Things got heated on MSNBC’s panel show The Cycle yesterday, when commentator Touré, who is black, accused Mitt Romney of trying to “niggerize” President Barack Obama by using racial coding to portray him as an “angry black man.”

Touré made the comments after watching video of Romney speaking in Ohio last week, when the candidate called Obama’s presidency “angry and desperate,” and told the president to take his  ”campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago”.

Touré responded:

“That really bothered me,” he said. “You notice he said anger twice. He’s really trying to use racial coding and access some really deep stereotypes about the angry black man. This is part of the playbook against Obama, the ‘otherization,’ he’s not like us… I know it’s a heavy thing, I don’t say it lightly, but this is ‘niggerization.’ You are not one of us, you are like the scary black man who we’ve been trained to fear.”

He spoke for a few more moments about how Romney’s comments conflict with the image of “No Drama Obama,” and how this message can appeal to the Republican base, before conservative panelist S.E. Cupps jumped in to object.

In the ensuing debate, Cupps framed Romney’s comments as a response to remarks made by Joe Biden just hours earlier, when the Vice President told a racially mixed audience that Wall Street deregulation under Romney would “put y’all back in chains.” Biden later clarified that he was referring to the middle class.

Cupps eventually called Touré “irresponsible.”

Touré, on the other hand, tied Romney’s comments to a long history of racial coding in Republican strategy.

What do you think? Did either side go to far?

[via Mediate]

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