Journalist and host of TV One’s “News One Now” Roland Martin got into a heated debate with president of the National Policy Institute and member Alt-right movement Richard Spencer during the Nov. 22 broadcast of the news program.
In the 3-minute clip, Martin asks Spencer whether or not he would consider himself a white supremacist.
Unabashedly, the white nationalist slams that idea claiming that white supremacy was a disaster and that he does not want to rule over others as the term implies.
“We’ve had white supremacy in our past. Whether you think of imperialism, slavery and colonialism has been a disaster,” he proclaims.
Then, Martin continues to press the man about the Saturday conference where he gave a Nazi salute in President-elect Donald Trump’s name. The host asks what did Spencer mean about white people not needing other races.
Spencer responds claiming that white people do not need other races to succeed or to be great.
“White people ultimately don’t need other races in order to succeed or be ourselves. Absolutely not. ”
But, Martin challenges Spencer to consider the role of American slavery in the creation of the nation’s wealth. However, the Alt-Right leader claims that American wealth was created by the “genius of Europeans.”
Martin does not buy that explanation.
“The fact of the matter is that it was king cotton that supplied the economic means for America to do so. [And] it is a result from free labor of Black people.”
While Spencer states that he does not support slavery, he believes that white systems and the business model of slavery was a good thing.
Martin asserts that Black people was responsible for producing 91 percent of the world’s cotton. This cotton helped spark the American industrial revolution, Martin posits.
Near the end of the clip, Martin tells Spencer that people of color will not leave this nation. He asks the man what is his vision for America.
“I think that white people, Europeans, make up the core of American identity.”
Lastly, Martin asks, “Why don’t you go back to Europe ?”
