Don Lemon – This Is the Fire: Book Review & Audio Summary

Book Info

• Book name: This Is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends About Racism
• Author: Don Lemon
• Genre: History & Politics, Biographies & Memoirs, Social Sciences & Humanities
• Pages: 384
• Published Year: 2021
• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
• Language: English

Audio Summary

Synopsis

In This Is the Fire, CNN anchor Don Lemon delivers a raw and urgent examination of racism in America, sparked by the 2020 murder of George Floyd and the nationwide protests that followed. Drawing on James Baldwin’s prophetic warning about America’s racial reckoning, Lemon weaves together personal experiences, historical context, and contemporary analysis to explore how the country arrived at this critical moment. Through stories of enslavement, his own encounters with prejudice, and the failures of leadership during the Trump era, Lemon argues that America stands at a crossroads—facing either continued racial injustice or the possibility of genuine transformation through forgiveness, education, and coalition-building across marginalized communities.

Key Takeaways

• George Floyd’s murder in 2020 represented a turning point in America’s racial consciousness, forcing many to confront the reality of systemic racism
• America’s racist structures were deliberately created through enslavement and continue to perpetuate harm through both overt discrimination and subtle microaggressions
• Real change requires uncomfortable conversations, coalition-building across marginalized groups, white people educating themselves, and Black people finding space for forgiveness while remembering history
• The Trump presidency, while damaging, served to expose the depth of America’s racism problem in ways that made it impossible to ignore
• Moving forward demands replacing systems built on greed and cruelty with ones founded on kindness, community, and higher moral values

My Summary

When the Fire Finally Came

I’ll be honest—reading Don Lemon’s This Is the Fire felt like sitting down with someone who’s been carrying a weight for years and finally decided to lay it all out on the table. As someone who’s spent decades analyzing books and stories, I found myself drawn to how Lemon uses James Baldwin’s prophetic 1963 warning as his framework. Baldwin wrote in The Fire Next Time that if America didn’t address its racial injustice, it would eventually face an apocalyptic reckoning—a fire.

According to Lemon, that fire arrived in the summer of 2020.

The eight minutes and forty-six seconds of George Floyd’s murder, captured on video for the world to see, ignited nearly 5,000 protests across the United States. This wasn’t the first time Black Lives Matter had mobilized, but it was different. The visceral nature of watching a man slowly lose his life under a police officer’s knee made denial nearly impossible. Even people who’d previously remained silent or skeptical found themselves confronting uncomfortable truths about American society.

What struck me most about Lemon’s analysis is his counterintuitive take on the Trump presidency. While many saw those years as purely destructive, Lemon argues they were necessary—like symptoms that finally force you to acknowledge an underlying disease. Trump’s racist rhetoric and careless leadership during the pandemic didn’t create America’s racism problem; they exposed it in ways that demanded attention.

The Deliberate Architecture of Oppression

One of the most powerful sections of the book examines how America’s racist system wasn’t an accident or an unfortunate byproduct of history—it was intentionally designed. Lemon takes readers to the Whitney Plantation in Louisiana, where records show the growth of enslavement from just 10 people in 1712 to 20,000 by century’s end.

The violence used to maintain this system wasn’t random or excessive—it was calculated. When Charles Deslondes led the 1811 German Coast Uprising, his punishment was methodical: hands cut off, both legs shot to prevent escape, then burned alive. This wasn’t cruelty for cruelty’s sake; it was a deliberate message designed to maintain a system that extracted wealth from Black bodies for white economic benefit.

Reading this section reminded me why understanding history matters so deeply. We can’t address current racial inequities without acknowledging their roots. The system wasn’t broken—it was working exactly as designed. And those design principles continue to influence American society today.

Lemon introduces the concept of “the black box”—the low expectations and limitations that white supremacist ideology places on Black people. He experienced this firsthand when, after being elected class president in high school, white parents complained about “some black kid” getting the position. These aren’t isolated incidents from a bygone era; they’re ongoing realities that shape Black Americans’ daily experiences.

The Weight of Microaggressions

As someone who’s interviewed countless authors and public figures over the years, I’ve heard many stories about microaggressions, but Lemon’s personal accounts bring fresh urgency to the topic. Microaggressions are those small, often unintentional discriminations that are difficult to call out but accumulate like papercuts over time.

What makes microaggressions particularly insidious is their deniability. When someone clutches their purse tighter as a Black man approaches, or when a colleague expresses surprise at a Black person’s eloquence, or when someone asks to touch a Black woman’s hair—these moments are individually dismissible but collectively exhausting.

Lemon’s framework helps explain why these seemingly minor incidents matter so much. They’re not separate from the system of enslavement or Jim Crow—they’re its modern manifestation. The same ideology that justified brutal violence now expresses itself through assumptions, low expectations, and casual dehumanization.

In my own work running Books4soul.com, I’ve become more conscious of how these dynamics play out even in literary spaces. Which authors get major publicity? Whose stories are considered “universal” versus “niche”? Who gets the benefit of the doubt when their work is challenging or experimental? These questions don’t have simple answers, but Lemon’s book reinforces why we need to keep asking them.

The Uncomfortable Path Forward

What I appreciate most about This Is the Fire is that Lemon doesn’t offer easy solutions or comfortable platitudes. Instead, he presents a challenging roadmap that requires sacrifice and discomfort from everyone involved.

For white Americans, the path forward means genuine education—not performative allyship or surface-level gestures, but deep engagement with uncomfortable truths about American history and their own complicity in racist systems. It means sitting with the discomfort of recognizing unearned advantages and working to dismantle them.

For Black Americans, Lemon suggests a difficult balance: remembering history while making space for forgiveness. This isn’t about forgetting or excusing past and present wrongs, but about not allowing justified anger to become an obstacle to progress. It’s a nuanced position that some readers might find controversial, but I think Lemon earns the right to make this argument through his unflinching examination of racism’s costs.

Perhaps most importantly, Lemon calls for coalition-building across marginalized groups. This means Black communities confronting homophobia, LGBTQ+ communities addressing racism, women’s movements examining how they’ve excluded women of color, and all marginalized groups working together rather than competing for limited space at the table.

Applying These Lessons to Daily Life

Reading about systemic racism and historical injustice can feel overwhelming—so distant from our daily routines that we’re not sure how to translate awareness into action. But Lemon’s framework offers several practical starting points.

First, we can examine our own assumptions and reactions. When you see a Black person in a professional setting, what’s your immediate assumption about their role? When you hear about a crime, what image forms in your mind? These split-second reactions reveal internalized biases that we all carry, regardless of our conscious beliefs. Noticing them is the first step toward changing them.

Second, we can educate ourselves beyond what’s comfortable. This means reading books by Black authors, watching films that center Black experiences, and learning history that wasn’t taught in school. It means seeking out perspectives that challenge our worldview rather than confirm it.

Third, we can speak up when we witness racism—whether overt or subtle. This is especially important for white people, who can challenge racist comments from other white people without the emotional toll and potential danger that Black people face when doing the same.

Fourth, we can support Black-owned businesses, artists, and creators. Economic power matters, and choosing where to spend money is one way to redistribute resources and challenge systems built on extraction from Black communities.

Finally, we can vote and advocate for policies that address systemic inequities—from criminal justice reform to educational funding to housing policy. Individual actions matter, but systemic problems require systemic solutions.

The Strengths of Lemon’s Approach

What makes This Is the Fire particularly effective is Lemon’s willingness to be vulnerable. As a successful CNN anchor, he could have written a detached analysis of racism in America. Instead, he shares his own experiences with discrimination, his struggles with the “black box” of low expectations, and his complex feelings about America’s racial reckoning.

This personal approach makes abstract concepts concrete. When Lemon describes being treated as “some black kid” despite his accomplishments, readers understand the psychological weight of racism in ways that statistics alone can’t convey.

I also appreciate how Lemon situates 2020 within a broader historical context. Too often, discussions of racism focus exclusively on either historical injustices or current events, missing the through-line that connects them. By moving between the violence of enslavement, his own experiences growing up, and the murder of George Floyd, Lemon shows how America’s racial problems are both deeply rooted and urgently contemporary.

The invocation of James Baldwin is particularly apt. Baldwin remains one of America’s most incisive writers on race, and his prediction of a coming fire gives Lemon’s book both literary weight and prophetic resonance. For readers unfamiliar with Baldwin’s work, this book serves as an excellent introduction to his ideas.

Where the Book Falls Short

That said, This Is the Fire isn’t without limitations. Some readers, particularly those already well-versed in critical race theory and Black history, may find the historical sections somewhat introductory. Lemon is writing for a broad audience, which means covering ground that more specialized texts have explored in greater depth.

Additionally, while Lemon’s call for forgiveness is thoughtfully presented, some readers—particularly Black readers who’ve experienced significant racial trauma—may find this framework challenging or even problematic. The burden of forgiveness has historically fallen on the oppressed rather than oppressors, and asking Black Americans to make space for forgiveness while white supremacy remains structurally intact is a big ask.

The book also focuses primarily on Black-white racial dynamics, with less attention to the experiences of other racial and ethnic groups in America. While this focus is understandable given Lemon’s personal experience and the specific context of the 2020 protests, a more comprehensive examination of race in America would need to address the full complexity of the country’s racial landscape.

Finally, some readers may find Lemon’s position as a mainstream media figure limits his analysis. While he’s critical of American racism, his proposed solutions work within existing systems rather than imagining more radical alternatives. Readers looking for revolutionary approaches to dismantling white supremacy may find his framework too moderate.

How This Fits in the Broader Conversation

This Is the Fire joins a crowded field of recent books examining racism in America, including Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste, Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility. Each brings a different perspective and approach.

Compared to Wilkerson’s Caste, which draws parallels between American racism, India’s caste system, and Nazi Germany, Lemon’s book is more personal and immediate, focused specifically on the American context and recent events. Where Wilkerson offers a sweeping comparative framework, Lemon provides an intimate ground-level view.

Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist presents a more systematic framework for understanding and combating racism, with clear definitions and principles. Lemon’s approach is less academic and more conversational—he’s talking to friends rather than constructing a theoretical framework.

DiAngelo’s White Fragility focuses specifically on white people’s defensive reactions to discussions of racism. Lemon addresses a broader audience and covers more ground, though with perhaps less depth on any single aspect.

What distinguishes Lemon’s contribution is his unique position as a Black, gay man with a prominent media platform. He brings perspectives that aren’t always centered in discussions of racism, and his insider view of how these issues play out in mainstream media adds valuable context.

Questions Worth Sitting With

After finishing This Is the Fire, I found myself returning to several questions that Lemon raises either explicitly or implicitly. These don’t have easy answers, but they’re worth sitting with.

How do we balance the need to remember historical injustices with the call to forgive and move forward? Is forgiveness even the right framework, or does it place unfair burdens on those who’ve been harmed?

What does it mean to truly dismantle racist systems rather than simply reform them? Are the kinds of changes Lemon proposes sufficient, or do they tinker at the edges of structures that need to be completely reimagined?

How do we build coalitions across different marginalized groups when those groups have sometimes perpetuated harm against each other? What does accountability look like within progressive movements?

These questions don’t have simple answers, and that’s precisely why they’re important. Real change requires sitting with complexity and resisting the urge to reach for easy solutions.

Why This Book Matters Now

As I write this, we’re several years removed from the summer of 2020, and it’s worth asking whether that moment of possibility Lemon describes has translated into lasting change. Some progress has been made—increased awareness, some policy reforms, more diverse representation in various fields. But systemic racism persists, and the backlash against racial justice efforts has been fierce.

This makes Lemon’s book perhaps even more relevant now than when it was published. The initial surge of energy and attention has faded, and many people have returned to their pre-2020 routines. This Is the Fire serves as a reminder that the work of dismantling racism isn’t a sprint but a marathon—and that the fire Baldwin predicted doesn’t go out just because we stop paying attention.

For readers who participated in protests or felt moved by George Floyd’s murder but aren’t sure what to do next, this book offers both context and direction. For those who’ve been fighting against racism for years or decades, it provides validation and a framework for understanding this particular moment in a longer struggle.

A Conversation, Not a Conclusion

What I appreciate most about This Is the Fire is that it doesn’t pretend to have all the answers. Lemon is honest about the enormity of the challenge and the uncertainty of the outcome. He’s not selling a simple solution or promising that everything will be okay if we just follow his advice.

Instead, he’s inviting us into a conversation—one that’s uncomfortable and necessary, challenging and hopeful. He’s asking us to sit with complexity, to examine our own complicity, and to imagine what a truly equitable America might look like.

As someone who’s spent years reading and writing about books, I’ve come to believe that the best ones don’t just inform us—they change how we see the world and our place in it. This Is the Fire has that potential. It won’t tell you everything you need to know about racism in America, but it will make you think differently about what you thought you knew.

I’d love to hear from others who’ve read this book. Did Lemon’s framework resonate with you, or did you find it limited? How has your thinking about racism and racial justice evolved over the past few years? What actions have you taken, and what obstacles have you encountered? These conversations—honest, uncomfortable, ongoing—are how we move forward together.