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So here's what I've been thinking about: CNN anchor Don Lemon, who I used to think pretty
highly of, seems to have made a hobby this past week of victim blaming.
First he composed a seven-minute piece for CNN, a response to Bill O'Reilly, in which
he essentially said members of the black community are themselves responsible for the systematic
discrimination they face, blaming the problems on sagging pants, use of certain objectionable
words, dropout rates, and the high incidence of single-parent homes among the black community.
More on that in a minute.
When people complained, rightly, Don Lemon doubled down and tweeted that the piece was,
and here I quote:
"Not about ending racism. Was about bettering oneself in spite of. ie, abused woman at some
point has to leave abuser."
Now, it would be a little funny how dense that is to say, if it weren't so sad. After
all, we all know the problem isn't with that guy who keeps beating his girlfriend. It's
that the girlfriend just won't leave him.
Maybe that's the problem, actually. Maybe Don Lemon is suffering from battered person
syndrome, and here's here to tell black Americans that their society would stop hitting them
if they listened and behaved the right way.
Look, I don't know as much as Don Lemon about the black experience, and I won't pretend
to. I've never been thrown up against a wall and frisked for no reason, I'm rarely followed
around a convenience store, and I can generally trust the police to be on my side.
Hell, I once got pulled over driving a car with stolen plates, and the cop let me off
the hook with a warning about making my turns too fast.
I didn't know the car had stolen plates--but that's a long story, for another time.
But like Don Lemon, I recently moved to Harlem, and I've seen a lot of what he's upset about.
Kids with sagging pants, people littering, and people using language I find offensive
like it was nothing.
Sure, it upset me. When I moved to Harlem, I knew I was moving to the cultural capital
of black America. I knew a lot of people were very proud to call Harlem home, and I was
surprised so many people didn't treat it with more respect.
But I guess unlike Don Lemon, I can tell the difference between a problem with one particular
neighborhood and a problem with all of black America.
In fact, it's not even a problem with Harlem. You know what I've started doing? Every time
I see someone dropping litter on the ground, or drunk and shouting at someone on the street,
I make myself look around and see all the people who aren't doing those things.
And do you know what else I've seen in Harlem? I've seen creative people playing music on
the sidewalks. I've seen men in suits and ladies in church clothes. I've seen kids basketball
leagues playing playground ball with referees and crowds watching.
And I've seen a community that's engaged and informed about the challenges they face. I've
never seen as many rallies and marches and community meetings as I've seen in Harlem,
not even when I worked for the ACLU. A hundred or so blocks downtown, most people are more
concerned with what they look like and how crowded the gym is going to be.
The problem isn't with Harlem, and it isn't with black America. It's with certain people
who act like ***, and they come in every neighborhood and from every race. Don Lemon
said he never saw anyone litter when he lived in white neighborhoods. I'd invite him to
spend some time in the predominantly white part of South Philadelphia where I used to
live, where the official flower is a discarded cheese-steak wrapper from Geno's.
Mister Lemon also tweeted his surprise that his suggestions were offensive. Dress nicely,
use appropriate language, keep your surroundings clean, go to school, be responsible, involved
parents.
What's offensive isn't that Don Lemon shared his opinions on how people should conduct
themselves. He's entitled to those opinions, and if CNN gives him the time, he's entitled
to share them.
What's offensive is that by linking them to Bill O'Reilly's screed on Fox News, Lemon
puts the blame on black Americans for the discrimination and inequality they face at
the hands of our current system.
Here I quote Bill O'Reilly, in the same excerpts Don Lemon aired during his piece.
"The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is the disintegration
of the African American family. Raised without much structure, young black men often reject
the education process and gravitate towards violence. Nobody forces them to do that. It
is a personal decision."
It's a fact that 72 percent of black children are born out of wedlock. But why is that,
I wonder? Might it have something to do with the fact that one in three black men in America
will at some point find himself in prison?
In his recent speech regarding the Trayvon Martin case, President Obama acknowledged
that--and again I quote--"African-American young men are disproportionately involved
in the criminal justice system, that they're disproportionately both victims and perpetrators
of violence." In the ten days since, I've seen that repeated ad nauseum by Fox News
personalities and other racists who apparently heard nothing else the President said.
Statistics do say the crime rate is disproportionately high among the black community. Many of those
statistics, however, are drawn from arrest and conviction rates. And statistics also
show that brown-skinned Americans face discrimination and persecution at every level of the criminal
justice system. A person with brown skin is more likely than a person with light skin
to be stopped, to be questioned, to be searched, to be arrested, to be charged with a crime,
to be prosecuted, to be convicted, and to be sentenced to jail time. Brown people are
less likely to be paroled, and less likely to find employment after being in jail.
The American justice system is basically a multi-stage filter that removes brown people.
Just to illustrate, take marijuana as an example. Many studies have shown that black and white
people use and smoke marijuana at roughly the same rate. But black people are about
4 times as likely to be arrested for it. In specific parts of the country, black people
are up to 30 times as likely to be arrested for pot.
So is the breakup of the family to blame for violence and chaos in the black community?
Or is it another symptom of the discrimination black Americans face? Consider that the rate
of babies born out of wedlock really took off in the 1970s, after President Nixon declared
"War on Drugs."
Consider that the population of American prisons took off at the same time, and that those
two graphs look awfully similar.
Consider that fully half of all people in American prisons are there for no other reason
except than simple possession of marijuana.
Consider that the United States has by far the largest incarcerated population in the
world, and consider that the population in our prisons is disproportionately black.
While you're at it, consider Don Lemon's assertion that things would be better if more black
students completed school, and Bill O'Reilly's statement that "Nobody forces them to drop
out, it's a personal choice."
The Dignity in Schools Campaign, which researches school discipline issues, estimates that students
of color are almost four times as likely to be expelled from school. They have also identified
a phenomenon they call a "pushout," in which a school, rather than expelling a student,
will make that student's school experience unbearable until the student chooses to drop
out rather than suffer. Once again, students of color are at the greatest risk.
Schools in predominantly black neighborhoods are also much more likely to have "school
resource officers," armed police who are supposedly there to protect the students, but more often
blow minor offenses out of proportion, leading to suspensions, expulsions, or even jail time
for the kind of thing that would have got me detention when I was a kid.
The flow of students from America's schools into the justice system has become so severe,
many refer to it as the "school-to-prison pipeline."
But I guess Don Lemon figures it's the student's fault he got expelled because his pants were
too low, and if the government is going to keep locking up black men for doing something
most white people get away with, all you black mothers better hurry up and marry somebody
so your kids aren't born out of wedlock.
Because America really loves you, baby, and America hates it when you make America hit
you.
This is all way too depressing for me to make some clever remark, but I will thank you as
always for watching, and I'll thank you for thinking, and if you'd like to make a comment
I am always happy to discuss my opinions as long as you keep it civil and well thought-out.
So here's what I've been thinking about: CNN anchor Don Lemon, who I used to think pretty
highly of, seems to have made a hobby this past week of victim blaming.
First he composed a seven-minute piece for CNN, a response to Bill O'Reilly, in which
he essentially said members of the black community are themselves responsible for the systematic
discrimination they face, blaming the problems on sagging pants, use of certain objectionable
words, dropout rates, and the high incidence of single-parent homes among the black community.
More on that in a minute.
When people complained, rightly, Don Lemon doubled down and tweeted that the piece was,
and here I quote:
"Not about ending racism. Was about bettering oneself in spite of. ie, abused woman at some
point has to leave abuser."
Now, it would be a little funny how dense that is to say, if it weren't so sad. After
all, we all know the problem isn't with that guy who keeps beating his girlfriend. It's
that the girlfriend just won't leave him.
Maybe that's the problem, actually. Maybe Don Lemon is suffering from battered person
syndrome, and here's here to tell black Americans that their society would stop hitting them
if they listened and behaved the right way.
Look, I don't know as much as Don Lemon about the black experience, and I won't pretend
to. I've never been thrown up against a wall and frisked for no reason, I'm rarely followed
around a convenience store, and I can generally trust the police to be on my side.
Hell, I once got pulled over driving a car with stolen plates, and the cop let me off
the hook with a warning about making my turns too fast.
I didn't know the car had stolen plates--but that's a long story, for another time.
But like Don Lemon, I recently moved to Harlem, and I've seen a lot of what he's upset about.
Kids with sagging pants, people littering, and people using language I find offensive
like it was nothing.
surprised so many people didn't treat it with more respect.
What's offensive is that by linking them to Bill O'Reilly's screed on Fox News, Lemon
Just to illustrate, take marijuana as an example. Many studies have shown that black and white
for the kind of thing that would have got me detention when I was a kid.
I am always happy to discuss my opinions as long as you keep it civil and well thought-out.