At the beginning of last year, a new household name emerged and was ignored, Tomi Lahren. There was a Twitter exchange between Lahren, a conservative commentator, and artists Wale. Lahren was upset that Wale had mispronounced her name in a song entitled “Smile.” This exchange triggered a social trend of addressing Lahren by anything but her name. Since then, Lahren has continued to voice her controversial opinions.This was not the first time Lahren has been attacked for her controversial statements. One of her earlier attacks on social culture was in 2013, criticizing Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s Super Bowl halftime performance which had many hints of paying homage to the Black Panthers. She said of Knowles-Carter’s husband, he “was a drug dealer. For 14 years, he sold crack cocaine. Talk about protecting black neighborhoods. Start at home.”[1] This not only sparked controversy because of avid fans of both Beyoncé and Jay-Z defending the two, but also because people believed that Lahren’s comments also had the subliminal meaning that she also has negative views of the Black Panthers.Lahren took to Twitter to compare the “Black Lives Matter” movement to The Ku Klux Klan, saying that “their goals are far from equality.”[2] Aside from leaving many people highly confused, she managed to offend them at the same time. People claimed that there is no way to find the correlation between the two groups.More recently, Lahren posted a video of herself listening to the song “Bank Account” by 21 Savage. People found this problematic as Lahren is well known for her subliminal disapproval of black culture (although she claims she is not racist), however she is seen in the video partaking in the culture she often criticizes.Another of Lahren’s most infamous statements includes her criticism of Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling during the national anthem, calling him “a whiny, indulgent, attention-seeking crybaby” [3].Aside from the fact that she has blatantly called out millennials for being lazy and that they complain too much, because one of Lahren’s platforms of choice is Twitter-- a website and app dominated by millennials-- she has found much disapproval from younger people. Going back to the misspelling of her name, people also claim that millennials’ constant teasing of Lahren on Twitter is childish, unnecessary, and that it ultimately achieves nothing. What do you guys think? Feel free to elaborate on any of these instances, or even add some of your own (we all know there’s many more controversial instances involving Lahren than the ones I have mentioned).
[1] Bleznak, Becca. “Tomi Lahren: Controversial Moments From the Fox News Star.” TV Cheat Sheet, 2018. 2 March 2018. https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tomi-lahren-controversial-moments-from-the-fox-news-star.html/?a=viewall
[2] Bleznak, Becca. https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tomi-lahren-controversial-moments-from-the-fox-news-star.html/?a=viewall[3] Bleznak, Becca. https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/tomi-lahren-controversial-moments-from-the-fox-news-star.html/?a=viewall
MLK in context - an exploration of King's life and work from an historical perspective
Friday, March 2, 2018
What in Tony/Terry/Tessa/Tracy Tarnation? Tomi Lahren's Ongoing Conflict with Millennials
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Lahren is a hugely problematic figure in pop culture, particularly internet culture, and it is difficult for me to not immediately write her off as a racist troll. But at the same time, she has a decently-sized base of supporters who support her for a number of reasons. Some of them rally behind her as a champion of free speech (though it is often hateful, ignorant and demeaning toward other people's free speech), while others agree with her message that racial and other minority groups are over-expressive and the creators of problems. What I'm most interested in is how to address these people, the Lahren supporters. Simply calling them racist does nothing to address their problematic views, and gives them a sort of out as they can understand me as just another liberal name-caller. But at the same time, listening to their hateful views angers me. I don't really have a great solution, this is just something that I am continually trying to answer in an America that seems to be increasingly more partisan and less willing to listen to one another.
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