A response to this video:
Dear Tomi Lahren,
On Thursday, June 30, 2016 I viewed your video criticizing Jesse Williams’ speech during the BET awards and on June 30, 2016 I was, in the words of Rihanna, “FourFive seconds from wildin.” To be blunt, you are absolutely, incredibly, outrageously off your rocker. There is so much wrong with this video and most of your videos in general. For one, who are you, a blonde, white, privileged woman to be angry at Jesse Williams for speaking his truth about something you will never EVER face. In fact, who are you to be commenting on an award show that has nothing to do with you? Please enlighten me. Not even 30 seconds into the video and you completely disregard the purpose of the show, claiming that it was “notably very Black.” Well, yes it as it is the BET awards and BET stands for BLACK Entertainment Television, which you can do a quick Google search to figure out. The reason this channel even exists is because there is a strong lack of diverse roles in the mainstream media, which is predominantly white.
You also stated “there was a whole lot of talent on that stage, but at the same time a whole lot of victimhood. Oh, and police bashing too.” If you actually pay attention to what has been going on in the nation, you will see that discrimination and racism do not care about our status. This can be clearly seen by the countless racist comments made towards the First Family. You can be the wealthiest and most powerful family in the country, but you will still be faced with ignorant comments. Additionally, while it is not cool to generalize all police officers, because a lot of them are great people, there has been an overwhelming and disgusting amount of brutality against Blacks. Do the names Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Michael Brown, and Sandra Bland ring a bell? Not once did Jesse Williams bash the police, he instead brought to the audiences’ attention that police brutality happens.
Stop belittling the Black struggle. Stop making this about you. Stop ignoring the fact that racism and discrimination exist. Yes, on paper, Blacks are equal but that does not stop the fact that statistically, you are more likely to get hired if you do not have a “Black sounding name”, it does not change the fact that a higher ratio of Blacks are killed by police than Whites (.00000547 vs .00000254), and it certainly does not change the fact that Blacks receive a 10% higher prison rate than Whites for the same crime.
Later on, you asked, “Do you know how many of our ancestors fought in the Civil war to free your ancestors?” I rebuttal that with, do you know how many of your ancestors stole our ancestors from our native land and held them as slaves for over 245 years? Do you know that many Blacks today don’t even know what their original roots are because of that? Do you know how many Blacks were killed during and even after the Civil War because of the prejudice?
So yes, listen to this “high paid television actor” tell you how bad he has it because you will never experience anything close. You do not get to criticize anything. So instead of telling Jesse Williams to sit down, why don’t you take several seats Tomi Lahren and cry me a river. Recognize your white privilege, take a look in the mirror, and realize how incredibly stupid you sound because I really don’t understand why you are so angry. I highly recommend educating yourself prior to spending the amount of time you did making a video like that. Learn how to listen and respectively disagree instead of completely bashing someone else’s movement and opinion.
Sincerely,
Someone who was inspired by Jesse Williams’ speech.
