Michael Bloomberg is again under fire for his problematic comments on race, with a resurfaced video showing the 2020 Presidential hopeful claiming that many young black and Latino men ‘don’t know how to behave in the workforce’.
The billionaire, 78, made the assertion during a 2011 interview with PBS, which is now going viral amidst outrage over Bloomberg’s many other controversial remarks.
In the 2011 interview – conducted while he was serving a third term as New York City Mayor – Bloomberg attempted to a spruik a new initiative to enhance employment opportunities for young men.
He told interviewer Jeffrey Brown: ‘There’s this enormous cohort of black and Latino males, age, let’s say, 16 to 25, that don’t have jobs, don’t have any prospects, don’t know how to find jobs, don’t know what their skill sets are, [and] don’t know how to behave in the workplace where they have to work collaboratively and collectively’.
Mike Bloomberg is again under fire for his problematic comments on race, with a resurfaced 2011 video showing him claim that many young black and Latino men ‘don’t know how to behave in the workforce’
Elsewhere, in the interview he asserted that ‘blacks and Latinos score terribly in school testing compared to whites and Asians’ and that minorities make up a majority of those incarcerated in the city’s jails.
He went on to add: ‘If you look at where crime takes place, it’s in minority neighborhoods. If you look at who the victims and the perpetrators are, it’s virtually all minorities. This is something that has gone on for a long time.’
The comment is similar to another Bloomberg made during a private speech in 2015 – which made front page news last week after leaked audio was shared on Twitter.
In that speech, given to the Aspen Institute, Bloomberg touted his controversial stop-and-frisk policy whilst stating that his strategy whilst Mayor was to ‘put all the cops in minority neighborhoods’ with the hope of tackling gun violence.
‘Ninety-five percent of murders- murderers and murder victims fit one M.O. You can just take a description, Xerox it, and pass it out to all the cops. They are male, minorities, 16-25. That’s true in New York, that’s true in virtually every city.’
Bloomberg is now seeking to court minority voters in the Democratic primaries – but his past comments on race proving problematic
‘And that’s where the real crime is. You’ve got to get the guns out of the hands of people that are getting killed,’ he said.
‘So one of the unintended consequences is people say, ‘Oh my God, you are arresting kids for marijuana that are all minorities.’ Yes, that’s true. Why? Because we put all the cops in minority neighborhoods.’.
‘Yes, that’s true. Why do we do it? Because that’s where all the crime is. And the way you get the guns out of the kids’ hands is to throw them up against the wall and frisk them… And then they start… ‘Oh I don’t want to get caught.’ So they don’t bring the gun. They still have a gun, but they leave it at home.’
Bloomberg apologized last Tuesday amid the uproar, in comments reported by Bloomberg News, which is part of the billionaire’s media empire.
Bloomberg – who has already apologized for pushing his stop-and-frisk policy – was forced to say sorry for offensive remarks he made about minority men during a 2015 speech
The attack comes weeks before the South Carolina primary, where black voters will make up a substantial share of the electorate. Bloomberg is skipping the first four contests
‘I apologize. I own it. And there’s nothing – I’m going to live with it. My heart, I think, was in the right place of trying to do something of reducing murders but the police – I didn’t pay as much attention to them as I should have. And you know, I apologize,’ Bloomberg said.
He later tweeted: ‘This issue and my comments about it do not reflect my commitment to criminal justice reform and racial equity.
‘I believe we need to end mass incarceration and during my tenure we reduced incarceration by 40% and juvenile confinement by more than 60%.
‘We created the Young Men’s Initiative to help young men of color stay on track for success, which President Obama built on to create My Brother’s Keeper. And we overhauled a school system that had been neglecting and underfunding schools in Black and Latino communities for too long.’
The gaffes were seized upon by President Trump, who tweeted: ‘WOW, BLOOMBERG IS A TOTAL RACIST’.
In this June 17, 2012, file photo, the Rev. Al Sharpton, center, walks with demonstrators during a silent march to end New York’s ‘stop-and-frisk’ program. On Aug. 12, 2013, a federal judge sitting in New York said the department made thousands of racially discriminatory street stops and appointed a monitor to direct change