Who knew Bill O’Reilly and Don Lemon were on the same wave length?
Well, in light of Lemon’s comments on Saturday, that’s pretty much how it seems. On the other hand, some will see it as togh, tough love. And of course, some won’t.
On his “No Talking Ponts” segment, Lemon addressed the wounds inflicted by black males onto their community. He said he was dealing with it now that the Zimmerman trial was over.
Before the verdict, right wing media had consistently asked why the “liberal media” was fixating on Trayvon Martin while ignoring rampant black-on-black violence, a “deflection,” in Lemon’s words, from the injustices of the Martin shooting. But now that Zimmerman had been acquitted, it was time “for some tough love on the subject,” reported Mediaite.
Lemon played a clip of O’Reilly stating, “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 education and gravitate towards the street culture, drugs, hustling, gangs. Nobody forces them to do that. Again, it is a personal decision.”
“Bill’s got a point,” Lemon said. “In fact, he’s got more than a point…In my estimation, he doesn’t go far enough.”
Lemon then listed five essential reforms black men need to make in their lives in order to improve themselves and their communities: hike up their pants, remove the n-word from their vocabulary, take care of their communities, finish high school, and lower the rate of children born out of wedlock.
“More than 72% of children in the African Americans are born out of wedlock,” Lemon said. “Studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison, and the cycle continues.”
“Please, pay attention to and think about what has been presented in recent history as aceptable behavior,” Lemon finished. “Pay close attention to the hip hop and rap culture that many of you embrace, a culture that glorifies everything I just mentioned, thug and reprehensible behavior, a culture that is making a lot of people rich—just not you. And it’s not going to.”
“That said, though, the political right is not off the hook.” Lemon played a clip of Kirsten Powers remarking on how convenient it was the conservative media only cares about black violence when they can use it to “stick it to the black community.”
Watch the segment:
