Elon Musk voiced his belief that present-day society “blames a lot of things” on race and that race shouldn’t be a “constant subject” in a highly anticipated interview with Don Lemon.
The hour-long interview includes several wide-ranging questions about Musk’s company, Tesla, the social media platform now called X under Musk’s ownership, as well as the billionaire’s thoughts on DEI initiatives, hate speech, and racism.
When it comes to racism, “we need to move on” and “treat people like people,” Musk told Lemon.
“If we keep talking about [racism] nonstop it will never go away. If we keep making it the central thing, it will never go away,” Musk said. “We want to get away from making everything a race or a gender or whatever issue and just treat people like individuals.”
The interview went viral on X and other social media platforms, prompting debate online.
“I think we need to move on. Typical!!” one X user wrote.
“Says the rich White person who doesn’t experience racism. It is easy to say move on from something if it doesn’t impact you or you have no empathy for someone who is impacted,” wrote Facebook user Carlton Logan. “People will stop talking about racism when we no longer are subjected to it.”
In addition to colorblindness, Musk also said that every person at some point in history, including white people, “has been a slave,” stating, “It’s just a question of when, was it more recent or less recent?”
Musk hasn’t shied away from posting his thoughts or promoting other controversial posts on subjects like DEI and race. In the past, he has posted that “DEI must DIE” and complained that diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts are discriminatory.
He endorsed a tweet a few months ago suggesting that HBCU students have lower IQs, which should bar them from becoming pilots.
In his interview with Lemon, he suggested that vocational standards are being lowered in different industries to make room for minority employees, including in the medical field, sparking a firestorm online and drawing backlash from several civil rights groups.
“I think we should treat people according to their skills and their integrity and that’s it,” Musk told Lemon.
Musk denied claims that hate speech has risen on the platform, despite the studies Lemon mentioned that show otherwise.
Lemon asked Musk if he and X are responsible for moderating hate speech. Musk answered that the platform has a “responsibility to adhere to the law and be transparent about when things are shown and why they’re shown,” but called moderation a “propaganda word” for censorship.
When asked about the federal EEOC lawsuit against Tesla alleging widespread racial harassment against Black employees at the Tesla plant in Fremont, California, Musk said, “I don’t believe that is true” and that he “never saw” any racist behavior while he was at the facility.
“If there’s over 20,000 people in one building, is everyone going to behave perfectly? No. Did I see any situations that I thought were improper? I did not,” Musk said.
“The Don Lemon Show” was created to be part of the X’s “exclusive media partnerships” and was supposed to air a few times a week on the platform. However, Lemon said Musk ended their partnership just hours after their interview, stating that Musk was “upset” about how their discussion unfolded.
