Don Lemon’s unusual point of agreement with Bill O’Reilly on race Saturday afternoon immediately led to some strange bedfellows, with Lemon finding himself in a corner with conservative radio host Larry Elder, and getting excoriated by Michael Skolnik, editor-in-chief of Global Grind.
“I think your comments sounded like a conservative preacher on a Sunday, and certainly Bill O’Reilly should welcome you on his show,” Skolnik said. “I’m disappointed in you.”
“You’re talking about sagging pants,” Skolnik continued. “I’ve heard this rap for years. Let’s stop talking about sagging pants, and let’s talk about why we incarcerate 2.2 million people in this country, and why young kids look up to guys who come out of jail. We waged a war against black and brown people forty years ago, the War on Drugs, and it failed miserably, and now we’re reaping the repercussions.”
Related: Don Lemon Sides With Bill O’Reilly?: ‘He Doesn’t Go Far Enough’ In Criticizing Black Culture
“Not every black kid is in jail,” Lemon responded. “And there are rules, and people should know where that style comes from, whether it’s a black kid, a white kid, or whether it’s Justin Bieber. That is glorifying prison culture. Who wants to see someone’s butt crack?”
“Black men went to jail as diseased drug addicts, and they came out as criminals, because they taught them criminal behavior in jail,” Skolnik said. “It’s not glorifying it, it’s a reflection of our society. Our society incarcerates 2.2 million people, more than anyone else in the world. It’s a reflection, it’s a mirror. Don’t break the mirror. Look at yourself.”
“Larry Elder, help me out,” Lemon said. “Isn’t that what I’m trying to do here?”
Related: Chris Hayes Deals With O'Reilly and Don Lemons Remarks In Retrospect
Elder agreed with Lemon, and then went much further, blaming Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty for the disintegration of the African American family, and praising Ronald Reagan for restoring employment opportunities to black men.
“We’ve been giving people incentives to marry the government, and allow men to abandon their financial responsibilities,” Elder said. “My dad was a janitor, he worked two full-time jobs as a janitor. He never read Adam Smith, but he also said ‘I never got a job from a poor person.’”
This was a bit much for Lemon. “Larry, you’re gonna have a hard time convincing people that Ronald Reagan is the scion to help African American people. That’s a tough sell.”
“I think your comments sounded like a conservative preacher on a Sunday, and certainly Bill O’Reilly should welcome you on his show,” Skolnik said. “I’m disappointed in you.”
“You’re talking about sagging pants,” Skolnik continued. “I’ve heard this rap for years. Let’s stop talking about sagging pants, and let’s talk about why we incarcerate 2.2 million people in this country, and why young kids look up to guys who come out of jail. We waged a war against black and brown people forty years ago, the War on Drugs, and it failed miserably, and now we’re reaping the repercussions.”
Related: Don Lemon Sides With Bill O’Reilly?: ‘He Doesn’t Go Far Enough’ In Criticizing Black Culture
“Not every black kid is in jail,” Lemon responded. “And there are rules, and people should know where that style comes from, whether it’s a black kid, a white kid, or whether it’s Justin Bieber. That is glorifying prison culture. Who wants to see someone’s butt crack?”
“Black men went to jail as diseased drug addicts, and they came out as criminals, because they taught them criminal behavior in jail,” Skolnik said. “It’s not glorifying it, it’s a reflection of our society. Our society incarcerates 2.2 million people, more than anyone else in the world. It’s a reflection, it’s a mirror. Don’t break the mirror. Look at yourself.”
“Larry Elder, help me out,” Lemon said. “Isn’t that what I’m trying to do here?”
Related: Chris Hayes Deals With O'Reilly and Don Lemons Remarks In Retrospect
Elder agreed with Lemon, and then went much further, blaming Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty for the disintegration of the African American family, and praising Ronald Reagan for restoring employment opportunities to black men.
“We’ve been giving people incentives to marry the government, and allow men to abandon their financial responsibilities,” Elder said. “My dad was a janitor, he worked two full-time jobs as a janitor. He never read Adam Smith, but he also said ‘I never got a job from a poor person.’”
This was a bit much for Lemon. “Larry, you’re gonna have a hard time convincing people that Ronald Reagan is the scion to help African American people. That’s a tough sell.”
See it Here:
This sort of reminds of when I would listen to Warren Ballentine Show, and sometimes when you tuned in you would get Armstrong Williams. Ballentine would get Williams to cover his show during his absents. Most of the time people just turned the station or a lot of Black follows of Williams would chime in on things that were totally different from what Warren would talk about. Anyhow, to make a long story short Ballentine is no longer on the air. I do know that he and lemon were friends so is this just the truth about a persons real agenda coming out? As Warren once would say, "I am Just saying, But I'm saying!"
Source
More July 28, 2013:
CNN’s Don Lemon tonight addressed the controversy raised by his remarks on Saturday in which he voiced his agreement with Bill O’Reilly‘s comments on the black community. Lemon convened another panel to address all the criticism he’s got, including charges that he’s being an “Uncle Tom.” His panelists agreed with him that Lemon wasn’t being condescending, he was just giving some much-needed “tough love” to the African American community.
LZ Granderson told Lemon how he had to explain the to his own son why he shouldn’t go out wearing saggy pants in public, saying that young black man can still express themselves creatively without linking themselves to that history.
Lemon directly took on the critics of his remarks Saturday.
“What is wrong with telling people to dress appropriately? These are things that I said yesterday that my mom taught me in kindergarten… Dress nicely, speak well, speak appropriately.”
Ana Navarro acknowledged the “Twitter hate” Lemon got for his remarks, adding that “success is not going to be reached by not speaking English correctly” and all Lemon was doing was giving “tough love” and “constructive criticism” to the black community. Lemon defended his other coverage of race in America, touting panels and discussions he’s done on racial privilege, racism, and profiling.
Lemon also brought up the special he did on the n-word a few weeks ago, and explained that he actually got threatened for telling a black mother she shouldn’t use the word to her child. Granderson allowed that there’s a certain level of context that needs to be understood in talking about the n-word, but he said the bottom line is that when people walk around with saggy pants and dropping the n-word, they likely won’t get a good job or a “decent date with anyone worth loving.”
Lemon asked Granderson, “You know what you sound like right now?”
Granderson asked back, “Like a reasonable human being?”
Lemon brought up the “Uncle Tom” moniker that’s been thrown his way. Lemon concluded that the bottom line is that “it’s really just about respecting yourself.” Lemon said, “You have to make a decision at some point that you are going to be better than your surroundings and your circumstances.”
Watch the video below, via CNN:
Comments like this shows that Lemon sort of looks down as he makes his comments, regardless of if you see them as having truth in them or not. I won't even speak on Billo's comments as to what he left out of the equation while trying to explain the answer to the problem:
rkt2013:That was all I could stomach read more at the Source.
You want racism? Blacks are the most racist group of human beings there are.
Rene Demonteverde:
Good Lord. We already have a black President elected not because he is intelligent, {he hide his grades} not because he is hard worker {no record of ever working even at McDonalds} not because he is a fair minded man {one of the biggest racists around} but because he is black. In fact if based on black votes alone he would not have won. He got elected because many idiots who are not racists at heart want to assuage their guilt {they did not own slaves}. Go figure.
#DonLemonLogicReply If only I could have said good morning more to my white coworkers who never responded, but complained when I stopped!
— Timsomor (@Timsomor) July 29, 2013
Jay Smooth explains how Don Lemon’s ‘respectability politics’ internalizes shame:
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