Lemon LIVE at 5 | Trump & MAGA Respond to Plane Crash with Racism - January 31st, 2025
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How did Don Lemon introduce the episode and initial reaction to the plane crash coverage?
Hello, everyone. Welcome to Lemon Live at 5 on the Don Lemon Show. We're so glad that you are here. Man, what a week. What a week. And, you know, I thought that we had progressed when it came to certain issues, especially issues of race and diversity, but apparently not. So it is not just in the aviation industry, because you saw all of these guys come out yesterday blaming this on DEI, diversity, equity and inclusion, basically saying it was because of like black people. Right. And both the pilots turned out to be white. And so I don't know what's going on, but it's not just the aviation industry. The Trump administration made it clear just today that there it is intent on destroying diversity programs throughout the entire government.
throughout the government that is your government. His acolytes are deleting any mention of words, the words diversity, equity, and inclusion everywhere. They're just scrubbing it. So the webpages that previously included information on the agency's diversity measures are now gone, showing a page not found message. So if you go on there, it'll say page not found. Or it'll say, I don't know, back to 1964, pre-Civil Rights Act, is what it should say. Just this morning, though, federal and state health officials and staff members had to scramble to comply with a 5 p.m. deadline by the Trump administration to determine To terminate, excuse me, any programs that promote, quote, gender ideology and to withdraw documents and any other media that may do so.
So WTF, right? What is going on? All this while the Trump tariff threat sent the stock market spiraling down today. Every day is something. And the price of eggs. Are you listening, MAGA folks? The price of eggs higher than ever. So when is he going to end the wars? He's going to bring down the price of eggs. He's going to do all of these things, and none of it has happened. Let's discuss now. Tim Wise is an author, is a senior fellow at the African American Policy Forum, and a proud, critical race theorist. Yes, indeed. Hi, Tim. How are you?
I'm all right. All those things that you said that I am, I realize now are going to be illegal by the end of the week if they're not already. So I might need to find a place to hide or hibernate or, I don't know, self-deport something. I don't know.
I'm surprised to see your hair because I thought it would have been on fire by now because these are the things that really get to you.
Yeah, but you know, I think... it's not that my hair is not on fire and it's not that i'm not um obviously upset and agitated but i also think you know this is what we should have expected i mean i think those of us in 2020 you know who got got got a little bit out over our skis thinking that this movement was gonna you know carry us into the next four or 10 or 15 or 20 years into this open world of racial justice Sort of forgot our own history, history that we know very well, right, which is that every single time in this country's history that there has been some movement forward, either in terms of policy or even just in terms of narrative, in terms of understanding that benefits black folks, as I would argue the uprising in 2020 did.
Anytime that happens, going back to the end of enslavement, reconstruction, desegregation, civil rights, there's always a concomitant backlash. Carol Anderson at Emory calls it white rage. It happens every time. So why in the world we would be surprised that this administration, would have started in 2020 before it was even out of office, attacking DEI and equity initiatives, and then coming right back in with that being the top priority, not egg prices, not inflation, not gas prices, not any of that. Essentially saying the most important thing we can do is make sure that the federal government doesn't celebrate Black History Month. Right. That it doesn't celebrate women's history, that it doesn't allow the mere acknowledgement of trans identity as an actual thing in the world.
That's what they've decided is the most bad and conquering, you know, other lands and taking back the Panama Canal and taking, you know, whatever Greenland, I suppose.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did Don Lemon introduce the episode and initial reaction to the plane crash coverage?
0:14–10:49
2
How is the Trump administration responding to DEI and diversity programs across government?
10:49–18:40
3
Why does Tim Wise argue there is a historical pattern of backlash after racial progress?
18:40–37:48
4
What does 'DEI' function as in MAGA rhetoric — is it coded language for racism?
37:48–1:12:08