CNN's Don Lemon holds up sign showing N-word on air, asks, 'Does this offend you?'
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Loading... - J. OLIVEIRA
- 24 Jun 2020
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CNN's Don Lemon sparked controversy on Monday, holding up a sign with the N-word printed in bold, capital letters at the top of his primetime show after President Barack Obama used the racial epithet in a discussion about race with podcast host Marc Maron.
"Does this offend you?" Lemon asked viewers as he held up the sign. "President Obama said it out loud in an interview. And a lot of people are shocked."
The stunt was widely mocked on Twitter, where Lemon quickly became a meme.
When life gives you Don Lemon's, turn the channel.
— Gideon Klein (@GideonKlein) June 23, 2015
Yes, it does. #DonLemon #CNN #ConfederateFlag pic.twitter.com/S9rrv13Hdj
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) June 23, 2015
Vaguely aware that Don Lemon did something unwise tonight...
— Ta-Nehisi Coates (@tanehisicoates) June 23, 2015
C’mon, Don Lemon, you have to at least give a spoiler alert.pic.twitter.com/mzmkC41nPW
— Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) June 23, 2015
I want to be in on the ground floor for this meme. @darth @BoingBoingpic.twitter.com/ez4DH9z217
— Brianna Wu (@Spacekatgal) June 23, 2015
#donlemon #doesthisoffendyou pic.twitter.com/6R3WalkHh7
— Yesha (@YeshaCallahan) June 23, 2015
well ok @BoingBoing pic.twitter.com/jzPvyRINrL
— darth!™ (@darth) June 23, 2015
@BoingBoing @darth obligatory pic.twitter.com/bFfzKRUBai
— Dinobooper, LLC (@SeaFisheater) June 23, 2015
I just want to know which poor intern did Don Lemon send to Kinko's to get that sign made.
— Zippy Kaufman (@ZippyKaufman) June 23, 2015
Best Don Lemon meme pic.twitter.com/ahw8SvW21S
— poeticsocialjustice (@wonder_womanist) June 23, 2015
Marc Maron provides the thoughtful interview, Don Lemon provides the absurdist comedy. This is the world we live in.
— Frank Conniff (@FrankConniff) June 23, 2015
"Racism, we are not cured of it," Obama said in the podcast interview, which was recorded Friday and posted online Monday. "And it's not just a matter of it not being polite to say n----- in public. That's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not. It's not just a matter of overt discrimination. Societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior."
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the president has no regrets about using the controversial term.
"He does not," Earnest told reporters. "The president's use of the word and the reason he used the word could not be more apparent."
