George Floyd death: Don Lemon calls out celebs including Oprah for 'sitting in your mansions and doing nothing'
CNN anchor Don Lemon has called out Hollywood bigwigs, including Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, for keeping silent over George Floyd’s death by a police officer and the subsequent protests. Lemon has accused the A-listers of doing “nothing” while the country is burning.
While covering the intense protests on Saturday night, May 30, in cities like Minneapolis, where Floyd was killed, New York City and Los Angeles, the 54-year-old called out the stars for their silence. “What about Hollywood? Strangely quiet,” the ‘CNN Tonight’ host said during a conversation with Rev. William Barber. “I see them on Twitter saying, ‘Oh, I’m loving what Don’s doing’ … but they got to do more than that. Especially Black celebrities and Black leaders — and white celebrities,” Lemon said as he continued his emotional monologue while CNN’s news feed displayed a Starbucks store in Los Angeles set ablaze.
“Why aren’t they helping these young people? These young people are out there standing on the platform … the edge of the abyss by themselves. Yes, I’m calling you out. You can be mad at me all you want. You’re sitting there and you’re watching TV and you’re bitching about it and you’re saying, ‘oh my god, I can’t believe this is happening. What’s going on?'” he added.
Not only this, but the 54-year-old got more personal while calling out the celebrities as he said “stop texting me and asking me, ‘oh my god, Don, what is happening to our country?’ Get on television and do something and help these young people instead of sitting in your mansions and doing nothing and have some moral courage and stop worrying about your reputation and your brand.”
Lemon also decided to name a few of his celebrity friends. “By me calling out your name, it doesn’t mean I’m calling you out. It means I love you, Ellen [DeGeneres]. It means I love you, Oprah,” the journalist said, adding: “And I know they give millions of dollars to charity every year.” Lemon clarified he called them out as he stated America needs their “visibility in helping to speak out for these young kids. And you may be doing something that I don’t know about, and if you are then I apologize.”
The Louisiana-native then went on to add a few more names from Hollywood in his Saturday speech as he said, “I want to see you, Tracee Ellis Ross. I want to see you, Tyler Perry. I want to see you, Drake. I want to see you my friend, Anthony Anderson. I love you … I want to see you, Diddy. I want to see you Jane Fonda, who I love and respect.”
Lemon noted that Beyonce had called for justice for George Floyd in an Instagram post. “Beyoncé released a message, you can’t?” he said, adding, "If you're not going to do it now, when are you going to do it?... Stop making excuses."
Soon after the speech, Lemon’s name became a trending topic on Twitter with people cheering him up for his honesty. “Don Lemon is absolutely right. We live in a celebrity-driven culture. Use your platform wisely and stand up for your people,” said one Twitter user. “Don Lemon is 100% correct in calling out Hollywood! I’ve been asking since Trump was elected, where is everyone? What is big Hollywood so afraid of? I used to get shit for asking this question. Where is big Hollywood while the people who made them are struggling for their lives?” wrote another one.