An Open Letter To Tomi Lahren

Dear Tomi Lahren,

Let me start by saying that I know very little about you. I haven't watched your show, and quite honestly, I don't intend to. That being said, I feel no shame in saying that I have no respect for you, and I sincerely doubt I ever will. Why? Because you felt the need to compare advocates for human rights to violent white supremacists.

Quite honestly, I think that it is appalling that you felt the need to spread this message, which is one of ignorance and hatred. We live in a society where fear is everywhere. Tragedy flashes across our screens every single day, and the media has power. You, like many, have decided to broadcast hate-filled opinions, instead of messages of acceptance. You have used tragedy to enforce your own hate filled ideas instead of calling it what it was -- a senseless act of violence.

However, since you want to talk about the KKK, let's talk about them. Let's talk about a group of people who have been described as a military force for white supremacy. They are vile, ignorant, evil people. They have massacred families. They have burned AfricanAmerican neighborhoods. They have fought to keep black children out of schools. They have tried to stop any social progress. Perhaps you sat down and did some actual research, and realized you had made a mistake and that's why you took down your tweet. Or maybe, once you realized there was a petition -- with a fair amount of support -- to have you fired, you realized that you had gone too far. However, given your previous record of posting discriminatory messages, that seems unlikely to me. The fact remains that I have not seen and do not expect to see any evidence that proves your point. I don't expect Black Lives Matter advocates to lynch anyone and then display their bodies for the public. I don't expect to see any of the heinous violence committed by the KKK carried out by Black Lives Matter advocates. This is a very different movement, and if you had an ounce of understanding of what it is you were reporting, then you would have realized that.

You said that you had a right to your opinion, and technically you do. But that makes you no less wrong in this case. You're inaccuracy has the potential to breed ignorance, and ignorance breeds fear. Maybe you do have the right to your opinion, but you have people that follow you and look to you and you don't deserve that when you clearly don't even know what it is you are talking about. History is important to me, it always has been. I am a firm believer that we can learn from it so long as we pay attention. As a reporter, I wish you believed this also. Media is part of our history that will one day be studied. Maybe you deleted your tweet, but do you think that it disappeared? It didn't. It will be out there, for people to accept as fact and to use to back up their own fearful, hate-filled arguments against a group of people who are fighting for equality, not supremacy.

I can't emphasize just how much anger I have towards you. You, like so many others have abused your position. You've used it to spread a message that represents a step backwards, not forwards. The KKK is a stain on our history. They are a violent, radical white supremacists group who hated for no reason other than ignorance and the idea that they were somehow better than others. Black Lives Matter is a movement for peace and equality. It is our job to be able to distinguish between the two. It is your job to inform the public with accuracy. There is nothing wrong with being opinionated and hard-headed, I know I am. But there is something wrong with making blatantly ignorant statements, being told repeatedly that they were blatantly ignorant and crossed a line, and yet still attempting to justify it with the argument that you have the right to you opinion.

You do have the right to your opinion, as do I. My opinion of you right now is pretty low. The difference between us is that I have facts to back my opinion up. You clearly don't.