Killer Mike, the Atlanta-based rapper backing Bernie Sanders for president, appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert Tuesday to talk about race in America and why he is supporting the socialist senator from Vermont.
After Colbert asked Killer Mike if he believes “there is a systemic attempt in the United States to isolate poor and minorities to put them in communities that can be controlled,” the rapper said, “It’s not an attempt at all, it’s successful.”
Killer Mike then explained how he encourages white college students to “get outside the college environment, find a child who is marginal or doing exceptional in school who’s a minority, who doesn’t look like you, not of the same religion, not of the same background — help that child matriculate into college. Help them by being a big brother or big sister. Help them by mentoring them…. Teach them the path you were taught to help them become a successful human being…. It grows you as a human being to have empathy and apathy for someone who doesn’t look like you and is culturally not from your background,” he said to thunderous applause.
Colbert then turned the conversation to politics. “Bernie Sanders is the only politician who has consistently, for 50 years, taken that social justice platform into politics,” Killer Mike said when asked why he’s supporting Sanders.
“And right now, we have an opportunity to elect someone who is directly out of the philosophy of King-ian non-violence,” Mike said. “We can directly elect someone who cares about poor people; cares about women, gay, black rights; cares about lives that don’t look like his. This opportunity in history is not going to come in another 20 years.”
Killer Mike conducted an hour-long interview with Bernie Sanders last November. Weeks later, the rapper formally endorsed the senator at a rally in Atlanta.
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