Killer Mike has become one of Hip Hop’s top orators during the last few years when it comes to political issues, particularly social justice.
Recently sitting down with Tavis Smiley of PBS, the Georgia native says whites and blacks shouldn’t both be walking away from an apology with something. He relays that forgiveness comes with a price.
“We’ve done the ‘and’ for the last 50 years in this country. Where at now?” he said when asked about social justice and forgiveness. “Because we both don’t got nothing. What do we own. What have we acquired in exchange for your blood, in exchange for your sacrifice, in exchange for accepting ‘I’m sorry?'”
Killer Mike also compared histories of people receiving compensation for neglect and the black experience in America and says he believes they should be parallel.
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“Follow groups of successful people and see what they did post the forgiveness and the apology of the world,” he said. “The world told the Jews of Germany, ‘We’re sorry we hurt you.’ They knew they were being slaughtered and afterward they were like, ‘We’ll figure it out, we’ll get you a land, we’ll help you become a country. The world saw the horror of Hiroshima in Japan and after we were done we gave them industry and look what they became. So all I’m saying, as a black man, if you’re asking for forgiveness, you better give me something or keep the forgiveness in your pocket.”
Watch the full Tavis Smiley/Killer Mike segment below:
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