In the latest edition of Dumb Takes on Racism by a Fox News guest, New York State Assemblyman Kieran Michael Lalor said there’s nothing worse than being called a racist when discussing NFL players’ protests during the National Anthem.
Interviewing Lalor during the July 27 edition of Fox News’ Fox & Friends was Jillian Mele, who asked the politician how the players and those who want to hear their perspectives do so without the athletes kneeling during the National Anthem.
Lalor blabbered a long, unsubstantiated claim that police brutality isn’t as bad as players claim, said that kneeling is an “empty gesture,” and then called the genesis of Colin Kaepernick’s protests a “falsehood.”
He even found a way to blame Kaepernick, of course, as transcribed by Media Matters for America:
LALOR: And, in fact, this all started with Colin Kaepernick — and it’s kind of based on a falsehood. He said there’s dead bodies in the streets, there’s people being murdered, and other people who murdered them on paid leave. Saying cops are just indiscriminately murdering black men in the streets. That’s not happening, there are studies all over the place, the Manhattan Institute has a study that says that doesn’t happen. Harvard has a study that says that doesn’t happen. “Hands up, don’t shoot” — which kind of started this whole movement, that didn’t happen.There have been bad people, there have been bad cops. We’re a a nation of 300 million people, and there are some bad people, there are some racist people, but on balance we are not a racist country, we’re not an unjust country. Colin Kaepernick who also started this thing, and a lot of the blame has to be on his feet, he also said this is an unjust country for people of color. Well you know what the number one issue in this country is? It’s immigration. And largely that’s people of color who want to come into this country because it is such a great country. So I don’t buy the foundation of this whole protest. Are there problems, can we discuss them? Absolutely, but the way they’ve gone about it, and their lack of really a conversation, a back-and-forth, let’s find some common ground, let’s find some solutions — totally absent
We’ve been down this road before; protesting during the National Anthem isn’t really a new, radical form of protest. You can easily do a Google search and find black people protesting during all kinds of “inconvenient” moments during the Civil Rights Movement, such as blocking traffic and doing sit-ins at diner counters. Of the people who joined in this activity was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., white folks’ go-to when looking for a more reasonable Negro than today’s black folks who aren’t supposedly following in his legacy.
But, I digress.
Here is where Lalor complains about white folks being called a racist:
MELE: Right, and you hit on something good there I think. We’re not able to hear each other, we’re not able to have these conversations because of the way it’s transpired over the course of the last two years, and it’s been a long time, with no end in sight.
LALOR: You’re right. One of the problems is, why it’s hard to have a conversation, there is nothing worse than being called a racist. There is nothing worse for your career, there’s nothing worse for you as a person. And a lot of people don’t want to speak up because they’re going to be accused of being a racist. And that squelches all kinds of conversation, all kinds of dialogue, and you’re never going to get a solution without dialogue.
Well, folks. There it is. If you are called a racist that is worse than being killed by cops for nothing, discriminated against because of your race and separating children from their parents at the border.
Yep. Being called a racist and worse than actual racism. Got it.
Anyways, if you’re thirsty and want a cup of white tears, listen to the segment below.
