Hillary Clinton Meets Black Lives Matter Activists in Closed-Door Meeting [Videos]
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton held a testy closed-door meeting with Black Lives Matter activists in New Hampshire last week in which she stated that the way to solve racial injustice is to change policies rather than trying to "change hearts."
On Monday, video was released of activists from the Black Lives Matter movement challenging the Democratic presidential front-runner on her commitment to end racism and the criminal justice policies implemented by her husband's administration.
In the clips, which were published on Good Magazine, Clinton suggests that the activists need to rally around strong policy goals if they want to create real change.
However, Julius Jones, a local organizer with the Black Lives Matter movement, replied, "This is and has always been a white problem of violence. There's not much that we [black people] can do to stop the violence against us."
Clinton pushed back, "Respectfully, if that is your position, then I will only talk to white people about the very real problems."
Jones continued, "That's not what I mean. What you just said was a form of victim-blaming. What you were saying was that what the Black Lives Matter movement needs to do to change white hearts ..."
"I don't believe you change hearts," said the former first lady. "You change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate."
"You can keep the movement going," she continued, "and through it, you may change actually some hearts, but if that's all that happens, we'll be back in 10 years having the same conversation because we will not have all of the changes that you deserve to have because of your willingness to talk about this."
The former secretary of state also defended her husband's "tough on crime" policies.
"It's important to remember -- and I certainly remember -- that there was a very serious crime wave that was impacting primarily communities of color and poor people,"
According to The Huffington Post, Clinton's campaign issued a statement Tuesday saying that the discussion "one of many that the campaign will continue to have with a wide array of stakeholders in order to build on Hillary Clinton's policy proposals to help reform our criminal justice system and achieve racial justice."
Watch the videos below.
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