Steve Harvey Mocks Flint Resident: ‘Enjoy Your Nice Brown Glass Of Water,’ Flint Mayor Demands Apology

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Steve Harvey has made it loud and clear that public image doesn’t rank high on his priority list. We’re a month removed from the popular comedian sending a memo to employees of his show instructing them to leave him alone–in his dressing room, in the hallways, everywhere. He then further alienated his staff by bailing on his show’s wrap party before moving production from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Welp, Harvey has earned himself some more negative press after innocent trash talk about sports on Wednesday morning turned a bit personal.

Harvey, an avid Cleveland Cavs fan, mocked a resident of Flint, Michigan, who called into his morning show to discuss his Cleveland Cavaliers’ loss to the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

The caller claimed the Cavs didn’t “deserve jack” after their loss. Not the hottest of takes. This seemed to strike a cord with Harvey, who decided to use a tragic health and safety crisis that has affected the lives of 100,000 Flint residents for the past three years, as his rebuttal.

“You from Flint? That’s why y’all ain’t even got clean water,” Harvey reportedly said, to the forced nervous laughter of his co-hosts.

“When was the last time you touched water and it didn’t have lead in it?” He continued.

This is when one of his co-hosts told him to “reel it in” as he’d gone “over the edge.”

Harvey didn’t stop there.

“I wasn’t talking about the city of Flint, I was talking about him. He going to call in, say Cleveland don’t deserve jack, and he over there bathing in all that silver water.” Before the caller hangs up, Harvey quips “one more thing… Enjoy your nice brown glass of water.”

The mayor of Flint, Michigan issued a statement demanding Harvey apologize. Now, it should be noted that Harvey has been a leader in garnering publicity and exposure to the crisis, dedicating a whole hour of his daytime show to bring awareness to the crisis.

He even brought on Miss Flint Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny, who Harvey hosted on his show last year. The little girl has since called him out on Twitter.

On Thursday, Harvey released a statement chalking his comments up to typical sports trash talk.

This morning callers and I were cracking jokes about the Cleveland Cavaliers loss to the Golden State Warriors. I’m a huge Cavs fan. The caller and I were talking trash about our teams and cities. “SIMPLY TRASH TALKING ABOUT SPORTS”. I made a joke directed at him, as he is from Flint, a city for which I have great affection and respect. So much so that I devoted a full hour on my daytime talk show to raising awareness for the Flint water crisis. I also pressed then candidate, Hilary Clinton, to offer solutions to what I called one of the great catastrophes of modern times. The and the caller laughed as my joke was taken in the context it was offered.

Steve Harvey has been doing this far too long to be naive to the consequences of shit like this. Comedian or not, angrily making light of a crisis that will likely be ongoing for another three years is just low-class.

[h/t Death and Taxes]

Matt Keohan Avatar
Matt’s love of writing was born during a sixth grade assembly when it was announced that his essay titled “Why Drugs Are Bad” had taken first prize in D.A.R.E.’s grade-wide contest. The anti-drug people gave him a $50 savings bond for his brave contribution to crime-fighting, and upon the bond’s maturity 10 years later, he used it to buy his very first bag of marijuana.