WASHINGTON – South Bend, Indiana, has become a flashpoint for racial controversy in the aftermath of a fatal police shooting of 54-year-old Eric Jack Logan, who is black.

So at a recent Pete Buttigieg campaign stop in Carrol, Iowa, an audience member offered Buttigieg, mayor of South Bend, a potential solution.

In a video posted by ABC, an unidentified man is seen telling Buttigieg, "I have a solution for you and I'd like you to make a comment on my proposal. Just tell the black people of South Bend to stop committing crime and doing drugs."

Buttigieg then responded, "Sir, I don't think racism is going to get us out of this."

The man answered Buttigieg and said that "it has nothing to do with race."

Buttigieg then went on to explain how racial disparities in incarceration were evidence of "systemic racism" in the criminal justice system.

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"The fact that a black person is four times as likely as a white person to be incarcerated for the exact same crime is evidence of systemic racism," Buttigieg said.

The crowd started chanting "USA," drowning out the man's response.

"When black people and white people are treated the same by the criminal justice system, it will be easier for white people and black people to live in this country and it will be easier for law enforcement to do their job," he continued. "But racism has no place in American politics or American law enforcement."

Buttigieg has recently been on the defensive in the aftermath of the police shooting. The South Bend Fraternal Order of Police has been critical of the mayor, accusing him of "driving a wedge between law enforcement officers and the community they took an oath to serve."

Buttigieg has also struggled to gain traction among African American voters. A CNN poll conducted after the first Democratic debate found the South Bend mayor with 0% support among African American voters.

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