During a discussion of the George Zimmerman trial verdict yesterday, Thomas Roberts began speaking to MSNBC hosts Melissa Harris-Perry, Toure, and legal analyst Lisa Bloom about what it means to be a marginalized person or minority group in the United States. He seemed to tap into the frustration many people are feeling after the abortion decisioin in Texas, the Supreme Court invalidating key parts of the Voteing Rights Act, and the racial element of the Zimmerman trial, and other non-progressive legal and court decisions.
What should be appreciated about Roberts decision to speak out about how the "social contract" is broken is that it wasn't a diatribe. It wasn't a rant. He didn't "go ballistic" as Mediate and others wrote. It was a reasoned, articulate response to his feelings on the subject.
Read the full text of what he said below:
Don't we need to do a lot more about our social contract with each other in this country when it comes to being others? Because, as we look at this, we can use this as a great pivot point to talk about race relations in this country. But, being an 'other'--whether it's LGBT, because you're then suspected of being a pedophile and a rabid disease carrier. And if you are a woman, well you certainly don't have a right to your own body and your own reproductive health, because if you do, then you're just a slut who wants to sleep around and use abortion as birth control. And then if you're Hispanic, well you're just a taker, you're not a maker. And you just want to come here and have anchor babies and you just want to lay off the land.
Watch the clip here:
