Marc Lamont Hill: Black People Unable To Be Racist

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Wow there're so many things to say there. First of all -- and by the way, "Black Lives Matter" in the movement for black lives, this morning issued a pledge which I actually tweeted out today, calling for justice, calling for peace. And calling for a togetherness in a moment where we're attempting to be divided. So I think it's really important to talk about that. To say that the "Black Lives Matter" movement is racist is bizarre to me. Not just because black people don't have the institutional power to be racist or to deploy racism but because the movement has called for justice. It's called for demilitarization. It's called for non-violence. And because a few people enter that space and kind of colonize that space and do something other than what the movement is about doesn't mean the movement is wrong. In the same way the Tea Party movement called for fiscal responsibility. But there were racists at the rallies, I've been to some Tea Party rallies, there were racists there. But I wouldn't say the Tea Party is a racist movement, as such. I would say that there are people who invade it and divert the movement. And that's what's happening here. To say that it's un-American? There's nothing more American than expressing dissent. There is nothing more American than saying that we're moving in the wrong directions. Only when black people move and -- say the country's moving in the wrong direction that they say it's un-American or "go back with your own -- love it or leave it." When conservatives in the 80s and 90s said America is moving in the wrong direction, when the moral majority said we're having a moral failure as a nation, no one said "well if you don't like it, leave it." They said OK, we'll try to change it. So now here in America, we say there's a moral failure of police violence. There is a moral failure of police terrorism at times. And there's a moral failure of gun culture for all people. We need to change that.