Here are my final thoughts about Tomi Lahren, the host of her own show on TheBlazeTV, called Tomi, and formerly of One America News Network: She is the undisputed queen of spewing out vapid white privilege and racism on our TVs, livestreams, and social media.
Tim Peacock and Peacock Panache:
When not calling for mass genocide of Muslims or advocating for law enforcement to murder members of the Black Lives Matter movement, The Blaze commentator Tomi Lahren can’t help but to demonstrate just how racist and full of white privilege she really is. Case in point: Responding to Colin Kaepernick’s silent protest in sitting out the national anthem, Lahren took to Facebook this week to not only condemn his lack of patriotism for refusing to adhere to jingoistic political norms but to command he leave the country because he didn’t live up to the inflated conservative notion of what a real patriot looks like.
After receiving backlash for her statements, Lahren doubled down inserting even more racism as she argued he should be focusing on more pressing issues like black-on-black crime and the fact that his African-American father left him.
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In the mean time, Lahren will continue sitting atop her pedestal benefitting from the kind of privilege only conservative Christian Caucasians enjoy. When you’re so steeped in racist ideology and white privilege you can’t see or understand widespread oppression, it makes sense that those abstaining from acts of patriotism as a form of protest may seem like “whiners” and “race-baiters.”
Anthony Massey at Huffington Post:
I wonder if Tomi Lahren is even aware of the hypocrisy of suggesting that a country that has systematically and systemically oppressed black Americans throughout its history has no responsibility in black America’s existing oppression. I’m guessing your first task in providing White Privilege at this level is to erase any cognition of the concept of cause and effect to someone like Tomi. I’m sure her youth and middle America naivety helped.
Colin Kaepernick wasn’t blaming anyone for the black community’s problems; he like Jesse Williams, used their platform to take a stand against the unequal and unfair application of force and injustice towards the black community. But I’m guessing you knew that, didn’t you?
I was truly upset about Tomi Lahren’s words until I realized that she is a mere mouthpiece and you are the real author of that dribble. From the beginning of her career, she has benefited from your influence without any acknowledgement that you or your cohorts exist. Tomi explained to the Rapid City Journal in September 2014, that after applying for an internship with One America News Network, the head of broadcasting, Robert Herring asked her what she wanted to do and in her own words, “He looked at me and said, ‘How about your own show?’ My jaw dropped. I was stunned. I just wanted an internship. He gave me a show.”
I have no doubt that Tomi was impressive; but interns don’t routinely get awarded their own show at a network of any size. A woman whose career was facilitated by White Privilege now denies its existence and chastises anyone who dares to speak out against it. Brilliant!
Bailey Marshall at The Odyssey Online:
In her video, she claims that Beyoncé used her performance as a way to show that "black lives matter more" and that, "This isn't about equality, this is about about ramrodding an aggressive political agenda down our throat..."
It is ironic that Tomi Lahren believes she can speak out against the fight for social justice for Blacks, when she is a blonde, White woman, who is completely unaware of the struggles that the Black Americans behind the #BlackLivesMatter movement are facing. #BlackLivesMatter is not a political agenda, it is a movement. It is a movement just as much as the Women's Suffrage movement or the Civil Rights movement in the 60s, and I highly doubt that she would say either of those movements were "aggressive political agendas."
It is likely that Tomi Lahren and others who are against the #BlackLivesMatter movement and are for the #AllLivesMatter "movement" simply do not understand the meaning of #BlackLivesMatter and why it is important.
#BlackLivesMatter/Police Brutality:
She has used her platforms to demonize #BlackLivesMatter and defend police brutality.
Josh Feldman at Mediaite on Tomi guest Tommy Sotomayor’s criticism of #BLM:
Conservative radio host Tommy Sotomayor appeared on BlazeTV with Tomi Lahren yesterday and had some particularly strong words for #BlackLivesMatter.
Sotomayor said, “They’re like the––I hate using the word, but I can’t find another one right now––the ret**ded kids in the class. They can do whatever they want to do and the rest of the world is supposed to let them do it because they don’t know any better.”
On July 7th, 2016, the same night that the 5 Dallas cops were killed protecting protesters, Lahren pushed inflammatory pushed inflammatory lies that #BlackLivesMatter was equivalent to the KKK.
David Zurawik went after her for that tweet.
MMFA:
On July 8, the night of the deadly sniper attack against police officers in Dallas, Texas, Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator for TheBlaze, sent a since-deleted tweet saying “Meet the new KKK, they call themselves ‘Black Lives Matter’ but make no mistake their goals are far from equality.” In two tweets she did not delete, she also blamed the media, President Obama, and Attorney General Loretta Lynch for “validat[ing] and embolden[ing] those that want to wage a war on cops.”
She irresponsibly defends police shooting unarmed African-Americans.
Travis Gettys at The Raw Story:
“Do you want others in your community to incite deadly force and get shot? If not, speak the hell up,” Lahren said, bouncing in her seat for emphasis. “Do you want toddlers caught up in the crossfire, listening to their mother threaten police? If not, speak the hell up. Hate is taught, victimhood is taught.”
Lahren continued thrashing a series of strawman arguments to justify police violence against black suspects.
“The notion that a black suspect can do no wrong and is always the victim is B.S. This doesn’t end well for anyone — anyone,” she said, leaning into the camera, “All lives matter, so speak the hell up before this kind of thing starts happening on a regular basis. Is it worth a hashtag or a riot in your name to lose your life? If not, speak the hell up. You’re killing yourselves and your communities, but you’re so caught up in your victimhood and your self-righteous B.S. you don’t see it. Tell me your gangs, are they worth the loss?”
Beyoncé:
After Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime performance, Lahren falsely branded the singer as a “race baiter”.
David Edwards at The Raw Story:
“First it was hands up, don’t shoot,” Lahren complained during her Tuesday show. “Then it was burning down buildings and looting drug stores, all the way to #OscarSoWhite. And now, even the Super Bowl halftime show has become a way to politicize and advance the notion that black lives matter more.”
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“Good for you, you made headlines. You’re just like President Obama, Jada Pinkett Smith, Al Sharpton and so many others just can’t let America heal, keep ripping off the historical Band-Aid. Why be a cultural leader when you can play the victim, right?”
Lahren added: “White people like your music too, white people buy your songs on iTunes, memorize your lyrics and admire your talent and beauty.”
According to the host, “little white girls want to be like you just as much as little black girls do.”
TMZ:
She insists she's not racist and wants all her haters to know this -- "Don't you dare come at me with your hate and your call to violence and your threats on my life and tell me racism is a one-way street."
Jesse Williams:
She also went after Grey’s Anatomy star Jesse Williams for having the audacity to tell it like it is about the state of the Black/POC community in America. Williams’s “sit down” line was also referring to anti-#BlackLivesMatter arsehats like Lahren.
Matthew Rodriguez at Mic:
Lahren then turns to a moment in Williams' speech where he says that anyone who criticizes Black Lives Matter should have a documented critique of black oppression as well.
"White people, yeah, we do have a record of critique of your oppression," Lahren says in the video. "In fact, do you know how many of our ancestors fought in the Civil War to free your ancestors?" Lahren delivered this line with a straight face after asking what rights black people in America do not have.
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While Lahren seems to critique Williams for his words in the video, it becomes increasingly clear that she's just butthurt about Williams calling out whiteness. Lahren brings it up several times, each time becoming angrier and angrier.
"I won't be apologizing for my whiteness, just as you don't need to apologize for your blackness," the host says.
This delusional bigot also baselessly asserted that Williams’ speech was a “war on cops.”
Colin Kaepernick:
She played the jingoistic “America, love it or leave it” card to smear Colin Kaepernick, whose actions regarding the national anthem are righteous.
Travis Gettys at The Raw Story:
“Colin, if this country disgusts you so much — leave,” she said. “I guarantee there are thousands and thousands of people around the world who would gladly take your spot, because those that don’t live under this flag are banging on the door to get in, not get out. Remember that.”
She uses the white privilege playbook to defame Kaepernick:
“What about the oppression of black people?” Lahren said. “It’s funny — through that six-year career of yours, you choose to start sitting now? What changed to make you so resentful of your country? Please tell me how you’re oppressed.”
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“Is it because the black unemployment rate is double what it is for whites?” Lahren said. “Or the homicide rate, or the dropout rate, or the percentage of minority communities on food stamps?”
Lahren said President Barack Obama had been given a chance to end racial injustice but had been unable or willing to do so.
“Well, we’ve had a black president for almost eight years now — maybe he failed you,” Lahren said. “We also have a black woman in charge of the Justice Department — maybe she failed you, too. Or maybe it’s the liberals, your saviors, which have run your communities into the ground. Where does the buck stop? When will those in black communities take a step back and take some responsi-damn-bility for the problems in black communities. Because it seems to me, blaming white people for all your problems might make you the racist.”
Levi Olson at Contemptor:
Lahren is like a white-nationalist lawyer calling “objection” every time the supposed benevolence of white people is questioned, and she often uses her show to explain how all of America’s racial injustices individually do not prove that America is racist, while steering the jury of Americans impressionable to racial scapegoating’s attention away from the reality that, collectively, our never-ending stream of racial controversies suggests America is not quite post-racial. Lahren often points to the fact that President Obama and other black figures like Kaepernick have been successful, as if that proves that there are no systemic racial obstacles in America. Her show is a battle against accusations of oppression with angry rhetorical oppression.
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I do not know Lahren personally, but her South Dakota upraising certainly does not suggest she had much of a—what is increasingly becoming a polarized, buzz word due to the Alt-Right’s neo-nazi penchant for racial hierarchies—multicultural experience. Her rhetorical political efforts certainly lean toward the Alt-Right’s white-focused ideology of America being a white nation, and especially toward the Alt-Right’s angry resistance to the slightest hints of social injustice. The Alt-Right’s motivation is suspect when populist pushes for societal equality make them feel like victims. If they feel victimized by equality, does it not prove that they do indeed have societal privileges? It is flawed political mathematics because extending equality to those without it is not a zero-sum game like the Alt-Right imagines.
Lahren certainly shows her Alt-Right sympathies when she suggests that ethnic minorities are ungrateful for and undeserving of living in America, that, if one doesn’t like their country exactly as it is, one should leave. Tomi Lahren’s consistent coverage of the allegedly unpatriotic sympathies of social justice figures has turned her into something of a Millennial mix between Sarah Palin and Sean Hannity: angered by the digital generation’s liberalism and tolerance, and a soapbox of pavlovian, white-nationalist empathy for the exaggerated struggle of the ethnic majority, respectively.
Brad Reed at The Raw Story:
“What is the significant change he’s hoping to see, I wonder?” she asked rhetorically. “Maybe it’s a decrease in black-on-black crime. Maybe it’s more two-parent households where black fathers — like his — choose to stick around and raise their children. He should be talking about all of those things, but instead he chooses to parade around in a Fidel Castro shirt and anti-police socks like a damn fool.”
“What is the significant change he’s hoping to see, I wonder?” she asked rhetorically. “Maybe it’s a decrease in black-on-black crime. Maybe it’s more two-parent households where black fathers — like his — choose to stick around and raise their children. He should be talking about all of those things, but instead he chooses to parade around in a Fidel Castro shirt and anti-police socks like a damn fool.”
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She then lectures Kaepernick that the American flag and national anthem are symbols that show Americans can overcome their differences when they stand together — this, despite the fact that she moments earlier had offered to help Kaepernick deport himself from the United States.
“Instead of waking up every day saying, ‘Poor me,’ how about you get up and thank God you can get up!” she thundered.
She played the deflectorial “What about ‘black-on-black crime?’” card. You don’t hear about “Russian-on-Russian crime”, “Korean-on-Korean crime”, “Mexican-on-Mexican crime”, “Arab-on-Arab crime”, “Turkish-on-Turkish crime”, or even “White-on-White” crime at all, so why the “Black-on-Black crime” canard? It’s simple: It plays to racist deflections to smear #BlackLivesMatter and the Black community at large.
John Hendrickson at Esquire:
It was never about Kaepernick.
This video is about Angry White People. Trump's success is about Angry White People. Look at the person who has shared this on your Facebook feed. Surely there is at least one. Is he or she an angry white person?
Here’s the facts that Tomi doesn’t want to acknowledge:
I will close it out with this: You, Ms. Tomi Lahren, are a poisonous moron who deserves to be branded the Patron Queen of White Privilege because of your repeated attacks on African-Americans and people of color. You are disgrace to God and our country’s morals. You and anyone who views you as a hero is a racist (and likely sympathetic to the AltRight), full stop!