It seems like it's been a long time since people of color have truly come together nationally. So, I figured that we need an easy win. A test run. Nothing should be easier for black people and our allies to do than boycotting Tomi Lahren. For years, Tomi Lahren has used black people and people of color as her bread and butter.
Lahren's platform is based mostly on hating on black celebrities. Instead of praising Queen Bey for uplifting young black girls and women who live in a world where "white is right," she's thrown biased shots at the singer's Lemonade album, stating it wasn't fair for Queen Bey to make an album that excluded white girls. Multiple times, Lahren has rushed to downplay Colin Kaepernick's message for the end of police brutality and killings of black folk by saying he is a "cry-baby," and even went so far as to post a disrespectful photoshopped picture of the former NFL star on Twitter. She's even called the Black Lives Matter movement the "new KKK."
As much as Lahren complains about black people being disruptive, she took to social media to berate black people and victims of sexual assault, who were at the Grammys. Anything black, Lahren has tried to come for it. And each time, a black person has put her in her place. However, it is time for us to stop trying to teach her. She's not breaking off bread to our community, but is helping to break our backs by feeding into the racism in America.
There is no better way to honor our ancestors than to continue their traditions. Black History Month is a time to review the tools black people used to combat bigotry, and no tool was as effective as boycotting. Our use of boycotting has shown those outside of our community that we're unified. While social media has been a way to bring us together, it seems like black millennials do not know how to use boycotts to show the world that we are a community.
With that said, boycotting Tomi Lahren is simple. Block her on social media. Don't watch her on Fox News (it's not like black people really are, anyway). Any engagement with Lahren needs to end. Instead, we, as a community, should engage in platforms that support black people. Angela Rye and Roland Martin both have podcasts that are informative on world news and topics that directly affect the black community. Supporting developing black new sites is also essential to building our community; we need equal platforms to combat the covert racism provided by most news platforms.
For years, white "news anchors" have anchored their positions in journalism by using black people to incite fear and hate in the hearts of racists and people with inherent biases. From Bill O'Reilly, to just about anybody on Fox News, they have made black pain profitable. Lahren hasn't contributed to the black community, but continues to tell us, and others, how we should act, speak and live.
If we can't come together to boycott Lahren, then what hope do we really have? If you're gonna do anything for Black History Month, do this: boycott Tomi Lahren. We need to continue the legacies of past leaders who knew the power of a boycott. Consider Lahren a warm-up. Our path towards true equality should not include giving her any more shine.
