The Rev. Al Sharpton is addressing Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) claim “America is not a racist country.”
“I watched, the other night, the president make his first address to the joint session of Congress and then I watched the rebuttal by the senator from South Carolina. Seems something awkward to me, where a white president talked about white supremacy and a Black senator said America is not racist. Seemed a little strange to me,” Sharpton said while speaking at the funeral of Andrew Brown Jr.
He added, “Now, everybody in America is not racist. But are you talking about whether the practice of America’s racist, or the people, cause the practice of America was built on racism.”
Watch Sharpton’s remarks below:
Brown was killed last month after he was shot by deputies in Elizabeth City, N.C.
Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden weighed in on Scott’s declaration.
“First of all, no I don’t think America is a racist country,” Harris said during an appearance on “Good Morning America” Thursday morning. “But we also do have to speak truth about the history of racism in our country and its existence today.”
She added, “These are issues that we must confront. It does not help to heal our country, to unify us as a people to ignore the realities of that.”
During a “Today” interview with NBC’s Craig Melvin, Biden said he does not believe “the American people are racist, but I think after 400 years, African-Americans have been left in a position where they are so far behind the eight-ball in terms of education, health, in terms of opportunity.”
He continued, “I don’t think America’s racist, but I think the overhang from all of the Jim Crow and before that, slavery, has had a cost, and we have to deal with it.”
