Dissecting the Venom of Don Lemon

Soon I realized that Lemon not only endorses O’Reilly’s words, but uses them as the guiding theme of his tirade. He quickly transformed the session on “No Talking Points” into an opportunity to talk, point, and critique people of color and hip-hop culture. Lemons entire segment was from a standpoint of obscene elitism that “progressive liberals” feel they have a license to spew by virtue of aligning themselves to a particular underserved group. The reality is that Don Lemons self -identification as being Black, gay or from any other marginalized group does not give him license to speak disparagingly about a groups culture because he obviously experiences this culture from a standpoint of privilege that has blinded him from reality.

What was most problematic about the segment was Lemon’s judging of Blackness from an ideal that neither considers the complexities of Blackness nor identifies the fact that there are counter examples to each point that he raises to critique the community.

The notion that the urban poor lack structure, reject education, or gravitate towards drugs, hustling and gangs is so deeply flawed that deconstructing it fully would take a book.  However, for the sake of brevity, consider the following points.

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