"White liberal" protester to black cop: 'you don't understand racism'

A black police officer spoke with a student protester about racism, and the conversation that followed got a little bit weird.

The protester, who the video identified as “white liberal” by the YouTube title (although it is impossible to determine with certainty her race or political leaning from the video) first asked if the officer was “ashamed to be part of such a corrupt system” before switching gears and asking if he had ever personally experienced racism.

The officer responded:

It has nothing to do with race. I grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, OK? Where the restrooms had ‘colored only’ and ‘whites only.’ I couldn’t ride in the front of the bus. My mom had to sit in the back with all of us. So, I grew up in the Deep South when I was 16-years-old, so I know racism, okay? I can spot it.

As the conversation continued, the officer tried to point out that there is discrimination at every level, in every race, and even points out that people treat him differently because of his job as a police officer.

The protester responded, “I’m talking about your race! The color of your skin… You’re a black man! You will never reach the same pinnacle as a white man in this system because you are black!”

The officer then tried to steer the conversation in a new direction by asking the protester how she contributed to the community. When the protester described her academic research, the officer described his own efforts volunteering in the community. The protester then asked if he was “helping your black community out,” to which the officer responded: “It doesn’t matter what race they are.”

When the protester insisted that race did matter, the officer said, “So, I should go to a school and volunteer and tell all the African-American students, ‘I want to help you out,’ but all the others, the Asians, the Hispanic kids, not help them out? That’s wrong. Come on!”