Rapper and activist Killer Mike stirred up some controversy with his remarks about Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her record on racial issues. Friday morning, February 19th, he clarified his remarks on The View, the daytime talk show hosted by women — Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Candace Cameron Bure, Michelle Collins, Paula Faris and Raven-Symoné.
It all got started way back when Killer Mike, an outspoken Sanders supporter, spoke at a Bernie Sanders rally for the Vermont senator in Atlanta on Tuesday February 16th, where he quoted activist Jane Elliott, “I talked to Jane Elliott a few weeks ago, and Jane said, ‘Michael, a uterus doesn’t qualify you to be president of the United States,” the raptivist recalls. The remark was widely seen as sexist against Hillary Clinton, but that the rapper says was taken out of context. According to Killer Mike, what the black reporter who quoted that one line didn’t quote, “You have to be — you have to have policy that’s reflective of social justice.’”
“This is what social justice is,” the Atlanta-based Pan Africanist Gangster Rapper, Civic Leader & Activist explained. “If Black people were offered tomorrow every right that we have ever desired, at the cost of a woman’s right or a gay right or an immigrant’s right, I would say thank you, but no thank you…social justice is wanting for me what I want for all of you.”
As for Bernie Sanders, the presidential candidate thinks that the outrage over Killer Mike’s comments has been overblown.
“I think the media is blowing this thing up. What did Mike say? … Mike quoted an internationally known educator. That’s what Mike said,” Sanders told reporters on Thursday. “I think this is again gotcha media politics, which I think is being blown out of proportion. Frankly I think that’s what media does.”
On Wednesday, a spokesman for Sanders’ campaign, Michael Briggs, told The Guardian that Killer Mike, “doesn’t believe gender should be a reason to vote for or against someone.” Briggs went on to say, “That’s the point Mike was making when he quoted Jane Elliott, the internationally known educator,” adding that “we need to get beyond the gotcha politics and get to the issues at the heart of the election.”
Watch video below of Killer Mike remarks on The View and leave your feedback and thoughts in the comment section.
