On Tuesday's CNN Tonight, during a discussion of rapper Kanye West recently making a provocative suggestion that black slaves were partially to blame for their own enslavement, liberal CNN political commentator at one point hinted that wearing a pro-Donald Trump MAGA hate was worse than rappers pushing an "F the police" message. He also suggested that it was racist for conservatives to discuss the issue of "black-on-black-crime."
At 11:38 p.m. Eastern, writer Kierna Mayo recalled that rappers and hip-hop singers had a history of praising Trump, and then brought up West wearing a MAGA hat. Mayo: "And so there is an attraction to, what I think what he associates with braggadocio and bravery and radical free thought. However, you're wearing a MAGA hat as though that's not sheepish."
Hill jumped in to object to the MAGA hat but apparently not excoriating police officers: "We ain't do that, though. We ain't do that part. We still say, 'F the police.' We still say, 'My President is black.'"
A bit later, host Don Lemon played a clip of West suggesting that he was not so interested in heroic historical black figures like Martin Luther King Jr. because they were too far in the past, Hill reacted by complaining about conservatives discussing "black-on-black crime," and then tied in the "alt-right." Hill: "It's stunning on so many levels. First of all, again, this idea of 'Why are we still talking about slavery?' is a right-wing, alt-right talking point. This idea about black-on-black crime -- right-wing talking point. This idea -- everything he says --"
Host Lemon jumped in: "He brought that up today. One of the guys in the room, you know, Van (Lathan) was amazing to say, 'Black people kill each other because of proximity. White people kill each other because of proximity because they live together.'"
Both were missing the point that "black-on-black crime" is generally brought up by conservatives in response to liberals overreacting to police violence and portraying cops generally as being more violent than they actually are, and of being a threat to the general black population.
Crime statistics from the last several years have suggested that the widespread lambasting of the law enforcement profession has discouraged some police from doing their jobs as effectively and resulted in more homicides perpetrated by civilians, with black victims disproportionately more affected. In 2016, for example, more than half of homicide victims were black.
