Additionally, while the anchor seems to think that he's on the right side of the argument, some people don't think so as they criticize the anchor for not knowing the real purpose of Black Lives Matter.
- Jul 8, 2020
AceShowbiz - CNN anchor Don Lemon receives huge backlash for his remarks about Black Lives Matter during a heated argument with Terry Crews. Discussing BLM movement in the Monday, July 6 episode of Lemon's CNN show "Tonight", the anchor invited the "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" actor who has been under fire for his stance on BLM movement.
"Black lives do matter, but when you're talking about an organization, you're talking about the leaders. You're talking about the people who are responsible," Crews said, doubling down his statement that Black Lives Matter could change into Black Lives Better. He then noted that no one talked about how a number of children had been fatally shot since mid-June.
"This is the thing, Don. Black people need to hold other Black people accountable," he added, before calling the movement Black America's #MeToo. "If anything is going to change, we, ourselves, have to look at our own community and look at each other and say, 'This thing cannot go down.' "It has to be all Black Lives Matter. And because I even challenged it, because I even questioned and warned people."
Lemon then cut him off, saying, "The Black Lives Matter movement was started because it was talking about police brutality. If you want an all Black Lives Matter movement that talks about gun violence in communities, including Black communities, then start that movement with that name." He continued, "That's not what Black Lives Matter is about. It's not all-encompassing. If someone started a movement that said 'cancer matters,' and then someone came and said, 'Why aren't you talking about HIV?' It's not the same thing, we're talking about cancer."
"So the Black Lives Matter movement is about police brutality and injustice in that manner, not about what's happening in Black neighborhoods. There are people who are working on that issue, and if you want to start that issue, why don't you start it? Do you understand what I'm saying?" Lemon went on to say.
When Crews tried to explain that police brutality is not the only thing BLM is talking about, the anchor once again talked over him. "I agree, but that's not what the Black Lives Matter movement is about, Terry. Black Lives Matter is about police brutality and about criminal justice," Lemon argued. "It's not about what happens in communities when it comes to crime. People who live near each other, Black people, kill each other. Same as whites. It happens in every single neighborhood."
While Lemon seemed to think that he was on the right side of the argument, some people didn't think so. Internet users criticized the anchor for not knowing the real purpose of BLM. "Don Lemon might as well skip asking questions. He can spend his time asking questions and then answering them. He gets to have free speech," one Twitter user tweeted.
The way Lemon interjected Crews every time the "America's Got Talent" host talked also rubbed viewers the wrong way. "@donlemon wouldn't even let Terry talk. Idiot that Lemon is, he doesn't even know BLM was not started because of police brutality. It was started because [George] Zimmerman was acquitted for [Treyvon] Martin's death."
"Don Lemon intentionally talked over Terry Crews when Crews started to talk about all the other things that Black Lives Matter stands for... which FYI is A LOT and has nothing to do with black lives," someone else added. Another user, meanwhile, thought that Lemon "has some kind of hate toward black people" because he attacked "another Black man in the way he did on @CNN and not know that BLM was started because of Trayvon not because of police brutality. ... @terrycrews was attacked."
Lemon has yet to respond to the backlash.
