can they make anything a discussion of racism? And they answer it day in and day out. It is fascinating to watch at MSNBC they can make anything racist.

CLAY: Every single topic.

BUCK: In fact, anything can be about racism. Of course, covid is gonna be about racism. The only other thing that I’ve seen that was amazing intellectual gymnastics from MSNBC and a bit from CNN, too, recently is that inflation, Clay, is caused by covid. Did you know this? That if we only got more people to get shots, inflation goes down. Oh, wow! That’s remarkable how that comes together.

CLAY: It is… I’m still kind of laughing. The chimney sweep? What other phrases could we come up here for jobs that have been hopelessly left aside? Stevedore. I’m still kind of hung up on that.

BUCK: Well, if you have any dork workers listening and they want to call in —

CLAY: I think longshoremen would be what they want to be referred to but, yeah, I would want to know what the proper terminology there.

BUCK: The lines are in fact open.