What is it about saying “black male” that causes a frenzy, where people decide they will shoot first and ask questions later? - Nina Turner

This is a centuries-old problem, that African Americans, and particularly African-American males, are seen as more criminal. Nowhere in America should a 12-year-old boy be gunned down in the way that he was.

Folks don’t have a problem with us investing our money to help the wealthiest people in this country—corporate welfare, if you will—but folks seem to have a problem with us investing our money in the working poor and middle class in this country.

We as a nation have not dealt with racism and xenophobia, you know, antisemitism, anti-Blackness. We just have not dealt with it in this country. And the chickens are coming home to roost, certainly starting with the election of President Donald J. Trump, but all of this was happening in the United States of America before that man was elected. So we cannot sit here and say that it is just because he was elected. We have neglected to deal with a violent past and a violent present in the United States of America, wrapped in white supremacy, wrapped in bigotry in all of its forms, wrapped in sexism, and certainly wrapped in anti-Blackness. And until we are willing and able to deal with that, we’re going to continue to have these problems.