Don Lemon CNN Anchor On 5 Things Black People Should Be Doing To Fix Racial Profiling

CNN's Don Lemon hosting a townhall meeting on the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson is reminding many of comments he made after the Trayvon Martin's murder case. At that time, in talking about race, a lot of conservatives were asking why the media wasn't talking about other problems in the black community, especially the high rates of crime.

After the ruling on the case, Don Lemon felt it was time to address those issues and how to fix other ills that seem to be plaguing the community in general. He felt it was time for some tough love after Bill O'Reilly, FOX News host called out "black on black crime", saying;

The reason there is so much violence and chaos in the black precincts is the disintegration of the African- American family. Raised without much structure, young black men often reject education and gravitate towards the street culture, drugs, hustling, gangs. Nobody forces them to do that, again, it is a personal decision. 

Don Lemon responded by saying, "He's got a point. In fact, he's got more than a point. In my estimation, he doesn't go far enough. Black people, if you really want to fix the problem, here's just five things that you should think about doing.

Number five. and if this doesn't apply to you, if you're not doing this, then it doesn't apply to you, I'm not talking to you. Pull up your pants. Some people, a lot of them black, gave me flak for saying that recently on "The Wendy Williams Show."

If you're sagging, I mean -- I think it's your self-esteem that is sagging and who you are as a person it's sagging. Young people need to be taught respect and there are rules.

Sagging pants, whether Justin Bieber or No-name Derek around the way, walking around with your ass and your underwear showing is not OK. In fact, it comes from prison when they take away belts from the prisoners so that they can't make a weapon. And then it evolved into which role a prisoner would have during male-on-male prison sex. The one with the really low pants is the submissive one. You get my point?

Number four now is the n-word.

JAY-Z, RAPPER: For our generation what we did was we took the word and we took the power out of that word.
CHRIS ROCK, COMEDIAN/ACTOR: We took this word, and we made it into poetry. 

I understand poetic license, but consider this: I hosted a special on the n-word, suggesting that black people stop using it and that entertainers stop deluding yourselves or themselves and others that you're somehow taking the word back.

By promoting the use of that word when it's not germane to the conversation, have you ever considered that you may be just perpetuating the stereotype the master intended acting like a nigger?

A lot of African-Americans took offense to that, too. I wonder if I gave the right advice, I really did. But confirmation came the very next day on my way home when I exited the subway in 125th Street in Harlem. This little kid in a school uniform no older than seven years old, he was crying his eyes out as he walked down the sidewalk with his mother.

I'm going to be honest here, she turned to me, and she said "I'm sick of you. You act like an old ass man, stop all that crying, nigger." Is that taking the word back? Think about that.

Number three. Respect where you live. Start small by not dropping trash, littering in your own communities. I've lived in several predominantly white neighborhoods in my life, I rarely, if ever, witnessed people littering. I live in Harlem now, it's an historically black neighborhood, every single day I see adults and children dropping their trash on the ground when a garbage can is just feet away. Just being honest here.

Number two, finish school. You want to break the cycle of poverty? Stop telling kids they're acting white because they go to school or they speak proper English. A high school dropout makes on average $19,000 a year, a high school graduate makes $28,000 a year, a college graduate makes $51,000 a year. Over the course of a career, a college grad will make nearly $1 million more than a high school graduate. That's a lot of money.

Number one, and probably the most important, just because you can have a baby, it doesn't mean you should. Especially without planning for one or getting married first. More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers. And the studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison and the cycle continues. So, please, black folks, as I said if this doesn't apply to you, I'm not talking to you. Pay attention to and think about what has been presented in recent history as acceptable behavior. Pay close attention to the hip-hop and rap culture that many of you embrace. A culture that glorifies everything I just mentioned, thug and reprehensible behavior, a culture that is making a lot of people rich, just not you. And it's not going to. That said, though, the political right is not off the hook.

Do you agree with Don Lemon?