During a panel on poverty at George Washington University, Michael Moore declared that the wealthy corporate class in America needs poverty to survive, especially for “people of color.”
“Their boot have been on the necks of people of color since we began,” Michael Moore said as the George Washington University audience applauded.
“This is a nation founded on genocide and built on the backs of slaves, alright, so we started with a racial problem,” he said.
“This country would have never have had the wealth that it had if it had not had slavery for a couple of hundred years,” he added.
Moore was responding to comments made by fellow panelist and Princeton professor Cornel West who called poverty in America “morally obscene.”
“If it was just a question of black, or brown and red [people], we would be voices in the wilderness,” West lectured, “Because as long as there is a black face or brown face on poverty, we overlook it. . . if there is a white middle class face, then its ‘Oh no, we’ve got a problem now, we’ve got to deal with some things!'”
Cornell said that the Occupy Movement showed promise for rising up and talking about the issue of poverty and economic inequality.
Throughout the event Cornel and Moore took turns promoting social and political revolution against corportate America.
The panel was sponsored by PBS television host Tavis Smiley and broadcast on Public television earlier this week.
