First off, Tomi Lahren's latest video is supposed to be about how Veterans and active duty servicemen and women (by the thousands) responded with criticism to Lahren's hyper-aggressive rage fit at Colin Kaepernick for sitting during the national anthem. She briefly addresses this and then just continues onto an anti-BLM speech that has nothing to do with #VeteransforKaepernick.
This issue should never have gotten as popular as it did, but I guess Tomi Lahren is an easy trigger when it comes to black people empathizing with their own people.
In this video she gets pretty upset because people are saying mean things to her, threatening her, "misrepresenting" her on Twitter, and best of all, "being immature". That last one's important.
This is quite ironic considering how she called Kaepernick's well put together argument "mouth diarrhea" and calls him a "whiny, indulgent, attention seeking cry baby". Ignoring the fact that Tomi speaks like a kindergartner to her opponents, she implied that he is "attention-seeking", but then goes on to talk about his anti-American attitude; implying that he is making points for something other than attention. If it's just for attention, then why even critique his point?
She goes on to say that we sing the national anthem as a reminder of those who died for this country. No Tomi, we don't. Nearly every country on earth has a national anthem and it is always sung as a sign of pride for the country. Right now, Colin Kaepernick is not proud of where our country is and decided to express that by not standing. I also find it funny that she is appalled at the sentiment that America isn't great, but she supports a candidate who makes it the cornerstone of his campaign.
She then tells Kaepernick to leave the United States if he doesn't like it. Which is pretty weird considering she says she supports his right to speak freely but if he doesn't speak in concordance with her right-wing agenda, he needs to leave.
"What have you done to make it better? What's your contribution?", Lahren asks.
Funny she should ask!
http://www.49ers.com/news/article-2/Colin-Kaeperni...
Colin Kaepernick has annually participated in and donated to a charity called "Camp Taylor" for multiple years, it brings children with heart disease together to play in a gold tournament. Kaepernick has helped raise nearly one million dollars for this organization.
Lahren then accuses him of "blaming white people for back people's problems", which is also pretty funny, because Colin Kaepernick NEVER said that or anything similar.
His full remarks can be found here
She then goes on to attack him for the fact that he is half-white (as if that matters) that he was raised by white parents because his black parents didn't want to raise him. Not sure what her point is here, other than maybe she thinks he ought to thank the ever so gracious white people and their unceasing benevolence towards people of color.
She asks for evidence of police brutality in America, which she believes isn't going on.
For the sake of keeping this article short, here is a little information on Kaepernick's claim.
http://mappingpoliceviolence.org/unarmed/
She then goes on to point out actual levels of inequality in the black community. And who does she point to as the culprit? President Obama. Why? Well, because he's black. She then makes the same claim about Loretta Lynch, who is in charge of the justice department, claiming she failed minorities. Why? Because she's black. I can't make this stuff up if I tried.
She then asks "maybe it's the liberals who have run your communities into the ground?" Another odd claim, considering how most impoverished black neighborhoods and communities (and most poverty in general) lies in the highly conservative Bible belt, managed by Republicans almost entirely. This claim carries no weight because it carries no evidence, as what can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.
She continues and says that it's time black people take some "responsidamnbility" (there's that maturity again) for their actions. Which is quite an extraordinary claim when you think about it. Post-segregation America produced stagnate and increased levels of poverty within African-American communities, and is the worst in the south where the state legislature cuts funding for education, healthcare, benefits, food stamps, and infrastructure while giving tax credits to huge corporations in small districts, allowing the burdens to fall on the poorest percentage of inhabitants.
She then tells him that she has relatives fighting for his right to speak, that he sucks and concludes. Maturity abounds.
In her newest video, she seems to ignore all of the veterans who fought for this country and attacked her, not about the first amendment, but about using the first amendment to address police brutality in America. Tomi Lahren ignores this fact and continues to go on yet another angry rant.
I'll conclude with MY final thoughts on this issue:
The issue of racism goes far beyond Tomi Lahren or Colin Kaepernick. Racism is something as American as apple pie (or scientific illiteracy), We all have our opinions, but one thing is sure, and it is that Tomi Lahren, and the Alt-Right movement as a whole, have set a dangerous precedent for this country, which is scapegoat minorities above all else.
Tomi Lahren will never say so, but she is a virulent racist. To blame the problems of black communities on Loretta Lynch and Barack Obama simply because of the color of their skin is objectively racist.
But going beyond that, the Republican party has criticized the left for making race a key part of it's agenda for years. Now, a new political ideology springs up over the horizon; a far right-wing group with a presidential nominee and many media voices that uses a watered-down concept of white supremacy as it's most attractive quality.
Perhaps instead of turning to these people for information, we should think critically and observe non-partisan evidence of ALL of our claims. Create your politics based on reason and empathy, rather than anger and apathy. I know you can be better than this America.
And deep down, I hope you do too.
