Media

CNN Hosts Discuss Potential Discrimination Against MAGA Hat-Wearers

Derek Hunter Contributor
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CNN hosts Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon came out in favor of allowing businesses to discriminate against people who wear President Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” hats, comparing it to wearing a shirt saying “I hate black people.”

In the discussion, which came about after a San Fransisco area restaurant announced they wouldn’t serve anyone wearing the hat, Cuomo, who attended law school, pondered how discriminating against hat wearers would be any different than Christian bakers who refuse to make cakes for gay weddings.

“That was about refusing service to a group of people who should be a protected class,” Cuomo answered, “and unless you can argue that Trump supporters should be a protected class, I don’t think you have much of an argument on that.”

“I don’t want to fall into the trap of underselling the significance of the trigger of the expression to people,” Cuomo continued. “I think the more appropriate analogy to say is if people were wearing shirts that say ‘I hate black people,’ would he be OK to say, ‘Don’t come into my place with that? And I think most people would be like, ‘Yeah.'”

Lemon responded, “your clothing tells a story about who you are, what you think about, and what you represent.”

“Maybe that hat means the Central Park five to people, maybe it means birtherism to people, maybe it means Mexicans are rapists to people. And so you cannot erase those things from the story of that hat and say ‘I’m just wearing it because I want stronger immigration,'” Lemon continued. “Well, a lot of people want stronger immigration. It just can’t be about what you want it to be about, there are symbols and things in society that you have to take as a whole.”