I want to read or hear a reasonable, intelligent defense of this phenomenon, which is occurring fairly regularly, especially since the George Floyd Freakout, DEI Madness and the Great Stupid descended over the land like the Seven Plagues of Egypt.
Above you see approximately the moment when CNN’s dumb, sexist, racist, biased—but cute!—morning anchor Don Lemon said to Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, because he couldn’t think of a real argument,
“When you are in black skin, and you live in this country, then you can disagree with me.”
You can read the context of Lemon’s remark, but I don’t believe it matters. There is no context in which that statement is anything but racially biased (not to mention un-American and really, really stupid.) For the record, Lemon was claiming that black Americans don’t have the same rights in the U.S. that whites do, a particularly audacious contention from a guy who 1) hardly rose to his position at CNN from the ghetto or the cotton fields, 2) only has and keeps his multi-million dollar a year job because he is black (though being gay helps) and 3) was debating with another “BIPOC,” but apparently there is a hierarchy in that privileged group in which African American beats Indian American, like rock beats scissors.
It’s so obvious that I hesitate to say it, but if a white news anchor said to, say, Don Lemon, “When you are in white skin, and you live in this country, then you can disagree with me,” he would be fired so fast that it wouldn’t be visible to the naked eye. Lemon made that statement two days ago, and so far, he hasn’t been officially disciplined or issued an apology.
His is a popular progressive cheat (the reverse would be a popular Jim Crow cheat). Pro-abortion activists like to shut down male abortion opponents by saying that only women have standing to participate in the debate over the topic. In both cases, the tactic arises from weakness. Lemon is a dolt; before making his claim about blacks not having civil rights, he was objecting to Ramaswamy stating that the Civil War was fought to give black Americans the same rights as whites, “that we failed to secure them in 1776.” That was certainly one of the main reasons for the Civil War, and Lemon hardly has the scholarship, wit or erudition to try to argue otherwise. Thus the best he could come up with is “you’re not allowed to contradict me, because I’m black and you’re not.”
That’s apparently good enough for CNN.
Meanwhile, over on the ABC News Division’s embarrassing girl-talk show “The View,” African American co-host Sunny Hostin, who last fall ridiculed another Indian-American, Nikki Haley, for her name, had this to say about gun violence,
I honestly think, certainly, we know that America is the only country in the world that has more guns than people and those guns are owned by about 30 percent of the population – uh three – three percent of the population. And largely they’re men and they’re largely white men. And I think what you are seeing happening is that people are being radicalized by Fox News, they’re being radicalized by other right-wing media, and they’re being taught to fear people that don’t look like them.
Yes, Sunny is teaching people who aren’t white to fear people who don’t look like them by saying that white people fear people who don’t look like them. Her statistics are also gibberish—3%? 30%? The latest stats show that just under 50% of US households have guns, and that women and blacks, both in the 25% range of gun ownership, are the fastest-growing demographic in that category.
So Sunny was stating false and misleading statistics, which is, again, apparently fine with ABC. A white talking head on ABC who cited the accurate statistics that, for example, the per-capita violent crime perp rate for African-Americans is roughly eight times higher than that of whites would be shipped off to racial sensitivity re-education.
Ethics Alarms 
I’d say Lemon’s comment is one that’s related to colorism but the two men are the same shade of brown, just one has more of a red undertone.
I just don’t understand Lemon at all. Do you think he legitimately thinks he has it harder than this guy? Both dudes are rich, popular, attractive. These two should be celebrating together their accomplishments, not having a – who has it harder racially – contest.
“These two should be celebrating together…”
That they don’t may indicate that one of them appreciates a commonality of values above a commonality of physical traits.
I have never understood the “You can’t disagree with me unless you have the same ‘lived experience'” argument. First, what other kind of experience is there? Second, it is ridiculous on its face. I can’t say that a murderer is wrong unless I have committed murder? I can’t point out that a doctor sawed off the wrong leg unless I’m a doctor? It is one of the weakest forms of rhetorical evasion, in my opinion.
Lemon actually said, at one point, that the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, like he’s a hard line neo-Confederate or something. I often wonder if he even hears the blather that spews from his pie hole.
Ewan McGregor once admitted that he almost tried drugs when he was playing an addict in a movie so that he would better understand the character.
Then he decided that, since he’d played a dead man in a film and hadn’t needed to be dead to understand it, he would be fine to stay of the drugs.
“Though I Cannot Lay An Egg, I’m A Very Good Judge Of Omelettes.”–G.B. Shaw
These days he might just assert that he could, indeed, lay eggs, and go unchallenged.
Hah!
What OB said.
The only real privileges that exist in the US nowadays (and for a while) are, in order, 1) black privilege, 2) LGBQ+++ privilege, and 3) affluent progressive white women. The only group that is openly discriminated against is straight white males. It’s not even questionable.
The longer the leash that CNN provides Donny boy, the more ridiculous and ignorant he becomes.
Is he trying to get fired?
The Peter Principle is a cruel phenomenon….
Jack: “I want to read or hear a reasonable, intelligent defense of this phenomenon, “
I am not going to give a full-blown defense, because I disagree with what he said.
I tend to take the position of the Roman playwright, Terence: “Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto”, or “I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.”
Now that statement, itself, is debatable and may be just as flawed as Lemon’s statement because they both put forward absolute positions.
Can I understand what it is like to be a woman?
A black man?
A gay person?
A pedophile?
A paraplegic?
A blind person?
A deaf person?
Someone with OCD?
A psychopath?
A schizophrenic?
A guy who spouts stupid platitudes on cable news? Yeah, I can relate to that (the saying stupid things part, not the cable news part).
The short answer is “probably not…to varying degrees.” But, the virtue of Terence’s declaration is that it sets forth an aspiration: there is something common amongst all of humanity and, because I am human, I can relate to any other human. Such an aspiration fosters empathy and compassion and, if widely held, would preclude any number of human atrocities, atrocities that are often justified by emphasizing inherent differences between people (slavery, war, and genocide, just to name a few).
But, even given this aspirational command, bias still makes you stupid. I am still stuck being me and, to relate to different people, I need to step outside of myself to some extent if I am going to try to understand them.
While none of this really supports Don lemon’s remark, I will just let Atticus Finch do the talking:
“First of all,” he said, “if you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view […] until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
We have all read the quote in high school and we are all very impressed by it as teenagers. And, really, there is something to it. It provides partial justification for Lemon, and it probably acknowledges Terence declaration.
Of course, Atticus’ quote, while providing some justification for Lemon’s remarks. Finch just is not as extreme as Lemon. Lemon comprehends the differences between people; he just does not take the next step of acknowledging that differences can be bridged.
Having said that, we should not be too hard on Lemon. After all, Atticus Finch was written to be a smart and wise person; Lemon is stuck being Lemon.
-Jut
The irony is that it is that exact quote from “Mockingbird” that has been cited in recent years to support the contention that Atticus enabled racism and the book is politically incorrect.