Many within the Black community have taken offense to Don Lemon for his latest "Talking Points" in which he agrees with Bill O'Reilly's condemnation of African-Americans. In fact, Lemon even states that O'Reilly "didn't go far enought." In the video below Don Lemon aligns himself with the O'Reilly comments and builds upon O'Reilly's stand by offering additional line items of his own. In this unusual alliance Lemon points out 5 things that he says black folks must start doing now if we want to see any movement forward.
The five items outlined include the following: 1.Pull your pants up. 2.Stop using the "N" word. 3. Respect where you live and stop littering your neighborhood. 4. Finish school. 5.Put family first and don't have a baby just because you can (especiallly if you can not support it). I must admit, I kinda agree with Mr. Lemon. I will be the first to admit that I know racism is very much alive and well. I am not living in delusion. However I will also admit that many vices, obstacles and challenges we experience within the African-American community are because of roadblocks we create for ourselves. We can't continue to claim that "the man" is holding us back when we refuse to get an education, dress professionally or speak articulately.
Mr. Lemon thank you for forcing us to look at ourselves critically. Although you may be condemned for it, know that many within the black community agree with you. Mr. Bill Cosby made similar comments years ago and he also fell under the attack of black folks. However Mr. Cosby was also wise enough to state "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." People may be mad at Don Lemon for his comments but his comments is forcing us to examine our community a bit more and hopefully (whether you agree with him or not) this self examination will turn out to be a good thing.
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