Newly resurfaced audio of Democratic nominee Mike Bloomberg shows the former New York mayor making racist claims about Latino and black men. In the audio, Bloomberg says that “black and Latino men don’t know how to behave in the workplace.”
The audio is from Bloomberg’s tenure as Republican mayor of New York. Many interpret the audio as racist.
In the audio, Bloomberg is advocating for a multi-million dollar initiative with the stated goal of helping minority men get jobs in New York. The interview, which took place with PBS NewsHour in 2011, is surprisingly tactless.
“There’s this enormous cohort of black and Latino males aged, let’s say, 16 to 25 that don’t have jobs, don’t have any prospects, don’t know how to find jobs, don’t know that the — what their skill sets are, don’t know how to behave in the workplace, where they have to work collaboratively and collectively,” Bloomberg is recorded saying.
Bloomberg has a troubling history of racist remarks.
During his time as mayor of New York, he spearheaded the controversial and damaging “stop and frisk” initiative. He also was a supporter of the practice of “redlining.” Further, former employees have accused him of sexism.
In the PBS interview, Bloomberg goes on to state,
“Blacks and Latinos score terribly in school testing compared to whites and Asians. If you look at our jails, it’s predominantly minorities…where crime takes place, it’s in minority neighborhoods. If you look at who the victims and the perpetrators are, it’s virtually all minorities.
“A lot of these kids, it isn’t that they’re bad kids. It’s that once they made a mistake, it’s very difficult to recover from that. But we have an obligation to them, if not for compassionate reasons, just for selfish reasons.”
In response to these racist remarks, Bloomberg campaign national spokesman Michael Frazier stated,
“There’s no debate whatsoever that for people of color, and others, America has failed to deliver on its bedrock principle of equality of opportunity in the workplace. Everyone knows that.
“But few are able to address at least part of it in a meaningful way as Mike did through his administration’s “Young Men’s Initiative,” which Mike is discussing, and what became the national blueprint for President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” program.”
Bloomberg remains an unpopular choice in the primaries. He’s betting big on upset victories on Super Tuesday to swing the nomination to him. He faces stiff competition from progressive frontrunner, Bernie Sanders and his plans for debt relief and healthcare for all, and second-place centrist Pete Buttigieg.
