Watch: Reverend Al Sharpton hailed the president’s statement as “historic” on NewsNation Friday, and criticized those who diminish the modern-day call for civil rights. 
President Obama made history Friday with his emotional remarks on a topic he hasn’t much touched while in office: racial discrimination.
Reverend Al Sharpton hailed the president’s statement on NewsNation Friday, and criticized those who diminish the modern-day call for civil rights.
“We are not the troublemakers,” said the Politics Nation host. “We’re the trouble breakers.”
He went on to say:
“When you look at these state laws–Stop and Frisk in New York, 33 states with Stand Your Ground, Stop and Frisk in other states–these state laws are the 21st century version of state laws that Dr. King and others fought 50 years ago. And the most insulting thing to me is these journalists that say, ‘Well this not then.’ Well, it may not be back then, it may not be as bad as the ‘60s. But it is what we face today. That’s like telling people in the ‘60’s it’s not as bad as slavery. Why do we have to get comparative progress? Why not progress? So to say, ‘Oh, it’s not as bad as it was,’ the fact that it is unequal and uneven is bad enough. That we can be pulled over and frisked in New York, that we can deal with Stand Your Ground in Florida, in Texas, or Indiana, I mean to try and rationalize this is almost like, ‘Well at least we don’t make you sit in the back of the bus,’ like that’s an intelligent statement.”