'SPELL MUST BE BROKEN’
CNN’s Don Lemon tells The View that kids must be taught Jesus was ‘black or brown’
CNN HOST Don Lemon has insisted children need to be taught that Jesus was a Black or brown person, as part of a cultural shift in our education system.
"I think we should start with a true depiction of what Jesus looked like," Lemon said on The View.
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"And that is as a black or brown person, rather than someone who looks like a white hippy from Sweden or Norway," adding once this is understood, it will help break the "spell" of racism in the country.
The anchor was promoting his new book, 'This is the Fire,' on the talk show when co-host Meghan McCain asked him about his inspiration from James Baldwin, with Lemon saying the title came from Baldwin's novel 'The Fire Next Time.'
Like Baldwin advocated for, Lemon said "we have to come together and be willing to fix this thing and I do believe that."
But the CNN host said he wrote the book after this summer's fervent protests against police violence based on racial discrimination.
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"People ask me all the time, especially young mothers, especially my friends who are young white mothers, they say what can I do? How can I fix this after George Floyd?" Lemon said. "I don’t have the vocabulary to teach my kids. What can I do?"
He said that this prompted him to write the book, and added that there needed to be a cultural shift in what is being taught to children in the United States.
"I thought about that a lot and I offered some advice. And that’s what the book is about," Lemon said. "That's one of the reasons I wrote the book."
"But I really do think that we have to start, as I said earlier in the show, we have to start teaching the true history of this country, the history that African-Americans brought to this country."
He added that history and cultural teaching must also be brought to how religion is taught to children.
"And we also have to start being realistic about God and the Bible," Lemon added. "And If you are a person of faith in this country, and we know America is built on faith and religious freedom, a good way of starting is to present the true identity of Jesus."
However, that depiction of Jesus is incorrect, Lemon said.
"And I think we should start with a true depiction of what Jesus looked like and put that in your home, either a Black Jesus or a Brown Jesus," he added.
"Because we know Jesus looked more like a Muslim or someone who is dark, rather than someone who is blonde or a blonde-looking carpenter."
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The co-host continued, saying the learning comes from your children asking who is this framed man, with parents saying "this is Jesus, Jesus was middle eastern. Bethlehem was not in Sweden."
"And so Jesus does not look like the popular depiction we have in our churches and in our homes and that we see all over the media," he ended. "And I think that's a good place to start."
Once this is understood, Lemon concludes, "then we can come to a true reality about what America really is and then try to figure out how we fix this issue of racism in the country. It is a spell that must be broken."
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