Mary Katharine Ham
Hot Air
7/30/2013
…Lemon doesn’t have to agree with every word O’Reilly said or the way he said it, but he recognizes that a bit of grace is necessary if you sincerely want to allow different voices, which is part of how conversations work. It was all the more surprising coming from Lemon just days after he seemed to disqualify guest Ben Ferguson from a conversation on race due to his “white privilege.”
Lemon was not offered any grace for the sin of engaging with ideas that diverged from liberal conventional wisdom. He’s been described as a “turncoat mofo,” an “angry white man who happens to be black,” and a “slave”— all language more mean-spirited and racially offensive than any O’Reilly used in his original Talking Points.
It’s ironic that the conversation-mongers who attacked Lemon seem incapable of recognizing that a decent discussion comes from unexpected interactions like Lemon’s and O’Reilly’s. They don’t have to agree on politics or on every issue. All they have to do is not use the moment to declare each other irredeemable racists or traitorous Uncle Toms.
If you blind yourself to the possibility of these moments, as Sharpton and others have done, and malign those who can have them you prevent the progress you claim to seek.
Sharpton himself actively ignores possible allies on issues the black community cares about if they come from the other side. On his show this week, while yelling at O’Reilly, he accused the entire “right wing” of ignoring issues of racial disparity in the justice system, particularly in the drug war. While making this argument, he tidily edited me out of his clips and references even though I argued with O’Reilly about mandatory minimum drug sentencing during the very segment he was ranting about…
The entire article, with video, is at HotAir.com
Update: Jesse Jackson calls Florida ‘Selma of our time’; Gov. Scott calls for apology
BOOM! @MichelleMalkin TORCHES Al Sharpton, says “he’s got blood on his hands” “He’s a shakedown artist who hates cops, hates whites, hates Jews.”
OBAMA THREATENS: Race Relations “May Get Worse” if He Does Not Get His Way
Obama threatened the GOP this week that “racial tensions may get worse” if he does not get his way with the economy…
