Republican CNN contributor Shermichael Singleton said that conservatives defending a UFC fighter who called former First Lady Michelle Obama a man were missing the “racist” historical context of such insults.

The controversy arose from what heavyweight fighter Josh Hokit said after his match Sunday evening at the “UFC Freedom 250” match held on the White House South Lawn on the same day as President Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.

After Hokit won via TKO, leaving his undefeated UFC career intact, he had a triumphant interview with podcaster Joe Rogan.

“And lastly, Michelle Obama is a man! Am I right, America?” Hokit yelled as a grinning Rogan held the microphone and the crowd offered a mixture of cheers and boos.

White House Communications Director Steven Cheung was asked about Hokit’s comments and dodged the question, only offering praise for Hokit’s prowess in the octagon.

Hokit did otherwise get a lot of swift and loud condemnation, including by UFC President Dana White, who emphasized he supported free speech “but I hate that kind of nonsense” and was “completely against saying nasty and false things about people’s families.”

Barstool’s Dave Portnoy blasted Hokit for being among the “idiots” and “lunatics” who give UFC a bad name, and called on Trump to denounce what he’d said.

CNN anchor Jake Tapper addressed the controversy with his panel on Monday’s episode of The Lead, calling it “a pretty ugly moment.”

Tapper went to Singleton for his reaction first, commenting that he “can’t even imagine how Republican heads would be exploding if this were a Democratic event” where such a comment had been uttered.

“If the roles were reversed, of course,” replied Singleton.

“But it costs nothing just to say, like, ‘We condemn those remarks,'” said Tapper.

“And this isn’t reflective of the president, move on,” Singleton said, and then went into how he had been checking out how people were reacting on social media, including conservatives he follows, and was seeing people saying they “don’t understand how this is steeped in racism.”

“That’s been one of the consistent things I’ve seen,” he continued. “Even had a couple friends have reached out and said, ‘hey, can you just unpack this a little bit further for me?'”

“Are you their Black friend?” interjected New York Times columnist Lulu Garcia-Navarro with a laugh.

“Well, I’m sure they have more than just me, but I said, ‘Sure, absolutely,” said Singleton. “There is a historical context here that I think a lot of people just may not be familiar with, whether it’s Michelle Obama being ‘a man’ or it’s tennis star Serena Williams being ‘too masculine.’ That was a thing when she was at her prime.”

“The president tweeting out the them as monkeys, right?” said Garcia-Navarro, referring to a video Trump had posted on his Truth Social account in February that depicted Michelle and Barack Obama as apes.

“When you attach that historic trope contextually to Black women, what it says is that, one, it dehumanizes them,” he continued, “and it does assert that you don’t have to have the same empathy. And so what has been the cultural result of that? You look at medicine, for example, when Black women say that they’re in pain, they’re typically not believed. This isn’t my opinion — all of the stats say this — maternity rates for Black women, mortality, rather, Black women, White women, significantly worse.”

‘The dehumanization,” said Tapper.

The people who said they didn’t understand why so many Black people were saying, “Hey, this is racist,” Singleton explained, “have to understand historical context that has been laid against women in my community, and how those things have led to detrimental impacts and harms for generations and decades.”

“It was inappropriate,” he said. “It should not have been stated.”

Later in the segment, Singleton called Hokit’s comments “crap” and “just so divisive, because it’s supposed to be representative of the country’s history.”

Singleton wasn’t able to attend the fight himself because he was with his family, but said as he watched it on television, “all of the other fighters, they thanked God, they thanked the military soldiers, EMS, they said it’s a great day for the country, etc.” but then “you have one person — I don’t know the guy — pretty classless behavior, in my personal opinion.”

Hokit “maybe he thought this was funny, but funny to whom?” Singleton concluded. “I don’t think you have to insult people or buy into tropes to dehumanize people, to make a point. It just wasn’t necessary, and I’m glad that some people have called it out, and rightfully so. But again, contextually, I want people to understand historically why this is so hurtful to so many people out there.”

Watch the clip above via CNN.

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