On Monday night, CNN host Don Lemon was stunned after a British royals expert agreed with him that reparations for slavery might be in order, but not in the way he was suggesting
Lemon was on air with British-American businesswoman Hilary Fordwich, who is a commentator on royal life and the royal family.
Just weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning monarch in British history, Lemon decided to discuss a common topic for liberal commentators, reparations for the enslavement of Africans in the early days of America and the British Empire. The host went so far as to imply that the royal family should be paying reparations to the descendants of victims of the slave trade.
“All of this wealth, and you hear about it, comes as England is facing rising cost of living,” Lemon said. “And then you have those who are asking for reparations for colonialism, and they’re wondering, you know, ‘$100 billion, $24 billion here and there, $500 million there,’ some people want to be paid back. Members of the public are wondering, ‘Why are we suffering when you have all of this vast wealth?’ Those are legitimate concerns.”
Fordwich gave the liberal host a response that he certainly wasn’t expecting. “Well I think you’re right about reparations in terms of — if people want it though, what they need to do is, you always need to go back to the beginning of the supply chain. Where was the beginning of the supply chain?” Fordwich asked. “That was in Africa.”
It is often forgotten that African nations were largely responsible for capturing and selling slaves to Western and Arabic nations and that, after the slave trade was abolished in the West, African nations continued to sell slaves to the Middle East.
Fordwich continued, “Across the entire world, when slavery was taking place, which was the first nation in the world that abolished slavery? First nation in the world to abolish it … was the British.”
This prompted Fordwich to go even further, suggesting a different path to reparations than Lemon was suggesting, “In Great Britain they abolished slavery. 2,000 naval men died on the high seas trying to stop slavery. Why? Because the African kings were rounding up their own people. They had them [in] cages, waiting in the beaches. No one was running in Africa to get them.”
“And I think you’re totally right. If reparations need to be paid, we need to go right back to the beginning of that supply chain and say, ‘Who was rounding up their own people and having them hang from cages?’ Absolutely, that’s where they should start. And maybe, I don’t know, the descendants of those families where they died in the high seas trying to stop the slavery, those families should receive something, too.”
The look on Lemon’s face expressed utter confusion, but he managed to say, “It’s an interesting discussion, Hilary, thank you very much. We’ll continue to discuss in the future,” before the segment ended.
As you can imagine, conservatives had a field day with the now-viral clip.
Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey wrote, “Ok this is amazing. Don Lemon brings up the need for slave reparations from the royal family. His guest says, yes, people should be demanding reparations … from the African leaders who sold them into slavery.”
“His face at the end is the payoff,” remarked “Dilbert” creator Scott Adams.
Conservative personality and former Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik tweeted, “Don Lemon was NOT ready.”
“This is so spectacularly perfect that it’s almost as if Lemon was set up,” remarked author and podcaster Dave Rubin.
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