

But with angry, vengeful words. Don Lemon, a news anchorman for CNN, issued what he hailed as "No Talking Points" on five ills that plague much of the black community. Lemon was following up on comments made by Fox talk show host Bill O'Reilly, who recently said on "The O'Reilly Factor," "Raised without much structure, young black men often reject education and gravitate towards the street culture, drugs, hustling, gangs. Nobody forces them to do that, again, it is a personal decision."

Lemon agreed on his show, saying in "No Talking Points" No. 5, "Pull up your pants. Some people, a lot of them black, gave me flak for saying that recently on 'The Wendy Williams Show.' If you're sagging, I mean — I think it's your self-esteem that is sagging and who you are as a person is sagging. Young people need to be taught respect and there are rules."

Lemon and O'Reilly are right, even though they have been lambasted by many in the black community. Social media, of course, blew up, with Lemon the target of much vitriol.

One anti-Lemon attack on Twitter went like this: "Next racial draft we're giving @DonLemonCNN to the whites. I don't even wanna trade him for anyone. Just give him away."

Don Lemon tells young black dudes to pull up their pants and people treat him as if he cursed out someone in multiple languages. Some people call him a Republican turncoat. Since when did telling a young, immature black teenager to pull up his pants become viewed as conservative politics? You're suddenly labeled as a traitor over ugly underwear.

These 2013 views are mind-boggling. You are viewed as an Uncle Tom if you ask black kids to display even a modicum of decorum. Now you know why an American-born black cab driver in Washington D.C. once adamantly and unabashedly told me that he refused to pick up any black male he perceived as under age 30, and especially if they exhibited what he termed "the thug look."

That means the saggy pants, which we happen to see in prisons across America because belts often are prohibited for convicts. The black gangsta rappers and goofy-wannabe-thug Justin Bieber get paid for looking stupid with this anti-social dress code. But the 15-year-old black kid on the violent South Side of Chicago, what does he get out of showing his private parts — nothing.

This is a question for the quiz show "Jeopardy!" — Why would anyone want to dress like a convict?

Like that aforementioned cab driver, think about this: If you look like a convict, then you might be a convict. Hey, this is basic logic. This self-criminalization by young black males hurts thems and the innocent, simply by association.

Lemon continued with "No Talking Points" No. 4 — Stop using the n-word.

He was heavily criticized for that, too, which makes no sense.

The hypocrisy in the black community over the n-word is totally idiotic. Much of the black community is in a fractured state over this troublesome word: Many eagerly want to say the n-word publicly with impunity; others say don't use it under any circumstances.

The bottom line is simply this: Using the word is insulting to the civil rights movement. All of those marchers and concerned citizens — black and white — who died in the 1960s, were punched in the mouth, lynched by the Ku Klux Klan, bitten by German shepherd attack dogs are probably turning over in their graves over this sad state of affairs. These people marched to convince others NOT to call them the n-word.

Now, many black people want to be called the n-word. There's truly no explanation for this 21st-century lunacy and degradation that's perpetuated by the misguided philosophy of the hip-hop music culture.

On No. 3, Lemon again pummeled political correctness when he said, "Respect where you live. Start small by not dropping trash, littering in your own communities. I've lived in several predominantly white neighborhoods in my life, I rarely, if ever, witnessed people littering. I live in Harlem now, it's an historically black neighborhood, every single day I see adults and children dropping their trash on the ground when a garbage can is just feet away. Just being honest here."

One would think this point wouldn't require much analysis. It's self-explanatory. Just saying.

No. 2 — "Finish school," Lemon stated. "You want to break the cycle of poverty? Stop telling kids they're acting white because they go to school or they speak proper English. A high school dropout makes on average $19,000 a year, a high school graduate makes $28,000 a year, a college graduate makes $51,000 a year. Over the course of a career, a college grad will make nearly $1 million more than a high school graduate. That's a lot of money."

Again, one would think this point would be logical and self-explanatory. Except education isn't a valued commodity in many parts of the black community. Critics can rail reproachfully against this notion all they want, but it's simply true. Period.

And No. 1 — "Probably the most important," Lemon preached, "just because you can have a baby, it doesn't mean you should. Especially without planning for one or getting married first. More than 72 percent of children in the African-American community are born out of wedlock. That means absent fathers. And the studies show that lack of a male role model is an express train right to prison and the cycle continues. So, please, black folks, as I said if this doesn't apply to you, I'm not talking to you. Pay attention to and think about what has been presented in recent history as acceptable behavior. Pay close attention to the hip-hop and rap culture that many of you embrace. A culture that glorifies everything I just mentioned, thug and reprehensible behavior, a culture that is making a lot of people rich, just not you. And it's not going to."

Lemon's Five Points sound ultra-fair. He merely stated the obvious regarding the devolution in some parts of the black community. Lemon's points also go to state of mind — If you don't care about yourself, then who the hell else is going to care about you.


No logical person can attack that.

But many will for the sake of political correctness — which is just as dangerous of an enemy to black folk as those guns and bullets.