On Thursday, CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin hosted Minneapolis City Council Vice President Andrea Jenkins on “CNN Newsroom” and broke down into tears over her “rage” and acknowledgment of her own “privilege” as a “white woman.”
“There are so many emotions,” Baldwin started in, reacting to Jenkins earlier in the day beginning her press briefing by signing “Amazing Grace.”
“As I’m sitting here listening to you, I’m having my own — I’m surprised at my own emotions on TV with you,” she continued. “But I just, as a white woman, aware of my own privilege in this country, I am so angry, and I can’t even begin…”
“Forgive me,” Baldwin said, now wiping tears from her eyes.
“It’s a human emotion, Brooke,” Jenkins responded, “and I think what is so — what sparked so much outrage is there seemed to be no regard for humanity or human life in the video we all witnessed.”
Baldwin continued addressing “white privilege” and asked Jenkins what white people can do to express their rage and stamp out their own racism, which the city council VP likened to a “disease.”
“I’m getting a lot of incoming messages from white viewers who are enraged, who don’t know what to do with their emotion,” said Baldwin. “You call racism a ‘disease’, what do you want to tell white America, not just to listen, but to act?”
“I wish I had all the smart answers to provide to white people,” started Jenkins, “A, stop killing us, B, give black people opportunities to live full healthy lives.”
Jenkins then implored “white America” “to stop perpetuating the system of racism,” noting that she’s not calling any one person “racist.”
During the segment, Jenkins suggested charges against the officers involved in the arrest of George Floyd will be the only thing to stop the “rioting.”
While the city council VP expressly used the word “riots,” Baldwin called them “gatherings.”
“Today is a sad day for Minneapolis, it’s a sad day for America, it’s a sad day for the world,” Jenkins told reporters on Thursday afternoon.
“I want to remind all the people that are in the streets that are protesting: you have every absolute right to be angry, to be upset, to be mad, to express your anger,” she continued. “However, you have no right to perpetrate violence and harm on the very communities that you say that you are standing up for.”
“We need peace and calm in our streets, and I am begging you for that calm,” Jenkins added.
Earlier this week, a video of Floyd’s arrest went viral, sparking outrage.
“An eight-minute clip filmed by a person on the street shows Floyd telling police he can’t breathe and begging the cop on top of him to stop before he falls unconscious,” The Daily Wire reported Tuesday. “Officer Derek Chauvin was identified as the officer who knelt on Floyd’s neck outside Cup Foods on Chicago Avenue and East 38th Street.”
“He’s not even resisting arrest right now, bro,” one bystander is heard telling the officers, according to the video. “You’re f***ing stopping his breathing right now, you think that’s cool?”
All four officers involved in the arrest have been fired, and the FBI and state law enforcement officials are investigating the 46-year-old’s death.
Protests in response to Floyd’s death started to turn ugly by Wednesday evening. Dozens of looters destroyed a Target store, grabbing TVs and other goods, filling up carts, and jetting out of the store without paying. Into the night, AutoZone, Target, and other businesses were set ablaze by rioters. And at least one man was shot dead outside a pawn shop.
On Thursday night, the rioting continued to rage.
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