Don Lemon Clip About Black Community Resurfaces: 'Pull Up Your Pants'

A decade-old video clip of Don Lemon sharing ways to "fix" the Black community has resurfaced on social media amid the furor over the CNN host's comment that women over 50 aren't in their prime.

Lemon, 56, sparked controversy during Thursday's installment of CNN This Morning, when he and co-host Poppy Harlow discussed 2024 presidential hopeful Nikki Haley's recent comments about requiring competency tests for politicians over the age of 75.

"This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable," Lemon said on the matter. "I think it's the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime. Sorry. When a woman is considered in her prime in her twenties and thirties."

TV personality Lemon was interrupted by Harlow, who asked: "Prime for what?"

He went on to say that it is not specifically his opinion, but said: "If you Google 'when is a woman in her prime,' it'll say twenties, thirties, forties."

Harlow then questioned Lemon again about what he meant by "prime," to which he responded: "I'm just saying what the facts are. Google it. Everybody at home, when is a woman in her prime? It says twenties, thirties and forties.

"I'm just saying Nikki Haley should careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime, and they need to be in their prime when they serve. She would not be in her prime according to Google or whatever it is."

While Lemon has apologized for his comment, debate has continued over whether Lemon was correct in his assessment. Amid the discussion, a clip from 2013 has resurfaced of the broadcaster giving pointers on CNN of things that he believed Black Americans should change.

"Black people, if you really want to fix the problem, here's just five things that you should think about doing," he said at the time. "If you're not doing this, then it doesn't apply to you. I'm not talking about you."

"Here's number five: pull up your pants," he started the list. "Walking around with your a** and your underwear showing is not okay. In fact, it comes from prison when they take away belt from the prisoner so that they can't make a weapon. And then it evolved into which role a prisoner would have during male-on-male prison sex. The one with the really low pants is a submissive one. You get my point."

Lemon then went on to discuss the use of the N-word, saying: "By promoting the use of that word when it's not germane to the conversation, have you ever considered that you may just be perpetuating the stereotype the master intended acting like a n*****?"

For his third example, Lemon advised: "Respect where you live. Start small by not dropping trash, littering in your own communities. I've lived in several predominantly white neighborhoods in my life. I rarely, if ever, witnessed people littering.

"I live in Harlem now. It's an historically Black neighborhood. Every single day, I see adults and children dropping their trash on the ground when a garbage can is just feet away. Just being honest here."

"Number two: finish school," he continued. "You want to break the cycle of poverty. Stop telling kids they're acting white because they go to school or they speak proper English.

"A high school dropout makes on average $19,000 a year. A high school graduate makes $28,000 a year. A college graduate makes $51,000 a year over the course of a career. A college grad will make nearly a million dollars more than a high school graduate. That's a lot of money."

For his final example "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."

The clip on Tuesday made the rounds across a number of social media platforms, including on Twitter, where a caption on the account @EndWokeness read: "Don Lemon gives a list of five things the Black community must fix (2013) This is before the woke era. Not a single word about racism. Just. Straight. Facts."

While several social media users agreed with the sentiments expressed by Lemon, a number of others criticized the video.

Wrote one detractor on Reddit: "So regurgitating tired a** tropes about the Black community is worthy of praise now? Does pulling up your pants stop police from killing you, get adequate funding to your school, or improve your local air quality, you know, structural s*** actually impacting the Black community? F*** this noise. There are some self hating Black folks on this thread and that's the saddest part."

"While I agree with you, I also think a good portion of what he said is true," responded another. "There's some things that are dumb (i.e. littering is not at all a Black problem, but a people problem in general), but some of his points would fix some (not even close to every) problems for our communities.

"That being said, what REALLY bugs me is that he said this on CNN of all places, where it could very easily be used against the Black community instead of for it. Perpetuating our stereotypes on a primarily white viewer base seems pretty dangerous to me."