MATTHEWS: Clarence Page is a friend of ours, always here, pal of mine going way back—
PAGE: Way back.
MATTHEWS: Chicago Tribune columnist. There still are newspapers! And Michael Eric Dyson is a professor at one of the great universities in the world, Georgetown, sir! Thank you.
DYSON: Thank you, my friend.
MATTHEWS: So, we don’t—we weren’t there.
PAGE: Right.
MATTHEWS: Let’s agree. None of us were there. But what do you think this is about, Clarence?
PAGE: None of this makes sense, first of all. We know Skip Gates. You know, 58 years old. He’s about 5 foot 7. He walks with a cane. He—like he put up a fight with the police?
MATTHEWS: He’s got a neighbor that doesn’t recognize him. She called in 911.
PAGE: Well, yes. Yes.
MATTHEWS: Got a cop in there saying there’s a burglary in progress.
PAGE: Right.
MATTHEWS: He shows up. Officer Crowley—I love the fact that everybody’s Irish. He shows up—
PAGE: Yes.
MATTHEWS: —and is told that the guy inside the house is a burglar. By the neighbor. So, it isn’t all his fault, by any means.
PAGE: This man is a superstar, not just in Cambridge.
MATTHEWS: Yes, I know.
PAGE: It must have been the only person in the neighborhood who didn’t know who it was. Unbelievable.
MATTHEWS: Clarence, you guys are—you’re academic [to Dyson], and you’re lettered [to Page]. You know what the guy is. The neighbor didn’t know who he was. The cop didn’t know who he was. What do you think happened? And what does it say about America? Does it say anything at all? Michael!
DYSON: Absolutely. First of all, your neighbor doesn’t know you. You don’t have to be famous. It’s just your neighbor.
MATTHEWS: Well, she’s the one that called 911!
DYSON: That’s my point. You don’t know the guy that lives next door to you?
MATTHEWS: She was profiling him!
(LAUGHTER)
DYSON: Yes. Yes. She saw his profile and called in: “Yes, this guy with the cane looks like he’s going to beat me down.” But the point is—
MATTHEWS: See, what I don’t understand is, she knew her neighbor was African-American. He had a certain look. She sees a guy with a certain look. She wasn’t profiling, or what—what was going on here?
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It is not a funny matter when a national TV figure accuses a private citizen of something he or she did not do. Mr. Matthews, you owe Ms. Whalen an apology…big time.