Don's five point plan.

I need to holla at my boy Don Lemon real quick. The CNN host has been catching some heat from his my people after his recent rant about what is ailing the black community. (Memo to Don: Never start an editorial about black folks by invoking the name of Bill O'Reilly.) 

Don thinks that if we could just get the young bucks to start pulling up their pants and stop dropping the N-word, we would all of a sudden get black unemployment down to 7%, and get the government to start focusing on urban issues. He thinks that implementing his five point plan would get the GOP to start focusing on passing legislation that would address things such as education and fighting crime, instead of how to control a woman's body and defunding "Obamacare".

The thing is, I actually agree with some of the things that Don talked about, (most black folks do) but when he goes on CNN of all places and preaches down to us as if these aren't things we talk about all the time, it's a problem. I am guessing that if Don had made these statements on BET or TV One (sorry Oprah, not OWN; I still don't trust you to keep s*** among us) most black folks would not have a problem, but putting white folks in our business to the delight of clowns on the right and the FOX NEWS crowd is not cool. It's never cool to side with the "professional assassins" of black folks. Besides, I have news for Don: the people he should be trying to reach are not watching his show on CNN. Some of the people that he and the bloviator over at FOX like to bash are the ones that he is going to have to reach out to get the message across to a generation of lost souls. Some young buck in North Philly who dropped out of school in the 10th grade and is slinging dope on the corner is not going to listen to two talking heads who are paid to drive up their ratings on television. One is an egomaniacal racist and the other is a sheltered dude from Baton Rouge who sometimes means well but cares about his television career more than improving the lives of black folks.

"And 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."

The irony is, of course, that the people Don says that he is "not talking to" are  the only ones who are listening to him, and we all want to know why he chose this particular forum to have his conversation.