CNN’s Don Lemon Gets a History Lesson on the Slave Trade

There is a hilariously large gulf between what progressive TV commentators think they know about history and what they actually know. On occasion, they make the mistake of engaging publicly with somebody who knows what she’s talking about. Don Lemon of CNN offered a textbook example. He decided to ask British commentator Hilary Fordwich a mealy-mouthed question about those who see the wealth of the royal family and ask “for reparations for colonialism.” Characteristically, this was framed in terms of other, unnamed peoples’ raising “legitimate concerns.” Lemon wasn’t even willing to make the argument himself: He just assumed that one would either agree with him or make oneself look like a jerk by dismissing it. This is what happens when you only hang out with people who agree with you, and either treat your half-baked opinions as nuggets of revelation or are the ones feeding them to you.

Fordwich reminded a visibly stunned Lemon of Britain’s history in the slave trade:

Well, I think you’re right about reparations. In terms of if people want it, though, what they need to do is — you always need to go back to the beginning of a supply chain. Where was the beginning of the supply chain? That was in Africa. And when, across the entire world, when slavery was taking place, which was the first nation in the world that abolished slavery? The first nation in the world to abolish it — it was started by William Wilberforce — was the British. In Great Britain, they abolished slavery. 2,000 naval men died on the high seas trying to stop slavery. Why? Because the African kings were rounding up their own people, they had them on cages waiting in the beaches; no one was running into Africa to get them. And I think you’re totally right. If reparations needs to be paid, we need to go right back to the beginning of that supply chain and say, ‘Who was rounding up their own people and having them handcuffed in cages?’ Absolutely. That’s where they should start. And maybe, I don’t know, the descendants of those families who died on the high seas trying to stop the slavery, those families should receive something too, I think.

Watch the whole exchange, which left Lemon blank-eyed and speechless as he swiftly recognized that he was out of his depth:

In fact, the colonization of Africa in particular was largely led by the British campaign to stamp out slavery at the source after 1850 over the objection of African kings. Of course, this does not mean that the British Empire was innocent. It colonized vast tracts of the world, mainly for its own benefit, including the United States; it operated major slave colonies, such as Jamaica, that were even more brutal in this regard than the American colonies; its ships were the largest carriers of slaves across the Atlantic; and while many post-colonial states have benefited from their tutelage in the British system of government and law, there remain ugly legacies in a number of places, from South Africa to the Caribbean.

But, even aside from the inherent immorality of blaming people for the inherited, collective guilt of their ancestors and the ancestors of other people who look like them, this is a reminder that theories of historical reparations are never about righting all of the wrongs of the past. They are about choosing some of those wrongs while ignoring others, and while ignoring the great sacrifices made to do good and undo evil. If Don Lemon had thought about that for five minutes, he’d have realized why this entire line of argument is insincere, unjust, and corrosive. But, then again, if he thought for five minutes before saying things on television, he wouldn’t be Don Lemon.