CNN host Don Lemon claimed last Thursday night that only people laden with “privilege” oppose the teaching of Critical Race Theory in the nation’s public schools, setting off an explosive response by numerous members of a show on Fox News.
“We need to speak to the Right,” Lemon told fellow CNN personality Chris Cuomo during the 10 p.m. hand off between their shows.
Cuomo recounted how a parent had told him parental opposition sprang from the fact that “I don’t want people lecturing my kid like, ‘Hey, you’re white, you’re bad.’”
“I said that the only problem is your perception,” Cuomo said, opening a long discussion with Lemon about the increasing number of parents objecting to CRT-based curricula beginning to saturate public schools.
Lemon said the opposition to CRT is “what privilege is. That people don’t like to have their pleasure interrupted, their peace interrupted.”
“Folks on the other side, stop making it about you. And be curious, instead of judgmental,” Lemon lectured.
He went on to say that opponents of controversial CRT lessons, which teach that the United States is “systematically racist” and that all Americans are either “oppressors” or “oppressed” based on their skin color, “don’t think that the full history of our country should be taught in schools.”
“History, you know, they say, is written by the victors,” he said. “But when it comes to whitewashing history, it is often the losers, or the people on the wrong side of history, who want to do that.”
CNN’s @donlemon on parents upset about Critical Race Theory creeping into curriculums: “That’s the whole thing about what privilege is. It’s that you — people don’t like to have their pleasure interrupted. Their peace interrupted … stop making it about you" pic.twitter.com/G1ioRhCuyo
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) June 18, 2021
Lemon then appeared to cast stones at people who attend church.
“Every Sunday, you know, people go” to church, where “we’re supposed to be seeing each other’s humanity and loving each other and opening up and learning about each other. But yet, and still … you know what happens.”
It is unclear where Lemon — who said last July that Jesus “was not perfect when He was here on this Earth” — got the notion that other human beings are the primary focus of church.
Lemon’s remarks triggered a major backlash on Friday’s episode of “Outnumbered,” which began by playing a video of Illinois father Ty Smith saying that he does not want his black children taught that they are incapable of succeeding thanks to systemic discrimination.
“How do I have two medical degrees if I’m sitting here oppressed?” he asked.
The panelists then pointed out numerous parents opposing CRT do not fit Lemon’s demographic caricature.
“There’s no question, he’s just lying. He’s lying to make a point,” said male panelist Steve Hilton, host of “The Next Revolution” on Sunday nights. “The solutions are conservative ideas like strong families, and family stability, and school choice. And there was a time when Don Lemon argued for that on TV … but now he’s just parroting this pathetic propaganda.”
Harris Faulkner said that CRT is offensive to people who are “biracial like me,” because it’s “telling half of my family that one half has more power than the other half.”
“There’s no room for us now, because we don’t fit the box that says no, you’re supposed to see your color and your victimhood first …[and] be angry about the things they want me to be angry about,” she continued. “I’m not a privileged white person, and I am pushing back against this, because it’s about at the end of the day something that makes us all equal in America.”
Former White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said it’s Don Lemon who has been overgeneralizing about people based on race. “I’m sick of him telling me that Trump voters are rubes, as his panelist says and he laughs, who can’t point out a country on a map,” she said.” Get rid of that broad brush, Don, because it’s not working for you. It is insidious and it’s tearing us apart.”
CNN host Don Lemon blasted for calling out 'privilege' of critical race theory critics. The #Outnumbered panel reacts | https://t.co/aCqqP2lRCm
— Outnumbered (@OutnumberedFNC) June 18, 2021
“Outnumbered” earned nearly twice as many viewers as “Don Lemon Tonight,” according to Nielsen ratings lists posted by the website Kwayisi.com.
An Economist/YouGov poll released this week found that 58% of Americans have an unfavorable view of Critical Race Theory, with only 38% supporting the controversial, collectivist creed.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.