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.
“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:
For more Killer Mike coverage, watch the following DX Daily:
Those examples were from like almost 100 years ago. Shit has changed. What do black people even want??
slavery ended 100 years ago but after that we had to fight for our rights (voting, equal pay, equal education etc…) for another 75 years and for the past 20 black people are suppose to act like we didn’t struggle and still don’t struggle with unfair treatment when we really are owed for slavery. the day after slavery ended we should of been treated with respect and honor because we basically built the economic foundation of this country but instead we get white people saying “what do black people even want??”
white people should have to call me sir not nigga, white people should be taxed and the money generated from that taxation should go to black people going to college and to start black owned businesses. white people owe us. white people owe us. white people owe us.
@iHateRacism White ppl don’t owe you shit. If anyone owes, it’s the US government.
There should be no such thing as white privilege. white people should be more in poverty than black people. we built this country while white people sat on their porch with guns. well its time for pay back. im not sayin enslave whites but we should take away white privilege so this country can be equal.
white people = North American Government… Just because we have President Obama whom I voted for doesn’t mean we are done. President isn’t enough we need reparations strong, hard reparations!
White people want to ignore history so much because they are ignorant to the fact that we are not in a fair society. they are spoiled and naive to the reality of poverty of the hood/ghetto/streets. We are kept out the American Pie because it’s hogged by well… PIGS
Preach Killer Mike
All those groups of ppl you mentioned weren’t GIVEN anything! They EARNED it! If u want to dig my great, great, great, great grandfather, you have my permission…now go get that apology since this White dude doesn’t owe u one. #theghettosinclevelandhavewhitepeopletoo
Let’s not 4get…slavery didn’t free itself..those white folk, who died in the civil war did. Knowledge is power & it doesn’t come from half truths of history
The Civil War freeing slaves is a half truth in itself.
White British people are the only reason slavery was globally abolished.
“what do black people even want??” …We want equal right!!!
Respect to the Killer of Mikes. He’s correct about of economic justice, reparations an tution are part of that, other nationalities received dues. On forgiveness unfortunately many whites tolerated slavery. They take no responsibility for the consequences of it today. It damages their ego to teach it they don’t want to feel guilty for the mistakes of their ancestors, when it should motivate them to do better. Blessings to those lost during the Middle Passage. 1 love
No one should “feel” anything about the crimes of their ancestors. Shit got nothing to do with me.
To Bro; an all those who lack a sense of history. You an your family are here today because of what your ancestors did. Your predecessors continue to live though your very actions today. Honor them because if they were some punks you wouldn’t exist. Blessings
Fuck that shit. White people always want some black people to forgive something, but when they get done wrong, they don’t forgive anything. Are they forgiving those terrorists? No, they want the whole region wiped off the map regardless of who did what. I’m tired of people acting like if we don’t forgive with that Yes sir, no sir shit, then we’re in the wrong when we’re the ones always on the wrong end of shit in a country that supressed us in the first place. Like you had people acting like they didn’t know holding up that slave flag was a problem 150 years later, like seriously wtf.
That’s why we have to learn to flip the game. You don’t have to asimilate with these fuckers, but learn their rules because tehy control it. If you’re a young dude, brush up on investing with mutual funds and ETFs. Set you up a Roth IRA for your retirement. If you have kids, set up a college account for your kids to go to college and tach them to beat them at this game everyday of the week when they step into anything next to them. It’s always compettition, and the cream will rise to the top. Then, pass that on to other young brothers and sisters. We know that they put us behind the 8ball for 175 years of ground that we need to make up, so all we can do is beat their asses at it like we have with sports. Get it.
I’m Gypsy and I wouldn’t associate with white people and Europeans for what they did to my people. They even post racist comments on YouTube videos about us and it’s 2015. The Holocaust was a serious situation. This black guy don’t even know what minorities go through. Black people have it easier than Mexicans and are even more accepted in Hollywood and the celebrity world than Asians.
BTW why are Black people still complaining about racism when they have their own TV show BET and they have so many celebrities of their race to look up to and stuff. Mexicans and Asians are the ones struggling right now to be accepted in American media and society.
Because Mexican Americans weren’t persecuted or enslaved in the past in this country, promised something, and then never given it. As far as Asians go, Japanese Americans got handsomely compesnated for the internment camp fiasco during World War II, and the treatment pales in comparison to the way slaves were done in this country. Japanese Americans and their descendants were very well taken care of financially after that debacle, which is why I suppose you don’t see many of them complain about what happened. Fair is fair if you’re going by precedent, but black descendants of slaves are supposed to be like it’s all good, which is some pretty fucked up logic.
Why do the current generation of white people of 2015 owe the black people of 2015 anything? The whites of today had zero to do with black slavery, and Blacks of today and their parents and grandparents NEVER experienced slavery so what are the blacks of TODAY owed?!
There iare plenty of successful black people in the world, if you’re feeling oppressed then get the fuck up and make a contribution to current society YOURSELF and quit blaming it on shit that you have never experienced, ie slavery.
You as a white person don’t owe us shit, but your government owes us a lot since they have a precedent there with how they compensated Japanese Americans for the itnernment camp thing and Native Americans for taking their land. If you’re being consistent, we were done the worst, promiced 40 acres a mule after the Civil War, and never were compensated for 100 years of free work. Literally, companies today that exist either came directly from that time when those companies had free worke from slaves or companies spawned from those. We know it’s not going to happen, but that’s what the truth is. If you don’t know your own history to know all of these things, that’s not my fault.
People need to understand that it has always been survival of the fittest in human history. There have been entire races and civilizations wiped out by their neighbours eg the aztecs, babylon. People have been exploiting each other since there was more than one person. Do you think the descedents of the people who built the pyrimads got compensated? Only with the proliferation of nuclear weapons did most international borders and international power structures became set in stone. And then people became safe, empathetic and complacent and we have free range chicken and killer mile talking shit.
white people that don’t think they owe black people are selfish and by these comments it is proof that white people are afraid and reluctant to give us back what my ancestors gave their ancestors and lets see slavery was 400 years and it ended 140-150 years ago and we still havent seen the fruits of our labor while the fortune 500 are dangerously wealthy. these companies are the white people in an economic sense. so these companies should be handed over to the people that deserve them which are the black people.
The only people who believe in “white people” are african americans. Some Polish immigrant doesn’t owe you anything, most white people don’t owe black people anything. You just see pale skin and due to your own racism and prejudice you see some descendant of a slavemaster. Doesn’t matter if they got here yesterday, or if that Asian guy down the road actually had a bigger stake in slavery than the Irish guy in front of you, you just can’t see past 3 inches in front of your fucking face and are aghast that the rest of the world doesn’t follow your kindergarten racial politics.
I’ve taken and passed US history at a university actually so I know more history than you long wrong mf G.O.M.D.
white people weather in Europe or North America really have stolen from every country in the world if we look at history white people have done the most wrong. we all see it but they are bullies and demons so we can’t fight them but God knows what’s what. they may be catholic but Mary aint white and Jesus is more important than Mary. Also the white rulers that authorize these “wars” and exploitation of other countries are going to answer for their sins and the people that support these atrocities will be judged too. So at the end of the day God has our back. We don’t need white people for that
White people did not invent theft, slavery, war, or conquest. They were simply better at it and every other country seems to want to claim victimhood as they take their bronze awards.
Go ahead brag about how “good” white people were at doing wrong. You power this evil system of oppression on the wrong side of history
Killer Mike and Ghetto History fail again. There was no “we.” There was no “we” who rebuilt Japan, that was private business and private interests. There was no “we” who created Israel, the history and formation of Israel is so long and complicated it’s insulting that Mike can stand there and think that it just happened like “okay here you go!” The stuff in your “pocket” is decades of reparations through social security, welfare, affirmative action, and charity through the government and private industry. That’s more, on an *individual basis,* than any of those other groups you cited received. You wanna play that game and go into vagueries? Debt has been paid, then.
Yep, because more white people than black people aren’t on welfare, lol. I guess you better get some better examples too then. Being compensated means you give it to the people done wrong, not make a program that anybody can qualify for and then stupidly later call that the reparation. For instance, I don’t think anybody but the Japanese Americans and their descendants got broken off for that internment camp thing. I don’t think anybody but Native Americans and their descendants can live on reservations or get the shit the government kicked their way. But I think anybody can apply for welfare, dummy….and food stamps ain’t money and land, which was promised to the freed slaves. So go check your ghetto history, partner.
And btw, affirmative action doesn’t have shit to do with slavery. Affirmative action was created because all minorities were being excluded from colleges and job hiring. So again, you’re bringing up programs that benefit a cross section of minority groups (including women) when reparations that were promised to freed slaves and never delivered were never paid out for all that free labor that built this country and a number of wealth in private industry in this country. But thanks for playing, homie. Maybe next time you’ll brush up on your history before you come in here with that wack shit you’re chirping.
So, I guess when your dropped by Outkast and can’t sell records because you make sub par music, becoming a hypocritical racist is how to gain recognition?
KILL YA SELF YOU FUCKIN DORK
eeesh, someone’s a cranky troll