"Black folks are descendants of slaves that were imported, quote-unquote by slave owners, to the United States for the explicit purpose of cultivating crops. And it was predicated on white supremacy and racial superiority, but we have to understand that white supremacy exists for a reason, and they exist for a very specific cultural and economic reasons. And LBJ talked about this — like, if you can convince a poor white man that he’s superior to a black man, he’ll empty his pockets for you. And so it’s not just economic reasons why racism exists but there are economic reasons why racism is perpetuated and incentivized. More of that’s housing, income, et cetera. And like I said on Monday with Ta-Nehisi, until America tells the truth about itself we’re never going to heal. And this — it’s like this thing that as a culture we hide... it’s like this big wound with a big ugly scab on it, and it’s just going to stay this itchy thing that we keep going back to until we just deal with it."
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Civil rights activistsMembers of the United States House of RepresentativesLGBT rights activistsSocial activistsActivists from New York City
Original Language: English
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on her First Weeks In Washington, The Intercept (28 January 2019)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alexandria_Ocasio-Cortez
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
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