On MSNBC, Michael Eric Dyson Accuses DeSantis of 'Playing to His Racist Base'

During Thursday's edition of The Beat With Ari Melber, guest host Ayman Mohyeldin asked Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson  for his reaction to Florida Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis's assertion that his previous statement arguing that "we don't need to monkey this up" by embracing socialism "has zero to do with race," answering his critics who argued that the use of the word "monkey" was a racial slur directed at his African-American opponent, Andrew Gillum.  Dyson suggested that "either he (DeSantis) needs a rebate...on the tuition he paid for his education at both Yale and Harvard or this man is plainly lying."  He described DeSantis's use of the word "monkey" as "not even a dog whistle, this is a bullhorn."  Dyson accused DeSantis of "playing to his racist base" by using the word "monkey," arguing that "he is alluding to images, tropes, and metaphors of black identity that have been linked to monkeys throughout the history of the racist division of evolution in this country."