Leftwing activist Al Sharpton claimed Monday that “the practice of America was built on racism,” in response to Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) recent declaration that the U.S. is “not a racist country.”
“I watched, the other night, the president make his first address to the joint session of Congress,” Sharpton stated in his speech during the funeral of Andrew Brown Jr., a black man who was shot by law enforcement in North Carolina on April 21. “And then I watched the rebuttal by the senator from South Carolina. Seems something awkward to me, where a white president talked about white supremacy and a black senator said… America is not racist. Seemed a little strange to me.”
“Now, everybody in America is not racist. But are you talking about whether the practice of America’s racist, or the people, cause the practice of America was built on racism,” he added.
Police maintain Brown was shot as he drove away from Pasquotank County Sheriff’s deputies, who were attempting to serve an arrest warrant for drug charges at his home.
Sharpton is the latest left-wing figure to attack Scott, whose defense of the U.S. against charges of systemic racism during his rebuttal to President Joe Biden’s first speech to a joint session of Congress earned him high praise from Republicans.
“When America comes together, we’ve made tremendous progress, but powerful forces want to pull us apart,” Scott said in his remarks. “A hundred years ago, kids in classrooms were taught the color of their skin was their most important characteristic, and if they looked a certain way, they were inferior,” he continued, pointing to himself.
“You know this stuff is wrong. Hear me clearly: America is not a racist country,” Scott declared. “It’s backwards to fight discrimination with different types of discrimination.”
The following day, MSNBC’s Cross Connection host Tiffany Cross responded to Scott, claiming he is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) “own tap dancer” who is “thirsty for white approval.”
“Tim Scott does not represent any constituency other than the small number of sleepy, slow-witted sufferers of Stockholm Syndrome who get elevated to prominence for repeating a false narrative about this country that makes conservative white people feel comfortable,” Cross said. “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell asked Education Secretary Miguel Cardona to scrap teaching the 1619 Project in schools because it would re-orient the view of American history. Lucky for McConnell, he has his own tap dancer to try and re-orient the view of America for him.”