Marc Lamont Hill: America Built On Genocide, Theft Of Indigenous People's Land, Slavery

From Tuesday's edition of <i>CNN Tonight</i> with host Don Lemon: <blockquote>MARC LAMONT HILL: The point is that most black people who are dealing with the humiliation of not being allowed in the restaurant, most black people who are not allowed in the restaurant is not because they're wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat on, it's because they're black. And so again, there needs to be space with civility and open discourse. We also have to be honest about the reasons that undergird the kind of impression that we see and ultimately white supremacy is anti-black racism, structure inequality, anti-semitism, all those things. DON LEMON, CNN: I need you to respond to this quickly because I want to move on to something else. You say, Marc, that Spike Lee is right to say America isn't built on Democratic principles but instead on a genocide of native people and slavery. What would you have the president say? How would you have him handle that? MARC LAMONT HILL: I think it is one of the core, we have to acknowledge that history. It's like pulling teeth to get America to acknowledge and to get any sitting U.S. president, Democrat or Republicans, who acknowledge that America is a colonial state built on the theft of indigenous people's land. That white supremacy is America's original sin. We have to be able to have that honest conversation. We have to say that America is built on unpaid black labor. People don't want you to have that conversation, instead they want you to get over it.</blockquote>