White House economic adviser Peter Navarro said people are too focused on having conversations about race relations.
During a CNN interview on Tuesday morning, the economist and author shared an anecdote about his “awakening” on race and his thoughts on the recent spotlight on social injustice following the death of George Floyd.
“My awakening on the race issue was when I was 8 years old in a Woolworth’s store in West Palm Beach, Florida, when I walked over, and I took a drink from the colored water fountain because I wanted to see colored water. And this woman came up to me and just gently said, ‘You can’t — can’t drink from that.’ I go, ‘Why?’ She says, ‘That’s for colored people,'” he said. “That didn’t make any sense to me.”
“I’m a Californian. We don’t see race out there,” Navarro added. “So, you know, it’s like I live my life in a race-blind world, and it troubles me that we have so much of this discussion when, in fact, we have got real problems in this country.”
John Berman, the anchor interviewing Navarro, chimed in to note that it is “a real problem.” Navarro agreed.
Race relations have been thrust back into the spotlight following Floyd’s death on Memorial Day, amid other major issues, including the coronavirus pandemic and upticks in violence in major cities. Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes despite his pleas for air.
The officer who pressed a knee to Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was fired from the department and has been charged with second-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The three other officers who were involved in detaining Floyd, who was suspected of using a fake $20 bill, were also fired and charged with aiding and abetting murder.
Demonstrations on the issues of police brutality and systematic racism, which have spread across the country and the world, have also called attention to the deaths of other people, including Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, both who were black. Some of the protests have spun off into riots and violence, including the tearing down of statues of historical figures.
