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Scandal-plagued CNN anchor Don Lemon unloaded on white people and his view of America during an in-depth interview with the Washington Post.
Lemon, who has been accused of taking unwanted liberties with another man in a bar, said he does not believe white Americans consider blacks to be fully human.
“Whether we like, as Black people, being the teachers or helping to guide White people through racism — it’s uncomfortable sometimes, it’s tiring — unfortunately to some degree you have to do it, because otherwise they may take the wrong actions, and we want people to do it the right way. And the right way is by understanding and seeing our humanity,” Lemon said.
This book seems to be part of an ongoing process of putting yourself out there — bit by bit, revealing more personal things about yourself. Is that something you’ve wanted to, or something you’ve felt like you’ve had to do?
I feel like I’ve had to do that because I don’t think America has seen enough people like me. I don’t think America intimately knows enough people like me. I would love America to see Black people, especially Black gay men as — and I hate this word — normal, and as human beings and as part of the culture. That we have our vulnerabilities and our struggles, but we also have our successes. We love, we hurt, and we go through trials and tribulations just like anyone else. I don’t know if America sees Black people and especially Black gay men as fully human, and as deserving of the American Dream.
I put myself out there because that’s the only way I know to do it. Not just for White America, but Black America as well. For young Black men and boys, people of any color who happen to be gay, to be empowered and see me and say, “If he can do it, I can do it.” That their existence and their being is normal. That’s it.
You’ve suggested that Trump was the president we deserved and probably a necessary and revealing wake-up call. Do you still think that?
Considering people’s apathy to get involved in the political process, to pay attention to the political process, to go to the polls, their willingness to give so much attention to celebrity, I think that’s what I meant by “the president we deserve.” But there’s also this false reality that we’re living in a post-racial world after the election of Barack Obama. That was all bulls—. It was a wake-up call to White people who thought we were living in a nonracist world. We’re living in two different realities as Black and White people. We knew, as Black people, what was lurking beneath the surface. I still believe that [Trump] was the necessary wake-up for America to realize just how racist it is.