Don Lemon in London Was a Disappointment

More Black personalities in the media means nothing if those Black personalities work from the same framework as white personalities.

Don Lemon has been trending on right wing Twitter for this exchange with the royalist Hillary Fordwich.

In the exchange, Hillary lies about the British involvement in the Transatlantic slave trade. She falsely claims Britain abolished SLAVERY before any other country.

Britain ended slave TRADE (before other countries), even then, just on paper only. In practice,British ships continued to transport slaves and British ports continued to provide docking for those ships, as Britain looked the other way. But Don Lemon didn’t call out this blatant lie.

When Hillary brazenly claimed that Africans owed Britain reparations for the “two thousand naval men” killed while trying to “stop” African kings from selling their people, Don doesn’t push back. He just called her a racist claim “interesting” and moved on.

The clip of the exchange has been watched more than 7 million times on Twitter. Right wingers from Fox’s Tucker to Representative Don Crenshaw have been talking about it. Many claimed Don Lemon was “schooled” and “left dumbfounded” by Hillary. Many said Don was embarrassed.

Don Lemon’s performance in the exchange was embarrassing ,for sure. You don’t have to even know British history well to push back on the ridiculous idea that UK, the country that colonized and looted Africa, deserves reparations from Africa.

He also failed to call out Hillary for deliberately conflating Africa and Black America (America as in the continents of America). The people demanding reparations for slavery are not Africans in Africa. It is Blacks in the Americas. Don Lemon should have called her out for lumping the two DISTINCT groups together to make it look like the slaves actually sold themselves into slavery.

But it is not just Don’s failure to push back even mildly on Hillary’s lies and racist claims that was the problem. The very question he asked was problematic, as well. Don for some reason brings up the cost of living crisi and the palace’s extravagant life style in a question about reparations for Black Caribbeans descendants of British slavery. What do these things have to do with each other? What does cost of living crisis have anything to do with the Caribbeans’ demand for reparations?

That embarrassing interview segment was not the only disappointing thing about Don Lemon in London. Don’s overall reporting from London was as whitewashed and as superficial as his white colleagues.

Don was just as sycophantic and as deferential as his white colleagues.

He rarely brought African voices to talk about the crimes committed by the British Empire WHILE the Queen was its head.

He seemed impressed that so many people came to view the Queen’s body, never once noting how overwhelmingly white the crowd was in a diverse city like London.

He never, in any meaningful way, discussed the racist abuse against Meghan. I mean, while Don was in London marveling at the deep sorrow Brits felt on the passing of their Queen, he failed to note how that deep sorrow had not stopped white Brits from racially abusing Meghan. He never pointed out how white Brits were more offended by the presence of Meghan at the funeral than they were by the presence of accused pedophile Prince Andrew.

Let me say this: I don’t think Black people should be expected to do racial justice work in every field they join. But Don Lemon has been trying to foist himself as social justice warrior who calls out racism unequivocally on his nightly show.

So, you would expect a man who has styled himself as CNN’s in-house anti-racism fighter to be a little more critical in his coverage of the Queen’s funeral.