56 pages • 1 hour read
Don LemonThis Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism
Don LemonNonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
Don Lemon
Don Lemon grew up near Baton Rouge, Louisiana with his parents and two sisters. His older sister, Leisa, helped raise him after his father’s passing. At a young age, Lemon suffered sexual assault by the son of his mother’s friend, an event that Lemon abruptly revealed on camera during an interview about child molestation at a megachurch. After attending Louisiana State University, where a professor told him that he would never make it as a journalist, he graduated from Brooklyn College in New York, majoring in broadcast journalism. He then worked in Chicago news stations before joining CNN in 2006. As a reporter for CNN Tonight and, later, as the show’s host, Lemon anchored much of the network’s coverage of race-related incidents that brought the Black Lives Matter movement into prominence, including the George Zimmerman trial; the Ferguson, Missouri protests; the Charleston church shooting; and the George Floyd murder and subsequent protests of 2020. Lemon wrote a 2011 memoir, Transparent, in which he discussed his youth and came out as gay (“Award-winning CNN Anchor Goes ‘Transparent.’” NPR, 11 July 2011, https://www.npr.org/2011/07/11/137766611/-award-winning-cnn-anchor-goes-transparent. Accessed 23 July 2021).
As someone aware of the constant news cycle, Lemon approaches This Is the Fire with a mixture of hope, realism, and weariness. His opening letter to his nephew, Trushaad, is heartfelt, and he says that his “greatest fear is that the world will jade itself and grow numb” despite calls for change (8). Lemon conducts deep dives into both the headlines of 2020 and seemingly niche subjects and pop culture elements that reflect current events. For example, he discusses the film Imitation of Life, in which advertisers force a Black woman to make an exaggerated minstrel smile for a product line. Lemon sarcastically refers back to this scene after discussing how rigged the system feels for African Americans: “Now, smile. No, smile bigger” (143). He backs up these deep dives with quotes from innovative leaders, historians, and social scientists. He relates living as a Black man in America to a track-and-field runner at the starting line who must be ready at any moment.
Lemon’s age gives him a different perspective from younger activists. He was a Young Republican back when the southern region of the party fought for equal rights, and he is fond of classic movies despite having to relate more to Leave It to Beaver than the limited roles that Black performers had at the time: The all-White sitcom reflected his middle-class upbringing more than stereotypes into which Hollywood forced people of color. While he has no issue in defying bigotry and advocating for change, he has the experience to know when trendy propositions are unrealistic.
Lemon maintains a close relationship with his family. He cherishes the family’s way of doing what’s necessary to survive with an emphasis on love rather than procedure. He looks to his mother for support and perspective, whether in learning about his ancestry or the Gone with the Wind controversy. His grief over his sister Leisa’s death turned the news cycle into a dirge but also helped him recognize the sorrow in family members who lose loved ones in police-involved shootings. As a gay man, Lemon’s relationship with Tim gives him an appreciation for the quiet moments in life and a duty to help the next generation avoid the divisions that affected him. While political change is important, the normalization of interracial and same-sex relationships also contribute to change.
In the spirit of author James Baldwin, Lemon promotes the values of action, love, and reconciliation. He urges people to have a point of view and to “Do. Some. Damn. Thing.” beyond performative support on social media (15). He notes that as difficult as racial tensions can be, people can unite for a just cause, such as the Black and White descendants of General Williams Carter Wickham advocating for the removal of his statue after the far-right Charlottesville rally. Lemon warns that without this compassion and understanding, the drive for change will fade, and a greater crisis will rise later.
George Floyd and Breonna Taylor
The nine-minute video of George Floyd’s death while in police custody sparked outrage and protests across the globe, especially in a COVID-weary US. This activism led to reexaminations of the deaths of other Black people at the hands of the police as well as the artifacts of White supremacy in American culture.
The cases of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others that Lemon covers have several commonalities. The police employed disproportionate force to the situation. Milwaukee police arrested Floyd over a counterfeit $20 bill, while Louisville police obtained a no-knock warrant to search Taylor’s apartment in the middle of the night when they’d already arrested their suspect, her ex-boyfriend. In the case of Jonathan Price, he already resolved the conflict and was just trying to shake the officer’s hand. The police disregarded safety and health protocols, with Officer Derek Chauvin employing an illegal chokehold on Floyd and Louisville police ignoring Taylor’s injuries for over 20 minutes. The public distorted their lives to suit their message, with activists turning them into martyrs and opponents bringing up prior records to justify their deaths.
Their deaths also leave behind grieving families burdened with the new role of movement leader. Many express both anger and numbness, as decades of over-policing Black communities have taught them to expect any law enforcement encounter to end badly. This couples with a lack of accountability. For example, the Louisville police did not suffer direct charges for Breonna Taylor’s death. Black people—particularly Black men—must behave perfectly, while police officers can overreact with little consequence. In addition, families become the subject of media scrutiny. This is overwhelming for some, such as Stevante Clark, who masked his grief by lashing out at Lemon.
Lemon promises his nephew that he will not remain silent about this injustice. He understands how living in redlined neighborhoods with few opportunities for advancement can make some people justify looting. However, he knows the outrage cycle all too well, the stressful conditions that police operate under, and the simplistic solutions that catch fire. Addressing police brutality means addressing the cultural remnants of White supremacy, such as Confederate monuments and the Lost Cause narrative. Lemon urges a greater understanding between Black and White communities, both in general and through measures such as community relations boards. In addition, he promotes celebrating the lives of Black victims for what they are rather than what fits a political narrative, as the public often ignores them until their deaths.
The George Floyd protests led to the arrest of Chauvin and three other officers. In Chauvin’s trial, which took place after the release of This Is the Fire, the judge allowed for live coverage as Chauvin faced charges of unintentional second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter. In a rare occurrence, the Minneapolis police department sided with the prosecution and stated that Chauvin violated his training, while the defense tried to create reasonable doubt by blaming Floyd’s death on a heart condition, illicit drugs, or the exhaust from the police car. The jury convicted Chauvin of all three counts, though future trials and appeals are ongoing. While this trial presented some justice for Floyd’s family, the defense’s case relied heavily on blame-the-victim tactics, and during the heavily publicized trial, another Minneapolis officer fatally shot a Black man after she mistook her gun for a taser. (Wamsley, Laurel. “Derek Chauvin Found Guilty of George Floyd's Murder” NPR, Updated 20 April 2021, https://www.npr.org/sections/trial-over-killing-of-george-floyd/2021/04/20/987777911/court-says-jury-has-reached-verdict-in-derek-chauvins-murder-trial. Accessed 23 July 2021)
Donald Trump
Don Lemon doesn’t see the 45th president as the cause of America’s modern struggle with race but as a symptom of unresolved issues dating to its origins. However, symptoms arise not from a virus but from the body trying to eliminate a disease. Trump often involves himself in or exacerbates many of 2020’s challenges as someone who employs any conspiracy theory to maintain power.
Ideally, the president should be a unifying figure in a time of crisis who would put county over politics. Instead, Trump exacerbated the COVID-19 epidemic by contradicting the CDC and encouraging supporters to flout social distancing guidelines. Rather than let his own COVID-19 diagnosis humble him, he claimed that he survived because he was a “perfect physical specimen” and quickly returned to his previous rhetoric (176). Trump used the George Floyd protests to solidify his position as a champion of law and order and national heritage, condemning activists and seemingly deploying tear gas on Washington D.C. activists for a photo op in front of a church. Despite Trump’s low approval ratings among people of color, he claims that he has been the best president for African Americans since Abraham Lincoln. These statements are primarily for his supporters so that they can claim that they aren’t racist, much as White people often point to Black friends when their behavior comes under fire.
Pundits spilt much ink over whether Trump’s actions, such as frequently shouting down Joe Biden in the 2020 debates, were deliberate acts or signs of mental degradation. However, the former reality TV and tabloid star understands how to manipulate the media and his base. His incendiary Twitter posts, mixing both personal views and administrative declarations, dictated much of the news coverage during his presidency. After protests called for defunding the police, Trump’s campaign issued an advertisement, misleading but emotionally effective, that suggested that this would eliminate 911 services when a person is in danger. On Independence Day, Trump defended Confederate statues in front of Mount Rushmore. As rumors of Trump’s COVID diagnosis swelled on social media, Lemon stalled for time on his show, knowing that Trump wanted to wait until the news shows were on repeats before revealing his diagnosis. Trump didn’t send the tweet until just after Lemon was off the air. Trump’s stream of proof-of-life videos distracted news outlets from other stories, and he quickly returned to his denialist rhetoric.
After discussing visionaries of change, like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Lemon considers Trump a darker visionary who inspires a new generation of bigots and bullies. Lemon notes how attendees at Trump’s rallies, loaded with racist dog whistles, follow him not for his politics but as part of their identity. Republicans, previously convinced that they could control Trump’s impulses, bristle when they must defend his behavior. They are caught between Trump’s control of their base and his demands for loyalty.
Lemon does not discuss Trump’s first impeachment trial, and he finished This Is the Fire after Trump’s loss to Joe Biden but before the January 6, 2021, insurrection. Still protesting Biden’s victory on the day that Congress certified the results, Trump riled up an audience of supporters that afterwards invaded the Capitol building, where they damaged and stole property, chanted for the death of lawmakers, set up gallows, and injured police officers. The Democrat-controlled House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump a second time, but a nearly split Senate declined to either convict Trump or appoint an independent commission on the insurrection. The lax protections against the largely White mob contrasted with the heavy-handed treatment of George Floyd protestors, though a bipartisan report claimed that the security failures were due to hesitancy to conduct a similar crackdown. (Jalonick, Mary Clare. “Senate Report Details Broad Failures around Jan. 6 Attack.” The Associated Press, 8 June 2021, https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-government-and-politics-96054d62518a7be4c3f30231f51beaf5. Accessed 23 July 2021). On his show, Lemon called the Republicans hypocrites for refusing to approve a serious investigation, which reflects their continued dependence on Trump. (Lemon, Don. “Lemon: Just Another Chapter in the Saga of GOP Hypocrisy.” CNN, 19 May 2021, https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2021/05/19/republicans-battle-for-democracy-dons-take-dlt-vpx.cnn. Accessed 23 July 2021).
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