Watch the Racist Tucker Carlson Segment That Inspired Don Lemon’s Weary Rebuke

Tucker Carlson believes that Don Lemon is not allowed to share his experience as a Black man in America because he lives in a lovely house in a small town in Long Island.

This is not hyperbole. This is a fair summation of a Monday night segment in which Carlson brutally mocked Lemon for his success and how that should essentially disqualify him from speaking about the experience of Black Americans.

Carlson’s nasty attack on Lemon was chock full of naked dog whistles. And it prompted a rather dispassionate and even saddened reply from the CNN anchor on Tuesday evening, which we will get to later.

At issue is a Washington Post interview in which Lemon averred that Americans are “living in two different realities as Black and White people,” a benign comment that Carlson found enormously offensive. Oh, and — as he so often does with people of color — Carlson very purposefully mispronounced Lemon’s last name because, well, we don’t know why, but we can only assume he has never graduated emotionally from 8th grade.

After dismissing CNN’s coverage of the “Royals” and disappearing airplanes, Carlson mockingly described Lemon as more important than a cable news host, saying “He’s a civil rights leader. ”

“The other day he spoke to The Washington Post about his feelings on civil rights and declared, you might be surprised by this, that America is a racist country,” Carlson said, referring to the CNN host as “Father Lemon.”

“We read that and we thought, ‘well, here’s a guy who makes millions of dollars a year from presiding over a show that’s failing,’ that seems like a pretty good deal,” Carlson mocked. “But like so many, Don Lemon is also a victim, a successful victim.”

Carlson then compared the alleged victim status of other successful Black Americans, sarcastically asking “on the victim scale on the scale of Meghan Markle to Michelle Obama, just how oppressed is Don Lemon?”

Now, it takes a pretty dimwitted and racist point of view to suggest that the success of a person of color disqualifies them from commenting on systemic racism in America. But of course, Carlson would have his viewers believe that there is no systemic racism, as evidenced by the existence of Black success stories. Any reasonable person would quickly see that one does not equate to the other. But that wasn’t Carlson’s point.

Carlson illustrated his point by identifying where Lemon lives, which is Sag Harbor, New York.

“No, he doesn’t live in section 8 housing, he lives in one of the whitest towns in America,” the Fox News host said.

Because only people who live in federally subsidized housing can speak of the Black experience in America? Or is Carlson just making the not-so-thinly veiled claim that Lemon is being uppity? Carlson spews, you decide.

And on it went, as you can watch above (which includes the tease coming out of the previous segment) in which Carlson lectured Lemon for lecturing “America about diversity,” despite living in a very white town. Never mind, of course, that Sag Harbor has a history of being a safe haven for Black Americans which extends almost a century.

“What he did not tell The Washington Post,” Carlson continued, “is that in his free time he runs away from diversity. His reality is that he doesn’t like diversity at all. None of them do” — raising the question, who is “them” that Carlson is referring to?

Carlson then focused on a photo of Lemon’s Sag Harbor kitchen that included a cookie jar from America’s racist past, which the Fox News host called a “symbol of hate.”

“A symbol of hate posing as a cookie jar in Don Lemon’s kitchen?” Carlson asked with mock surprise. “You see that? That right there, ladies and gentlemen, is a White Supremacist QAnon cookie jar!”

Carlson’s failed attempt to demonstrate a double standard reveals his lack of knowledge and understanding of how many Black Americans collect and keep such totems of America’s segregated and racist past as a reminder of how far they have come. And no, Lemon’s owning such an item is not in any way comparable to Carlson owning the same thing. Or even Carlson employing a lead writer on his show who also happened to be a virulent racist.

Lemon responded to Carlson in an effective way Tuesday night, deploying a tone that was less angry, more saddened by the racist reality on display.

“Section 8 housing,” said Lemon. “Let me simply just say this. If you think that a Black person who doesn’t live in public housing can’t experience or understand racism in this country, well, that just says much more about you and your ignorance on these issues than it does about me.”

I’ll go one further. Tucker Swanson McNear Carlson, the heir to a large fortune and a career television personality, owns at least three homes in Washington D.C., Maine, and Florida (where he often hosts his show). On the other hand, Carlson is an extremely vocal proponent of populist politics. His entire TV brand is that he is the one who stands up for the working class against powerful elites. Should the Fox News host also be disqualified from commenting on the experience of the American people because of his enormous wealth?

And it would also be unfair not to note that Lemon is a true American success story. He is entirely a self-made man born from hard work and ambition. Carlson comes from generational wealth and has said, on record, that he really doesn’t need to work because his family is so rich.

So, who is in the wrong here? And how does Fox News continue to allow this divisive and nakedly racist bullshit on its air? Ratings don’t make it right.

Watch above via Fox News.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.