There’s no question about Michael Bloomberg’s racist past. The question is: will it stop him from being president? The former mayor of New York City was an architect of “stop-and-frisk,” one of the most racist forms of police brutality to hit our community. Now, more is coming out.
Bloomberg once defended stop-and-frisk by saying, “I think we disproportionately stop whites too much and minorities too little.” This comment and others suggest that “minorities” are more prone to commit crime and be criminals while also justifying police racism. But it doesn’t end there.
He once said “Black and Latino men don’t know how to behave in the workplace,” and suggested that those committing crime were “virtually all minorities.” The list of racist comments he’s made is lengthy, but Bloomberg always manages to find a way to blame Black people.
He’s even gone as far as blaming the end of the racist practice of redlining, where banks denied Black people loans, for the 2008 financial crisis! He complained, “[T]here was a lot of pressure on banks to make loans to everyone.” And we all know what “everyone” means here.
Bloomberg is one of the richest men in the world and funding his own campaign out of his pocket gives him an advantage. However, he still knows he needs the Black vote.
It’s fair to ask if he deserves the Democratic nomination after disrespecting us for so long.