As cities across the state melt down in race protests, CNN’s Van Jones was on hand to offer words of wisdom.
“Even the most liberal, well-intentioned white person has a virus in his or her brain that can be activated at an instant,” Jones said on Friday.
“It’s not the racist white person who is in the Ku Klux Klan that we have to worry about. It’s the white liberal Hillary Clinton supporter walking her dog in Central Park who would tell you right now, you know, people like that – ‘oh, I don’t see race, race is no big deal to me, I see us all as the same, I give to charities.’
“But the minute she sees a black man who she does not respect or who she has a slight thought against, she weaponized race like she had been trained by the Aryan Nation,” Jones said. “A Klan member could not have been better trained to pick up the phone and tell the police, ‘It’s a black man, African-American man, come get him.’ So even the most liberal, well-intentioned white person has a virus in his or her brain that can be activated at an instant.”
Jones was referring to Amy Cooper, the white woman who last week called police to report she was being threatened by “an African-American man.” The verbal dispute between Cooper and a black man who was bird watching in Central Park went viral.
In his appearance, Jones also mocked white people for supposedly caring about racism after something bad happens, saying “white people are always innocent — and their innocence constitutes their crime.”
“James Baldwin said it best: White people in these situations are always innocent. ‘Oh my God, I can’t believe this, teach me, educate me, help me understand, how did this happen, talk to me, tell me something, tell me what to do.’ White people are always innocent — and their innocence constitutes their crime. It is too late to be innocent,” Jones said.
Jones also said black people are weary.
“What you’re seeing now is a curtain falling away,” Jones said. “Those of us who have been burdened by this every minute, every second of our entire lives are fragile right now… we are tired.”
CNN's Van Jones: "Even the most well-intentioned white person has a virus in his or her brain" https://t.co/swoJowvRrt pic.twitter.com/9hs3TSMmaL
— Disrn (@DisrnNews) May 30, 2020
Jones’ remarks came amid rising racial tension in a slew of cities across the country. Protesters have been clashing with police clad in riot gear, and some have looted stores. The protests continue five days after the death of George Floyd following his arrest by Minneapolis police.
But House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) said Saturday night that Americans should honor Floyd’s memory by coming together in peaceful protest.
“It’s very disturbing. This is not in the spirit of Martin Luther King or my colleague John Lewis, who I’ve marched with in Selma,” McCarthy said on Fox News. “If we really want to be able to honor George Floyd in his memory, peaceful protests is a way to do it.”
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