Last year, radio personality Charlamagne tha God was interviewed by The Root for Facebook Live. During that interview, Charlamagne made an admission that startled and left me bewildered. This man, who hails from South Carolina, admitted that he'd never experienced racism in his life.
"What has been the most racist thing to ever happen to you?" Danielle Belton asked.
"You know what's so crazy? I have never confronted [racism] head-on, and I'm … from Charleston, S.C. I worked in Columbia for seven years, where the Confederate flag flew on the Statehouse's lawn….I've never had a white person call me [n—ger]. I've personally have never felt that I didn't get something because of the color of my skin," Charlamagne stated.
He went on to state that he understood systemic racism, and spoke about all of the times he was pulled over by cops, but said he was actually doing grimy [s—t], so he understood.
As my eyes rolled during his interview, I found it hard to believe that he actually believed what he was saying.
But here we are, almost a year later, and the same radio host who had an ax to grind with racist internet radio host Tomi Lahren is now her BFF and trying to help her get over her racism.
Last week Lahren was making the media rounds and appeared on The Daily Show, where she was seemingly handled with kid gloves by Trevor Noah. And then she met with her nemesis Charlamagne, and he was able to look past her racist ways and said he wanted to help her. Yeah, I guess it's easy to help someone when racism looks like a Dollar Tree Barbie.
Two black men have given Lahren a platform to air her racist laundry, but now both want to be buddy-buddy with her. Sure. Do what you have to do to get those ratings. But when was the last time you saw Lahren making friends with a Black Lives Matter activist?
After getting criticism from other radio personalities and social media, Charlamagne took to Twitter on Tuesday night and seemingly doubled down on his pro-Lahren tour by bashing black and "Hispanic" women.
And, of course, that ruffled the feathers of many people, including black women who have platforms but don't get those amplified or supported by black men like Charlamagne:
It's amazing to see a black man cape for a racist white woman. I'd also like to know how many times Charlamagne has given these "woke" women he wants to see shine a chance to be on his MTV show or radio show. So far, I've only seen him have Jamilah Lemieux on his show.
And let's talk about giving women of color platforms via media. That s—t doesn't come for free. There are countless women of color getting shut down when it comes to pitching television shows and other forms of media shows every damn day. Whether they're too "in your face" or "not the look" a network or sponsor is looking for, it's not going to happen. The fact is, Lahren has a brand with money behind it pushing her racist rhetoric. Unless Charlamagne puts his money where his mouth is, he needs to shut it.
On Wednesday morning, after feeling the backlash, Charlamagne took to Instagram to put out his bat signal for ideas on how to elevate women of color:
Black and Latina woman (the correct term that should have been used) are constantly shut down in media, but then there are women like Franchesca Ramsey, Lemieux and countless others who are putting in the work and having their voices heard and amplified while amplifying others. But I guess Charlamagne was too busy kissing Lahren's racist white ass to notice.