Fox & Friends Segment on Obama-Produced Movie ‘Demonizing White People’ Is Just as Weird and Awkward As You Might Think

Fox & Friends once again took their rundown cues from Libs of TikTok, who insist that the Obama-produced Netflix movie Leave the World Behind is racist against White people. The segment was just as weird and awkward as one might expect.

The first fictional film produced by the Obama production company has an all-star cast including Julia Roberts, Ethan Hawke, and Mahershala Ali, among others. It is based on the 2020 novel of the same name by Rumaan Alam.

The story features a Black and White family forced to live together in a vacation cabin due to some unknown disaster. In one scene in particular, the Ali character says, “I’m asking you to remember that if the world falls apart, trust should not be doled out easily to anyone, especially white people.”

Libs of TikTok wrote on X:

Netflix film called “Leave The World Behind” produced by the Obamas, includes a scene demonizing white people. White people are the only group you’re allowed and celebrated to be racist towards, and it will be put into movies by the most influential people.

The scene in question aired on Fox & Friends with zero context and the admission that all hosts had not seen the movie. Nonetheless, if LibsofTikTok calls the movie racist towards White people, it merits discussion on the right-of-center show.

Lawrence Jones, the only person of color on the show, was featured in the segment. He revealed his perspective by comparing the color barrier of Fox & Friends hosting duties to Barack Obama being elected the first Black president.

He said, “I’ve never been president of the United States, and I don’t know what type of pressure they were under at that moment. But I do know what it feels like to be the first Black man as a co-host on this couch.” His co-hosting the top-rated cable news morning show as the first person of color is notable.

He then curiously used a long-held racial term, “the itis,” to explain that he doesn’t think his fellow hosts are racist for not understanding the term, saying it was a more cultural than racial term. Jones said:

 There was a moment yesterday when we downstairs for the show where I made a cultural reference and no one got it. They got it because they have been around the community in the sense of, you know, playing sports and all that. And they they knew what I was talking about. But no, it never crossed my mind that my co-anchors were racist because they didn’t know the reference that I just didn’t didn’t say I said something about “the itis” yesterday. And I was like, I don’t know what it means to just check out. But I this is the day after you. You’ve never been in culture where you’re you’re tired and who knows? But I would have never suggested that the people that we all our families know each other. We love on each other because y’all didn’t know that.

“The itis” comes from the term “n-word-itis,” which describes being lazy and lethargic, like after having a big meal. It’s listed number one on Insider’s “12 racist and offensive phrases that people still use all the time,” which explains:

More commonly known now as a “food coma,” this phrase directly alludes to the stereotype of laziness associated with African Americans. According to Mic, it stems from a longer (and incredibly offensive) version — n—-ritis.

Modern vernacular dropped the racial slur, leaving a faux-scientific diagnosis for the tired feeling you get after eating way too much food.

In fairness to Jones, he wasn’t saying the term offensively, and the phrase was made more popular when Dave Chappelle referred to it during a sketch. Still, saying that he didn’t blame his co-hosts for being racist for not knowing a term with clearly racist origins is a unique take, but the spirit of his commentary was clear and came with good intentions.

Jones eventually led the discussion back to the military — where, in his view, no one sees color. Steve Doocy made the most Steve Doocy reference imaginable, giving his colleagues a pass for not knowing Make Room for Daddy, the Danny Thomas television show from the 50’s.

Fox & Friends deserves some level of credit for trying to have a frank and candid conversation about race relations, but this wasn’t really that. This was a segment about how the Obamas are ostensibly racist against White folk, evidenced by a 10-second line in a feature-length movie that notorious troll LibsofTikTok flagged.

They really should know better.

Watch above via Fox News.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.