The expert pointed to slave traders.
QUICK FACTS:
- In a widely shared clip from CNN’s coverage of the queen’s passing, British royals expert Hilary Fordwich surprised CNN presenter Don Lemon into silence about reparations.
- Fordwich made headlines with her claim that African slave owners owe “reparations” rather than the British Empire.
- “Some people want to be paid back and members of the public are wondering, ‘Why are we suffering when you are, you have all this vast wealth?’ Those are legitimate concerns,” Lemon stated.
- Fordwich responded, saying, “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 the supply chain. Where was the beginning of the supply chain?”
- “That was in Africa,” she continued. “Across the entire world, when slavery was taking place, which was the first nation in the world that abolished slavery?” Fordwich asserted that it was “the British,” adding that in Great Britain “they abolished slavery. 2,000 naval men died on the high seas trying to stop slavery.”
SOCIAL MEDIA RESPONSE:
- “HOLY MOLY DON LEMON WAS *NOT* READY FOR THIS,” wrote National Pulse editor-in-chief Raheem Kassam, which was echoed by conservative personality Former Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik who tweeted, “Don Lemon was NOT ready.”
- “Dilbert” comics creator Scott Adams mocked Lemon’s unenthused facial expressions saying, “His face at the end is the payoff.”
- Independent journalist Tim Pool tweeted about the exchange saying, “Lol at Don lemons face hearing this s—.”
- Conservative personality Former Republican congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik tweeted, “Don Lemon was NOT ready.”
- Conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey wrote, “Ok this is amazing. Don Lemon brings up the need for slave reparations from the royal family. His guest says, yes, people should be demanding reparations… from the African leaders who sold them into slavery.”
- CPAC chair Matt Schlapp asked, “And how about reparations to those who fought alongside former slaves to abolish American slavery? According [to] Lemon’s logic Democrats would need to pay reparations to Republicans. Kinda like it.”
BACKGROUND:
- The push for reparations isn’t a new one, and last year Democrat representatives in the House were looking for a way to gain reparations from the United States government for black Americans.
- Prior to 2021, the Institute of the Black World 21st Century was requesting reparations publically in 2018, saying that for decades people of African descent have been calling for monetary reparations.
