MSNBC Host Apologizes to Romney Family for Black Grandson Jokes

Melissa Harris-Perry and panel joked about lone child of a different race amid otherwise white Romney family photo

MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry apologized Tuesday for a segment on her show where she and panelists joked about the adopted black grandchild of former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, featured in the family’s Christmas photo.

Also read: MSNBC Host Makes Fun of Mitt Romney’s Black Grandson

“I am sorry. Without reservation or qualification. I apologize to the Romney family,” Harris-Perry tweeted along with the hashtag, #MHPapology.

Harris-Perry, a black woman who herself was raised by a white Mormon family, said she was familiar with the Romneys’ unique family blend and “never meant to suggest otherwise.”

In a segment on the Dec. 29 episode of MSNBC’s “Melissa Harris-Perry Show” called “What’s So Funny About 2013,” Harris-Perry presented the photo to a panel of actors and comedians and suggested that it had generated a lot of “emotions” since the Romneys shared it on Christmas Eve.

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As a suggested caption for the photo, panelist Pia Glenn sang, “One of these things is not like the others, one of these things just isn’t the same.” (Lyrics of the original Sesame Street song are, “One of these things just doesn’t belong.”)

Harris-Perry continued her New Year’s Eve Twitter mea culpa by apologizing to all interracial adoptive families.

“I apologize to all families built on loving transracial adoptions who feel I degraded their lives or choices,” she tweeted.

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