As 2021 turned into 2022 on New Year’s Eve, CNN anchor Don Lemon gave a public demonstration of self-pitying as he celebrated bringing in the new year on air with fellow anchor Alisyn Camerota and comedian Dulce Sloan, mewling, “I don’t give a — what you think about me, what do you think about that? … I’m a grown-a** man. I don’t care what you think about me.”
“I am who I am,” Lemon boasted. “I’m a grown, successful black man who a lot of people hate because they’re not used to people seeing me – and people like me – in the position that I am. To be able to share what I … my point of view on television, it freaks people out. And you know what? You can kiss my behind. I do not care. I don’t care. I really don’t care. I have one life and this is who I am and I feel very, um …”
Sloan interjected gushingly, “Blessed.”
“Blessed,” Lemon repeated. “And honored to be in this position to be able to do this. So all the hate I get? It’s motivation to me. Bring it. I don’t care.”
Ohh Don Lemon is loose off that goose! #CNNYE #NYE2021 pic.twitter.com/OL4lkU0zjo
— Giselle Phelps (@GisellePhelps) January 1, 2022
Although Lemon stated on New Year’s Eve, “To be able to share what I … my point of view on television, it freaks people out,” bragging about offering his opinion, he had previously insisted that he did not foist his opinion on the public with his point of view, saying last August:
I’m not an opinion host. I give my point of view. … Everything I say, every single night, is based in fact. And if I screw it up, I come back and apologize, and I get it right. … That’s what we do here at CNN. That is the big difference between us and networks that don’t have to operate in that realm.
Lemon has stated to The Washington Post that America may not see black people as fully human, asserting last summer:
I am secure in my position, and I speak with even more authority than when I started. But if by saying that, people are saying I “wasn’t Black enough” before, then that’s certainly not true. Are you the same person that you were a few years ago? Let’s hope not. We all evolve. … But I also think that people have become used to me now in that position, speaking from a position of authority, giving my point of view as an anchor, on prime time — especially a Black gay man. …
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. … I don’t know if America sees Black people and especially Black gay men as fully human, and as deserving of the American Dream.