Don Lemon echoed some of the sentiments of Bill Reilly’s presumed racist rant this week on CNN. But shockingly, Don Lemon took it a step further by offering some tough love to the black community. It’s nothing new, really; we’ve seen and heard this type of talk before within the black community. Oddly, however, views expressed by Don Lemon has been often met with push-back. And sadly, the reason it has more to do with the messenger being black, more so than the message. I don’t know, but I suppose that somewhere in the “Negro Handbook” there’s a written rule that explicitly states that black folks aren’t supposed to speak ill, or dare hold anyone in the black community accountable for certain behaviors. I’m not sure if this rule exists; but hey, responsibility politics bandied about by someone black other than President Barack Obama isn’t well received by some.

[View the story “Twitter Puts Don Lemon On Blast” on Storify]

Speaking of which, watch the following before continuing:

I’m not sure if what Don Lemon said is the panacea for the ills within the community (in fact, I know it isn’t). I don’t know, it may be a stretch and I could be wrong, but I think much of what we see exists as a byproduct of systemic racism. Yes, and it’s hard for me to wrap my mind about things getting better if young black men would stop wearing their pants well below their waistlines (oh, and if only we would stop littering?). But nonetheless, what Don Lemon said is worth some consideration and is food for thought — on a personal level — even though it may be a simplistic view of what’s wrong in the black community. As for Bill O’Reilly, though he may make some good points, I can’t help but to question how much he knows when he recently said that much of the violence in Chicago was a direct result of white people no longer buying any drugs . And of course, we know this to be nonsense, right?

That said, check out Don Lemon’s diatribe below: