Yesterday afternoon, the #CancelColbert hashtag swept Twitter after @ColbertReport tweeted the following racist statement:

Many of the reports are calling this an “allegedly racist tweet,” and that’s good journalism, I suppose. But I’m dropping the “allegedly” and calling this tweet racist, because that’s what it is.

Of course, context is important here. As anyone who’s seen the Colbert Report should know, the show is satire. The persona adopted by Colbert on the show is that of a clueless conservative talking head on Fox News, and a satirization of the backward thinking that so often characterizes cable news.

It’s also important to note that the tweet—which was later deleted—was a direct quote from this segment, in which Colbert takes on the Washington Redskins recent “charm offensive” with Native Americans to appease a public outraged by their racist logo. The relevant stuff begins at 4:55, when Colbert satirizes the Redskins’ paltry efforts to demonstrate sensitivity to the Native American community by launching his own charm offensive to apologize for an Asian-American caricature that appears on his show. It was then that the quote that was tweeted above appeared.

This context matters, as does a knowledge of how satire works—but it doesn’t, I think, make the tweet any less racist. Regardless of context or intent, this particular quote without the full context of the segment it appeared in was hurtful and offensive as it spread across social media. Though it may have functioned responsibly in the segment, there’s no way it should have been put out on Twitter.

The segment itself, though it is incisive satire and perfectly reveals the Redskins’ charm offensive as perfunctory and itself racist, is not among the smartest that Colbert’s ever done. I’m not an avid watcher of the Colbert Report, but I do wonder what purpose a racist Asian-American caricature could possibly have on the show. The segment itself was smart, but the cut-away to the racist caricature Colbert was referencing made me cringe and diminished the effect of the satire. This may be a case where the raw offfensiveness of the content may overwhelm whatever point Colbert is trying to make. “Satire” doesn’t give anyone a free pass to say whatever they want without consequences. Satirists still have responsibilities, and in this case Colbert didn’t navigate them as well as he’s done in the past.

Even so, don’t #CancelColbert. We need Stephen Colbert and his show to take on the continued ridiculousness of cable news, and Fox talking heads like Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity in particular. But even if he’s not cancelled (he won’t be), this morning Colbert should do some serious thinking about his use of racist stereotypes and whether they help his satirical project or not.

And, probably, have a chat with his social media person about how Twitter works.

Follow The Stake on Twitter and Facebook