But after the meeting, while participants were speaking with the media, he was caught on camera saying Channel 12 reporter Monique Griego had “nice tits.”
“I can’t believe that someone in his position would not understand how inappropriate that comment was at the time that he made it,” says Ray Stern, a reporter for the Phoenix New Times, who was talking to Griego at the time.
“Here’s the leader of the NAACP talking about the N-word and then making this comment, that was more inappropriate than I could even believe,” he tells ABC 15.
The news station reports Harris doesn’t believe Griego heard him at the time and says he feels like he let down the NAACP. He calls his comment “ugly” and says it just slipped out “guy to guy.”
After the reaction, Harris now says he feels “down in the dumps.”
The New Times contacted Harris after that incident and reports the NAACP leader said, “I apologize if anyone was offended. I could have said nothing . . . I’m really f*cking sorry.”
He argued that the meeting was over when he complimented the reporter’s rack and then really blew a gasket (edited for a family audience):
“I’m going to slash my wrists,” he spews. “Better yet, I’m going to throw myself out of a f*cking window, except I’m on the first floor . . . I’m one of the best g*dd*mned people in the state.”
People criticized him when he first took over the NAACP chief post from the Reverend Oscar Tillman, who retired in 2014 after 22 years in the position, he says, because “I was the wrong flavor.
“They’ve seen me now, they’ve seen what I’ve done. I’ve given up my law practice. I’m down here six, seven days a week. That’s what my commitment is. I support NOW, the women’s organization — g*dd*mn! — are you sh*tting me? Are you going to write this up?”
Griego didn’t comment on the situation but Harris insists he wants to apologize face-to-face. (Of course he does.)
Last June, when white NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal was exposed for pretending to be black, Harris appeared on CNN and claimed “credibility” is one of the most important assets the organization has.
“This is a race-based organization — the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. And being a race-based organization, when you have a leader in any capacity, you’ve got to have credibility.
“Once you lose that credibility, the efficacy of your leadership fails,” Harris said.
