Don Lemon
The “We Were There: The March on Washington” Interview
with Kam Williams
Lemon Zest!
Born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana on March 1, 1966, Don Lemon anchors CNN Newsroom during weekend prime-time and serves as a correspondent across CNN/U.S. programming. Based out of the network's New York bureau, Don joined CNN in September 2006.
In 2008, he reported from Chicago in the days leading up to the presidential election, including an interview with Rahm Emanuel on the day he agreed to serve as President Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff. He also interviewed Anne Cooper, the 106-year old voter Obama highlighted in his election night acceptance speech.
Don has covered many breaking news stories, including the George Zimmerman trial, the Boston Marathon bombing, the Philadelphia building collapse, the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, the Colorado Theater shooting, the death of Whitney Houston, the Inaugural of the 44th President in Washington, D.C., the death of Michael Jackson, and the Minneapolis bridge collapse, to name a few. And he anchored the network's breaking news coverage of the Japan tsunami, the Arab Spring, the death of Osama Bin Laden and the Joplin tornado.
Don began his career at WNYW in New York City as a news assistant while still attending Brooklyn College. He has won an Edward R. Murrow award for his coverage of the capture of the Washington, D.C. snipers, and an Emmy for a special report on real estate in Chicagoland.
In 2009, Ebony Magazine named him one of the 150 most influential Blacks in America. A couple of years later, he came out of the closet, and discussed his homosexuality in an autobiography entitled “Transparent.”
Don recently caught a lot of flak from a number of African-American pundits for agreeing with Bill O’Reilly’s criticisms of the black community, especially since he even suggested that the conservative talk show host hadn’t gone far enough.
Here, he talks about We Were There, an oral history of The March on Washington featuring the only surviving speaker Congressman John Lewis as well as Harry Belafonte, U.S. Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, and other attendees. The special is set to debut on CNN on Friday, August 23 at 10:00p.m., 1:00a.m., and 4:00a.m.
Kam Williams: Hi Don, thanks for the opportunity to interview you.
Don Lemon: Hi, Kam. How are you?
KW: Great! And you?
DL: I’m not complaining, but it’s a crazy-busy day. I have to anchor, do my radio hits, prepare for my show tomorrow, make tapes, and do press for We Were There!
KW: What interested you in doing a special about The March on Washington?
DL: We had been talking about it for awhile as the 50th anniversary approached, and I kept indicating that I would love to be a part of it. Somewhere, somehow, somebody heard that, Kam, and they said, “Don really wants to do this. Let’s have him do it.”
KW: Being an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award-winner, I don’t think you’d have to beg too much.
DL: Just because I’m here at CNN, I never rest on my laurels and presume I can coast now. I still throw my hat in the ring and push to have a voice. I am the face of this documentary for CNN, and I think that says a lot about how far we’ve come. Here I am a young African-American who has a voice at this major network. That is part of the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream.
KW: Does the documentary have a theme?
DL: There are, for me, a few different themes. People like John Lewis and A. Philip Randolph put their lives on the line to participate. So, the first theme that stands out to me is courage. The second theme was the hope they exhibited in “the teeth of the most terrifying odds,” as James Baldwin said. Thirdly, Bayard Rustin, who many call The Architect of the Civil Rights Movement, finally gets his due. I think that’s a fair characterization to some degree. He’s the silent, strong man who made The March happen. But because he was gay and people tried to use that against him is probably why we don’t hear so much about him.
KW: I remember feeling admiration as a child for the folks from my neighborhood who were going down to The March on Washington, because of everyone’s palpable sense of concern for their safety.
DL: I think admiration is a good way of putting it. Whenever I see John Lewis, I invariably say, “Thank you.” And I will never stop. I don’t know how he’s still standing, because what he endured took courage and strength that I don’t know that I have.
KW: I interviewed Ellen DeGeneres the day after Barack Obama won the 2008 Presidential Election. She felt his victory had been bittersweet because Proposition 8 had passed in California, banning gay marriage. The measure had succeeded with the help of the black community. I asked her whether she thought African-Americans would feel differently about homosexuality, if a famous black icon came out of the closet. How do you feel about that, as probably the most prominent black celebrity to come out?
DL: I don’t consider myself a celebrity. I’m just a journalist. Frank Ocean is a celebrity. Yeah, I was in the forefront, and took a lot of heat for it. I think the President’s evolution in terms of gay marriage has helped change many people’s minds. I think it’s empowering for a person to live an authentic life. It can only help when prominent and successful people of color come out and live authentically, because younger people, who are being bullied and might be questioning whether they should continue to live, might have second thoughts about taking their own lives. So, yeah, I think any celebrity who comes out can only help a young person struggling with the stigma.
KW: Do you think your coming out started a snowball among black gays?
DL: I don’t know. But I do think it helps the next person, because I get positive feedback every day from someone who has read my book.
KW: See, you’re not just a journalist. Plus look at all the blowback from your recent remarks agreeing with Bill O’Reilly about the black community.
DL: I don’t feel any blowback, but I will say this, whether you agree with whatever I said or not, at least I got a conversation started. That was my goal, and I think I accomplished it. I think if you’ve watched or read my work over the years, you know that I’m pretty much at the top in terms of taking on issues that have to do with African-Americans and profiling, and with race and racism. What I love about CNN is that, yes, we believe in diversity of bodies, but we also believe in a diversity of opinion. So, whether my bosses agree with what I said or not, it doesn’t matter. We’re in the business of journalism here. Journalism is about having a diversity of opinion. And just because I’m African-American does not mean I have to feel a certain way because I’m black. You don’t have true freedom until you allow a diversity of opinion and a diversity of voices.
KW: I always feel that I’m black, so whatever my opinion on an issue happens to be is a black opinion.
DL: That’s a good way of putting it. [Laughs]
KW: But do you fear being pigeonholed as a buddy of O’Reilly?
DL: There are many things that Bill O’Reilly and I disagree about. I just happen to agree with some of what he had to say on this issue, but not all of it. Does that mean I co-signed his whole being and existence? No?
KW: Is there any question no one ever asks you, that you wish someone would?
DL: Yes, what do you get from icons like Dr. King, Malcolm X and John Lewis? What I get from them is personal empowerment, personal responsibility, and that the only thing you truly own is your mind. And once you truly own your mind, you’re free. You can decide for yourself what is the best way to respond in the face of discrimination. How to carry yourself with dignity. What matters is how you think of yourself, and having presence of mind. Once you get that right, it doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of you, because you know how to carry yourself in the world.
KW: The bookworm Troy Johnson question: What was the last book you read?
DL: The last two books I read were: “The New Jim Crow” by Michelle Alexander,
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1595586431/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20
and “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl, a Holocaust survivor.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0807014273/ref=nosim/thslfofire-20
KW: When you look in the mirror, what do you see?
DL: Besides all the flaws, I see the kid that I once was. [Chuckles] Seriously, what stares back at me is someone who lives in a constant state of gratitude, regardless of what’s going on in my life. Just this morning, when I woke up, I walked into the bathroom, looked in the mirror and said, “Look how far you’ve come. I’m grateful for this day. And for those fat cheeks. And for the boldness that you have. And for the stances that you take. And I know that you’re going to be okay. And I want the next person who looks like you whether they’re 1 day-old or 15 years-old to be better than you and to have a better life.” I swear to God I just said that this morning in the mirror. So, it’s funny that you asked that question.
KW: The Ling-Ju Yen question: What is your earliest childhood memory in Baton Rouge?
DL: Sitting in my grandmother’s kitchen at about 3 or 4, watching her talking on a yellow telephone with a long cord. I spilled my drink, and my sister scolded me, “Every time you spill something!” And I asked my very understanding grandma’s permission to go to the bathroom.
KW: Can you give me a Don Lemon question?
DL: Yeah, this question has gotten to just about everyone I ask. It even made Wendy Williams cry. It’s, “Who do you think you are?”
KW: What is your guiltiest pleasure?
DL: Sleep. I loooooove to sleep. I also like salty, plain potato chips and Lindt dark chocolate with a touch of sea salt.
KW: What is your favorite dish to cook?
DL: Seafood gumbo, because I get to make it with my family over the holidays.
KW: If you could have one wish instantly granted, what would that be for?
DL: That we would not be so enamored with the slavery of equality, and be more enamored with the freedom of independence.
KW: The Judyth Piazza question: What key quality do you believe all successful people share?
DL: Being self-possessed. Having a strong sense of self.
KW: The Mike Pittman question: What was your best career decision?
DL: Leaving Louisiana.
KW: The Sanaa Lathan question: What excites you?
DL: Babies and puppies, because they’re so innocent, and they have their lives ahead of them.
KW: Makes me think of the saying: Youth is wasted on the young.
DL: To get back to O’Reilly and the whole saggy pants thing, it’s almost like, “Just take my advice, I’m an old guy. That’s probably not a good look. You might want to rethink that.” And then, invariably, something will happen to them in their career, and I hate to say, “I told you so, but…” I suppose people just have to go through things.
KW: Which reminds me of another saying: When the student is ready, the teacher appears.
DL: I like that. I’m going to use that on the air.
KW: What advice do you have for anyone who wants to follow in your footsteps?
DL: I think it’s great, if you want to follow in my footsteps, but I want you o be better than me, and you have to do it because you are passionately motivated by journalism and by a quest for the truth, not by a desire to be a celebrity. That’s not what this is all about. And you have to be thick-skinned, since you’re going to receive a lot of criticism, and that’s part of what being a journalist is. I feel really strongly about the oath that I’ve taken to inform and to tell the truth. I’m not a race protector, I’m a truth protector. The truth is the truth is the truth. And as long as you tell the truth, you’ll be okay in the end. A lot of people didn’t like Dr. King, either, especially the black establishment. So, you may not be liked, but you’ll be respected.
KW: Thanks again for the time, Don, and best of luck with We Were There.
DL: It’s been a pleasure, Kam.
To see a trailer for We Were There: The March on Washington, visit: http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/bestoftv/2013/07/31/exp-we-were-there-the-march-on-washington.cnn.html
To purchase a copy of Don Lemon’s autobiography, “Transparent,” visit: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0982702787/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20
To read a transcript of Don Lemon’s remarks about Bill O’Reilly and the black community, visit: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1307/27/cnr.06.html
Kick-Ass 2
Film Review by Kam Williams
Shocking Splatterflick Ups the Ante on Original’s Gratuitous Gore
It’s very rare indeed for a matinee idol to trash his or her own picture prior to its release, no matter how horrible the film is. Instead, they tend to just bite the bullet and participate in the press junket praising it to high heaven. For that reason, audiences should have considered themselves warned when Jim Carrey decided to distance himself from Kick-Ass 2, going so far as to apologize to his fans for the splatterflick’s shocking “level of violence.”
But upping the ante on gratuitous gore is just one of a host of this sorry vigilante sequel’s fatal flaws. Another is that the rubber-faced comedian was not only crippled by a script with no funny lines for him but also required to keep his most valuable asset covered with a mask for most of the movie.
Replacement director Jeff Wadlow takes the hit here for miscasting Carrey in a dramatic role in a comedy. What’s wrong with playing to a thespian’s strengths, especially when you have at your disposal one of the funniest comics to ever grace the silver screen?
If you remember Kick-Ass 1, what really made the movie magical was Hit-Girl (Chole Moretz) and Big Daddy’s (Nicolas Cage) bizarre but tender father-daughter relationship. Unfortunately, Big Daddy bit the dust in the original, and the title role of Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) has been expanded this go-round, mostly at the expense of Hit-Girl’s screen time.
In fact, as the film unfolds, we learn that Hit-Girl has hung up her mask and stretchy pants to focus on her freshman year at Millard Fillmore high school as alter ego Mindy McCready. Senior David Lizewski, however, still moonlights as Kick-Ass and soon joins Justice Forever, a ragtag team of self-proclaimed superheroes led by Colonel Stars and Stripes (Carrey).
Their evil nemesis is The Mother [expletive] (Christopher Mintz-Plasse), the richest kid in all of New York. This diabolical orphan has inherited the bucks to assemble the best bloodthirsty, band of villains money can buy.
The ensuing epic battle between good and evil for the fate of the city eventually forces Hit-Girl out of retirement, and just in the nick of time to turn the tide. Too bad the picture’s pathetic attempts at humor fall flat, its special f/x are cheesy, its characters never generate any chemistry, its preposterous plot fails to engage, and it features a morally-reprehensible “level of violence,” most of it involving teenagers.
Oh, but the ending does set up the franchise’s next installment, for folks who get their kicks vicariously, via the observation of explicit vivisection. A relentlessly-gruesome bloodfest of no redeeming value that at least Jim Carrey had the decency to ‘fess up about.
Fair (1 star)
Rated R for sexuality, graphic violence, crude humor, pervasive profanity, and brief nudity
In English, Mandarin and Russian with subtitles
Running Time: 103 minutes
Distributor: Universal Pictures
To see a trailer for Kick-Ass 2, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nje6dcArZrI
The Happy Sad
Film Review by Kam Williams
Couples’ Lives Serendipitously Intertwine in Bifurcated Brooklyn Drama
Stan (Cameron Scoggins) and Annie (Sorel Carradine) are a young couple in crisis. She recently informed him over brunch in a Brooklyn bistro that she wanted to take a break “to figure things out.”
Flabbergasted Stan pressured her for an explanation, so she lied and said that she was already sleeping with a fellow schoolteacher, Mandy (Maria Dizzia). Believing the fib, he decided on the spot to end the relationship.
The bitter breakup frees Stan to explore his own curiosity about bisexuality, so he makes the online acquaintance of a tall, dark and handsome stranger (LeRoy McClain). The two agree to meet, and end up mating on the first date. Only after Stan has given away his gay virginity does he learn that that Marcus has a live-in boyfriend.
What makes the situation even messier, his life mate, Aaron (Charlie Barnett), just happens to be a waiter Stan and Annie know from their favorite restaurant. Marcus and Aaron do have an open relationship that’s lasted six years. Trouble is, their only rule is you’re not allowed to develop feelings for anybody you cheat with.
That’s a problem since Marcus falls in love at first sight with Aaron. However, Stan isn’t quite inclined to reciprocate. He’s not even sure that he’s bi, let alone ready to come out of the closet to be in an interracial homosexual relationship.
Not one to give up easily, Aaron informs Marcus that “I want to take my jaw, unhinge it, and swallow your head whole.” Meanwhile, odd woman out Annie does seduce her cute colleague Mandy, but when lesbianism doesn’t work out proceeds to lick her wounds at a local watering hole where she turns the head of a two-bit comedian.
So unfolds The Happy Sad, a gender-bending romantic romp directed by Rodney Evans (Brother to Brother). You almost need a score card to keep track of all the coupling, uncoupling, and re-coupling, but the out-of-the-closet antics are amusing enough to intrigue.
Who will end up with whom? The possibilities are endless when the players are this open-minded and so confused about their identities!
Very Good (3 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 86 minutes
Distributor: Miasma Films
To see a trailer for The Happy Sad, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKp_fZ4M-zE
Spark: A Burning Man Story
Film Review by Kam Williams
Visually-Captivating Documentary Chronicles Annual Bohemian Gathering
Every summer, about 60,000 free-spirited fugitives of civilization descend on an empty spot in the Nevada desert and dub it Black Rock City to participate in an annual ritual known as Burning Man. The gathering basically affords a horde of artistic, ex-hippie hedonists a week of fun in the sun free from the dictates of otherwise humdrum lives divided between being stuck in stultifying suburbia and commuting to boring, corporate desk jobs.
Braving nightly windstorms and sweltering 100+ degree days, these would-be bohemians are mostly aging flower children looking to recreate the magic they once enjoyed at counter-cultural concerts like Woodstock before finally making major concessions to conformity. Here, they make the most of the opportunity to shed their societal facades (and maybe even their clothes) and to get in touch once again with their primal selves.
Not that absolutely anything goes at Burning Man. The event does have ten guidelines encouraging: “Radical Expression,” “Communal Effort” and “Gifting,” to name a few. And “Participation” is mandatory, since no spectators are allowed.
Co-directed by Steve Brown and Jessie Deeter, Spark: A Burning Man Story is a visually-captivating documentary which chronicles the goings-on at last year’s gathering. We learn that the love fest is called Burning Man because the climax of the conclave involves setting on fire a 35 foot-tall, 3,000 pound effigy of a guy.
Many attendees work on their costumes, floats and/or constructions for months prior to their arrival, much like participants in New Orleans Mardi Gras or Philly’s Mummers’ Parade. But Burning Man seems to have a distinctly anti-establishment agenda, evidenced by the torching of 70 foot-tall models of skyscrapers called “Merrill Lynched,” “Goldman Sucks” and Bank of Un-America.”
Why Occupy Wall Street when you can occupy the desert?
Excellent (4 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 90 minutes
Distributor: Paladin Films
To see a trailer for Spark: A Burning Man Story, visit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0XGiOnuxO8
The Speech
The Story behind Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream
by Gary Younge
Book Review by Kam Williams
Haymarket Books
Paperback, $19.95
192 pages
ISBN: 978-1-60846-356-5
“A great speech is both timely and timeless. First and foremost, it must touch and move its immediate audience… But it must also simultaneously reach over the heads of the assembled to posterity.
The ‘I Have a Dream’ speech qualified on both counts. It was delivered in a year that started with Alabama Governor George Wallace, standing on the steps of the state capitol, declaring ‘Segregation now! Segregation tomorrow! Segregation forever!’
The speech starts, both literally and metaphorically, in the shadow of Lincoln, ends with a quote from a Negro spiritual, and in between quotes the song ‘America the Beautiful’ while evoking ‘a dream rooted in the American dream’ and drawing references from the bible and Constitution…
Fifty years later, the speech endures as a defining moment in the Civil Rights Movement… This gripping book unearths the fascinating chronicle behind ‘The speech’ and the revealing events surrounding The March on Washington.”
-- Excerpted from Introduction
On August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, an unapologetically poetic appeal for the elusive equal rights long denied African-Americans. Unfortunately, over the years, the late martyr’s historic address has all but been reduced to his wish that “my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
A half-century later we find that “content of character” phrase being appropriated, quoted out of context and willfully misrepresented by arch-conservatives from Glenn Beck to Herman Cain in service of a right-wing agenda. For this reason, it is rather refreshing to find an opus like this being published on the 50th anniversary to remind us of the true meaning of Dr. King’s moving remarks.
The author of the book is Gary Younge, a broadcaster and columnist based in Chicago. Here, the award-winning journalist does a masterful job of not only dissecting Dr. King’s words, but of filling in much of the back story to the events leading up to his taking the podium.
We learn that “I Have a Dream” was not the planned focus of the speech, in fact, that divinely-inspired, emotional crescendo was substantially improvised on the spot as an afterthought. King’s intended theme merely revolved around an earnest explanation that blacks had descended on the District of Columbia “to cash a promissory note for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
For, while preparing his speech on the eve of the march, King had been advised by a colleague to cut out the lines about his having a dream. “It’s trite… It’s cliché,” Reverend Wyatt Tee Walker warned.
But, the next day on the National Mall, as Dr. King came close to finishing reading from his prepared text, gospel great Mahalia Jackson started prompting him to go off script. “Tell them about the dream, Martin!” she shouted repeatedly, referring to a familiar refrain she’d heard her dear friend eloquently riff about in sermons several times before.
Fortunately, Martin did indeed heed Mahalia, and began waxing romantic about his prophetic vision. “Aw, sh*t, he’s using the dream,” Reverend Walker moaned. Yet, as Coretta Scott King would recall, “At that moment, it seemed as if the Kingdom of God appeared.”
And the rest, as they say, is history.
To order a copy of The Speech, visit: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1608463222/ref%3dnosim/thslfofire-20