Hillary Clinton's Powerful Statement On Racism In South Carolina [View all]

[MrWendel]

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/24/1490132/-Hillary-Clinton-s-Powerful-Statement-On-Racism-In-South-Carolina

By First Amendment


Hillary Clinton and Trayvon Martin's Mother, Sybrina Fulton

During last night’s town hall and during campaign stops with the "mothers of the movement” Hillary spoke about the systemic racial problems our country faces.

Hillary called on all our citizens, but she particularly mentioned white Americans, to recognize that their own experiences may not equip them to understand what our fellow African American citizens go through every single day.

I'm extremely proud that Hillary is talking about systemic racism in such stark terms. We need much more of this blunt and thought provoking talk on racism.

mashable.com/…

Something is very wrong when we have these incidents where kids can get arrested for petty crimes and lose their lives,” Clinton said. “Something is wrong when African Americans are three times more likely to be denied a mortgage as white people are, when the median wealth of black families is just a fraction of the median wealth for white families, Clinton said.

She also had a message specifically for white Americans, calling on them to show more empathy for the problems plaguing black communities across America.

”Tackling and ending systemic racism requires contributions from all of us. White Americans, we need to do a better job of listening when African Americans talk about the seen and unseen barriers they face every day," Clinton said. "We need to recognize our privilege and practice humility rather than assume our experiences are everyone's experiences."
The five mothers praised Clinton for spending time listening to their stories, learning about their children and said they back her plans to remake the American criminal justice system.

The women joined Clinton on the campaign trail as a group here for the first time, but they campaigned for Clinton around the state on Monday and Tuesday.

"When we met with her, she walked in as a secretary, she walked in as a political figure, she walked in as a presidential candidate," Sybrina Fulton, the mother of Trayvon Martin, said. "But she walked out as a compassionate mother, as a compassionate grandmother, as a compassionate wife."

"When no other candidate would listen to us, Ms. Clinton did," Fulton said.

"She is the one for us," Gwen Carr, whose son Eric Garner was killed when a New York City police officer put him in a chokehold in 2014, said of Clinton. "She will stand with us. She will be with us...I endorse her because she endorsed us first."

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