President Trump’s Economic Advisor claimed on Wednesday that systemic racism does not exist in the United States and cited a Wall Street Journal opinion article to defend his stance. Larry Kudlow made his statement to reporters at the White House.
“I don’t believe nowadays we have systemic racism,” Larry Kudlow told reporters according to Bloomberg news. In response to police brutality, Kudlow invoked the “few bad apples” defense making the point of a small percentage of police officers who go against the grain.
Kudlow also cited a Heather McDonald article in the Wall Street Journal titled “The Myth of Systemic Police Racism” that was published earlier this month. As Kudlow denies systemic racism, President Trump is planning a roundtable event in Dallas to “discuss solutions to historic economic, health and justice disparities in American communities.”
Many have argued that the police brutality problem is systemic and is largely due to, among other things, aggressive police training and aggressive police presence in minority neighborhoods.
As Minnesota specifically gripes with the police killing of George Floyd, Kudlow’s statement conflicts with statistics from the city where Floyd was killed. In Minneapolis, Black people are 7 times more likely to have force used against them by police than White people according to the New York Times.
