*Terry Crews and CNN’s Don Lemon went at it Monday night it over a number of topics, including a debate about whether Black Lives Matter includes (or should include) black on black violence along its original intent on ending police brutality against Black people.
The “America’s Got Talent” host appeared on Monday night’s show to discuss the backlash he’s receiving for his views on the movement, including his tweet Saturday: “Are all white people bad? No. Are all black people good? No. Knowing this reality- I stand on my decision to unite with good people, no matter the race, creed or ideology. … Given the number of threats against this decision-I also decide to die on this hill.”
Lemon asked why it was so important that he “die on this hill.”
Crews responded: “There are some very militant type forces in Black Lives Matter and what I was issuing was a warning.” He continued: “I’ve been a part of different groups and you see how extremes can really go far and go wild. When a warning is seen as detrimental to the movement, how can you ever have checks and balances?”
Crews went on to criticize BLM leaders for saying they will “burn it down” if they don’t get their demands and expressed frustration at how his desire to work with white people has been criticized. “Black people wanting to work with other races are being views as sellouts, they’re being called Uncle Toms, you start to understand you’re actually being controlled,” he continued.
Lemon countered that it’s “easy” to paint movements as extreme, citing Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.
“I don’t want to move from one oppressor to the next,” Crews said. The actor also brought up black on black violence and said there are neighborhoods “held hostage by people, who are literally running [them] with violence and then [claiming] that black lives matter.”
Lemon asked what his point on black on black violence “has to do with equality” and explained that BLM’s focus is police brutality and systemic racism. “If someone started a movement that said ‘cancer matters,’ and then someone came and said ‘why aren’t you talking about HIV’ – it’s not the same thing,” Lemon said.
The interview split Twitter, with some thinking Crews embarrassed himself, and others criticizing Lemon for saying black lives only matter when they are taken by police.
Watch the entire segment below:
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