CNN Reporter Says White Americans ‘Have to Come to Terms With’ Their Racism

 

White Americans need to be doing more to combat racism, CNN senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and others concluded on Tuesday following a speech by President Joe Biden addressing the recent Buffalo shooting at a supermarket that left 10 people dead.

Since the shooting, details from a manifesto written by the alleged shooter have come to light, revealing racism as the likely motivator behind the shooting. Biden referred to the act as domestic terrorism on Tuesday and condemned those who push the Great Replacement theory, reportedly referenced in the manifesto.

Reacting to the president’s remarks on Inside Politics, CNN’s Henderson chalked up racism to a “White cultural problem” and said White Americans need to be doing a lot more in condemning it and coming to terms with their own possible appeasement of it.

“You know, oftentimes, it is African-Americans who talk about racism. It is really a White cultural problem that White Americans have to come to terms with. Why is it that African Americans and brown and Black people are more generally are seen as the other or demonized so easily in a lot of our politics?” she said.

She added that it’s also the “way” White Americans talk about issues, like the crisis at the Southern border.

“You know we sort of talk about white supremacy but it’s also the ways in which people talk about folks coming across the border, the demonization of it goes around — about those folks, that somehow they also are a threat to Americans,” she said.

Host John King expanded on the point and also said White people need to be doing more, arguing “silence” can enable as much as “code words.”

“There are a lot of people who say that they are not racist, that they’ve never said a racist thing, who use words that are code,” King said. “You mentioned silence encourages this, so do words and certain actions, as well.”

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Zachary Leeman covered pop culture and politics at outlets such as Breitbart, LifeZette, BizPac Review, HollywoodinToto, and others. He is the author of the novel Nigh. He joined Mediaite in 2022.