Don Lemon strikes again.
If you’re familiar with the CNN anchor, then you already know how he’s made many Americans angry with his ideas on respectability politics, such as wearing your pants up to prevent you from getting shot by racists. There’s also this video of rapper-activistTalib Kweli visibly upset with Lemon during an interview while on the ground in Ferguson, MO for the Michael Brown shooting protests. Kweli accuses Lemon of not treating him with respect, and Lemon rebuts in a nice-nasty way.
Now, we have this–Don Lemon interviewed Joan Tarshis for CNN. Tarshis, a woman who accuses Bill Cosby of raping her when she was 19, tells her story to Lemon, as she has been doing with several other outlets. I don’t know what Lemon was thinking, but he had the audacity to say this:
“You know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn’t want to do it.”
SIGH.
After Tarshis says, “I was kind of stoned at the time and, quite honestly, that didn’t even enter my mind,” Lemon continues his train of thought by saying, “Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?”
This is in NO WAY the proper manner when interviewing a person about a delicate subject, especially something as delicate as rape trauma. This is why people say they don’t trust today’s journalism. Lemon’s comments also smack of the rape culture we live in, in which we blame the victim for the crime that was committed, not the actual perpetrator.
Of course, Twitter came to the rescue and took Lemon to task for his heinous remarks. Enter the return of the popular hashtag, #DonLemonReporting. Here are just some of the many gems out there.
Which are your favorites? What do you make of the Don Lemon fiasco? Write about it below the post!
UPDATE: Don Lemon has released an apology, stating that he doesn’t ever intend on making it seem like a victim of rape could have prevented their attack. Lemon himself is a victim of sexual abuse, something he’s written about in his book. Here’s his apology for his remarks to Tarshis:
“As a victim myself, I would never want to suggest that any victim could have prevented a rape. If my question struck anyone as insensitive, I’m sorry as that was not my intention.”
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