MSNBC host Al Sharpton called for action after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted Affirmative Action programs for college admissions.
"I think that this is tantamount to sticking a dagger in our back because what they have said now is that it is unconstitutional to even consider race," Sharpton told MSNBC on Thursday. "And given the racial history of the country, let's not act like Blacks are behind because there's something in our genes that made us behind."
The host noted that it was illegal for Black people to read or write just 160 years ago.
"We were enslaved 246 years," he continued. "So it is to completely throw to the wind the history of why we needed Affirmative Action in the first place."
"And I think it is unimaginable not to consider race, given the history of this country and given the data that we still see in this country," Sharpton said. "Blacks are still 10 percent less in terms of family wealth than whites. We are still less in education."
"So either you're saying we're genetically inferior or that there's something that is unequal in society and is unequal because of law," he concluded.
