Shoutout to St. Louis for this perfect meme. https://t.co/5Sj2AWvxBM pic.twitter.com/6L41k3PrKT
— Johnetta Elzie (@Nettaaaaaaaa) April 24, 2023
When news broke Monday that Don Lemon and CNN had parted ways, Johnetta Elzie thought of the perfect image to share: a bunch of people looking at Lemon quizzically as he reported on unrest in Ferguson for CNN.
"It was everywhere in 2014," Elzie says about the image. "It instantly became a meme."
And while Lemon's termination was preceded by damaging allegations (he's been accused of misogyny and "diva-like behavior"), many St. Louisans were skeptical of him as far back as 2014.
"However you feel about Lemon as a journalist before 2014, how he chose to go to St. Louis and what he said and did was largely anti-Black," Elzie says.
Famously, Lemon's reporting from Ferguson after the grand jury failed to indict Darren Wilson included the line: "Obviously there's a smell of marijuana here as well."
"Would he have said that about a group of white teenagers?" Elzie asks.
At the time, several media outlets said the remark was "culturally insensitive." And the moment came just a week or so after Lemon interviewed Joan Tarshis, who had just gone public about being raped by Bill Cosby. She said that he made her perform oral sex.
During the interview, Lemon said: "You — you know, there are ways not to perform oral sex if you didn't want to."
"I was kind of stoned at the time," Tarshis replied, "and quite honestly that didn't even enter my mind. Now I wish it would have."
"Right. Meaning the using of the teeth, right?" Lemon pressed — suggesting that the victim could have stopped the sexual assault.
Lemon later apologized, but the photo of St. Louisans giving him the side eye still resonated. As it again trends this week, it's a good reminder: We were onto him first.
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