fbpx
Politics Foreign Affairs Culture Fellows Program

White Men: Enemies Of The People

CNN's Don Lemon identifies the 'biggest terror threat' in America
shutterstock_22599559

CNN’s Don Lemon is not backing down:

“So,” he said, “we have to stop demonizing people and realize the biggest terror threat in this country is white men, most of them radicalized to the right, and we have to start doing something about them. There is no travel ban on them. There is no ban — you know, they had the Muslim ban. There is no white-guy ban. So what do we do about that?”

On Wednesday, following the backlash, Lemon doubled down.

“Earlier this week, I made some comments about that in a conversation with Chris,” he said during a broadcast Wednesday night. “I said that the biggest terror threat in this country comes from radicals on the far right, primarily white men. That angered some people. But let’s put emotion aside and look at the cold hard facts. The evidence is overwhelming.”

He’s not wrong about that, statistically speaking.

But by using Don Lemon’s logic, one could say that “the biggest homicide threat in this country is black men, and we have to start doing something about them.” According to federal statistics, black males account for 52.6 percent of the homicide arrests in this country. Any non-black TV anchor who made a sweeping Lemon-esque conclusion about black men and the homicide threat would lose his or her job in a heartbeat. But Don Lemon? Hey, he’s just asking questions.

People see these double standards, and they draw conclusions about the media. These aren’t necessarily the wrong conclusions, either.

UPDATE: I should clarify that I reject Lemon’s rash, racially charged rationale, and would do the same thing in the hypothetical case I bring up. But you cannot simultaneously claim that Lemon is right but the hypothetical TV anchor is wrong.

UPDATE.2: A reader sends in this photo, and a comment. First, the photo:

Now, the comment:

A friend at UC Davis snapped this photo of posters that presumably students put up. … My friend says that no one was in any hurry to take them down. What will UC Davis say about this? Will they permit it as free speech but condemn the racism? Take it down and condemn it as hate speech (this is what Leftists recommend doing to what they consider hate speech)? I’d really like to know what UC Davis thinks about this sort of racist and anti-white speech and if it means that they would allow Richard Spencer or another White Nationalist to speak on campus. After all, they can’t play favorites can they?

Were these racist signs targeting people of color, this would be national news. The UC Davis administration would have already abased itself and promised to address the crisis with a firm hand, etc. People see these double standards, and they draw conclusions about academia. These aren’t necessarily the wrong conclusions, either.

Advertisement

Comments

Want to join the conversation?

Subscribe for as little as $5/mo to start commenting on Rod’s blog.

Join Now