On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s post-Democratic presidential primary debate coverage, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) commented on her opponent South Bend, IN Mayor Pete Buttigieg comparing the struggles of the LGBTQ community to that of African-Americans.
Dana Bash asked,”One of the points that Mayor Buttigieg made tonight was that in his attempt to kind of bridge a divide that he has between him and his candidacy and African-American voters according to the polls, is to equate his experience as a gay man with African-Americans’ experience in this country in terms of, you know, civil rights and not being judged for who they are. How did you think—what do you think of that? Is that a fair comparison?”
Harris said, “I don’t —I’m never going to engage or allow anyone to engage in comparing struggles. I think that is just misdirected.”
She continued, “So we’re going to now say that my pain is worse than your pain? We had 400 years of slavery in this country. We had years of lynching, which involved, black men in particular, being dragged from their homes and hung on a tree, often castrated. We’ve had the years of Jim Crow and institutional racism that included redlining and systemic racism that lingers today. And then, you know, we also have our LGBTQ brothers and sisters who still, under the law, do not have full equality. These are all injustices, but to start comparing one group’s pain to the other is misguided, and I think that anyone who wants to actually build the coalition around the country and bring people together should not be in the position of saying that one group’s pain is equal to or less than or greater than another’s.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN