Politicians on racism in America

Brut America

Is America a racist country? These politicians had very different answers...

Transcript

00:00America is not a racist country.

00:04Racism is real in America, and it has always been.

00:12No, I don't think America is a racist country,

00:15but we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country.

00:18It does not help to heal our country, to ignore the realities of that.

00:22Our systems are not racist. America is not a racist country.

00:27We just elected a two-term African-American president.

00:30The vice president is of African-American Indian descent.

00:34We've all seen the knee of injustice on the neck of black Americans.

00:38Now's our opportunity to make some real progress.

00:42And we won't ignore what our intelligence agencies have determined,

00:45the most lethal terrorist threat to the homeland today.

00:48White supremacy is terrorism.

00:52In much of the Democratic Party, it's now fashionable

00:55to say that America is racist.

00:58That is a lie.

01:01America is not a racist country.

01:04We know that racism is something that is systemic and structural,

01:07and it persists across all issues.

01:10We are family. We are all in this together.

01:14And we get to live in the greatest country on earth,

01:19the country where my grandfather, in his 94 years,

01:23saw his family go from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.

01:29You look at history, you see that the fundamental equality

01:34of all Americans has been denied in so many generations.

01:39Many young Americans have been fed lies

01:42about America being a wicked nation plagued by racism.

01:45But if you say we have no need for,

01:48to face racial injustice in this country,

01:51you haven't opened your eyes to the truth.

01:53They falsely and constantly smear America

01:56as a sinister and racist country

01:59that must be torn apart piece by piece.

02:01And you know the truth.

02:03America is the most magnificent,

02:06most virtuous nation that has ever existed.

02:09What you've seen from our founding are struggling to make real

02:12on the promise of this nation.

02:14You changed the phrase from systemic to structural racism.

02:17What does that mean?

02:19Does that mean everything, every institution,

02:22every person in America is a racist?

02:24I was disheartened to hear our colleagues suggest

02:28that when we discuss the fact of systemic racism,

02:32we are accusing people within the system

02:35and all people within the system of being racist.

02:38It is an extreme and simplistic attempt

02:41to reject the seriousness of this issue.

02:44America is a story that's a work in progress.

02:47Now is the time to build on that progress

02:50and make America even freer, fairer, and better for everyone.

02:54There's a movement in America right now

02:56that demands we confront the poison of racism in our country.

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