May 20, 2021
Tre Johnson
THE WASHINGTON POST – Ten days after police shot 22-year-old father Stephon Clark multiple times in Sacramento after his cellphone was presumed to be a gun, CNN anchor Don Lemon interviewed Clark’s brother, Stevante, on his evening news program. Or rather, he attempted to interview Clark.
What the nation saw instead was a tense two-and-half minute exchange between two different worlds: Lemon’s professional, suit-and-tie composure and Clark’s T-shirt and bandanna grief.
At the outset, when Lemon asked how he and his family were holding up, Clark fell silent and rang a bell. Confused, Lemon asked, “What does that mean?” and Clark replied: “Next question.” Several times, Clark chattered with someone off-camera and lashed out at the media for swarming people in grief. Clark was upset when Lemon repeatedly referred to Stephon as “your brother” and demanded of the anchor: “Don Lemon: Say. His. Name.” Lemon spontaneously and vulnerably shared that he understood what Clark was going through because he, too, recently lost a sibling. But the words got lost: Neither man was able to hear the other over the crosstalk, and Lemon ended the segment.