CNN host Don Lemon said he feels burdened to be a prime-time host on television discussing racism in the United States.
Lemon said he feels it’s incumbent upon him as a network host to share experiences on race relations during an Interview podcast with Mediaite Editor-in-Chief Aidan McLaughlin. He said criticisms of his style of coverage are due to the U.S. being “a very racist country” but that he tends to brush them off.
“You’re pretty much the most prominent black host on cable news. Do you feel in your personal life, in professional life, and in your coverage a sort of burden, at least this year, in holding that position?” McLaughlin asked.
“Yeah, of course I do. Because who else is going to do it? There’s no one else who looks like me. I’m a black man in America,” Lemon said. “I have a platform on international television every night. I have to be responsible. And I also have to sleep at night, or else I have to look at myself in the mirror.”
Lemon said other network hosts, especially on Fox News, share their experiences as “white Americans.”
“They will flaunt their experiences as white Americans, as white men. And they’re privileged. And they’re very proud of it. Why shouldn’t I do the same thing?” Lemon asked. “I should have that same freedom.”
Lemon, an outspoken critic of President Trump, launched a podcast in June that argues that it’s no longer acceptable for the public not to be racist but that people should learn how to be actively anti-racist.
“We live in a society where it’s no longer enough to simply not be racist — we must proactively choose to be antiracist. And that choice means showing up and doing the work, every single day,” a description of the first episode of the podcast reads. “But racism isn’t all about white hoods and burning crosses — it’s a white woman walking her dog and unnecessarily calling the police on a Black man.”
The description continued: “By that I mean, it’s not the obvious racism that we already know is out there, it’s the next level that we’ve got to get to — our own unconscious, ingrained racism.”
