Russell Simmons Slams NRA’s New African American Spokesman

-By Warner Todd Huston

There is a new face on the pro-gun circuit. Mr. Colion Noir, a young African American who is conservative and pro-gun, is the National Rifle Association’s newest spokesman but apparently this has proven too much for rap and entertainment mogul Russell Simmons.

After seeing the NRA’s intro video of Noir’s upcoming NRA News show, Simmons took to Twitter to tell the gun group, “Dear @NRA, we don’t trust you. Sincerely, Black America.”

Simmons then wrote a longer attack at Globalgrind.com, saying that “black people ain’t got no time” for the NRA.

Music entrepreneur Simmons criticizes the NRA’s hiring of African American Noir and says it is “deeply troubling” that the NRA is encouraging the black community “to pick up guns again and start poppin’.”

Simmons went on to say, “With smokescreens and a barrage of bullets, the NRA is intentionally playing into the fears of a very few people. Very, very few.”

Simmons concludes his post saying,

Our community is not interested in a corporate sponsored gun group telling us what to do, when their real mission is to make more money for the corporations that line their dirty pockets with rolls of cash and silver bullets. We’re much smarter than that and certainly can see through their motives. Until they show a real interest in solving the violence problem in our community, they can keep their Yankee hat-wearing spokesman and their African-American “campaigns” for themselves. In the words of another internet star, “ain’t nobody got time for that.”

Describing himself as an “urban gun enthusiast,” Noir has been making Youtube videos talking about guns and the Second Amendment for some time, now, but at last the National Rifle Association has taken notice and is bringing Noir on NRA News.

Noir has attracted more than 7 million views on his Youtube channel, so his eventual association with the NRA seems a natural fit. The young man will be doing videos for the NRA as well as traveling the country to talk about the U.S. Constitution and gun rights issues.

____________
“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson

Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.

For a full bio, please CLICK HERE.


Copyright Publius Forum 2001