Presidential hopeful Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand said during Wednesday night’s Democratic presidential debate that she can address “institutional racism” by explaining white privilege to women in the suburbs.
“I can explain it to white women in the suburbs,” Gillibrand (D-NY) said on the debate stage.
“When their son is walking down the street with a bag of M&Ms in his pocket, wearing a hoodie, his whiteness is what protects him from not being shot.”
The New York senator was addressing racial injustice issues when she made the remarks.
“I don’t believe that it’s the responsibility of Cory and Kamala to be the only voice that takes on these issues of institutional racism,” she said about Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), both of whom are black.
“As a white woman of privilege who is a US senator, it is also my responsibility to lift up those voices.”
Gillibrand’s M&Ms-and-hoodie line appeared to refer to Trayvon Martin.
Martin was an unarmed 17-year-old African American from Florida who was fatally shot in February 2012 while wearing a hoodie and carrying Skittles.