Watch Andrew Yang Talk About Racial Representation at Democratic Debate

SANDERS: I can, because people of color, in fact, are going to be the people suffering most if we do not deal with climate change. And by the way, we have an obligation up here, if there are not any of our African-American brothers and sisters up here, to speak about an economy in which African-Americans are exploited, where black women die at three times higher rates than white women, where we have a criminal justice system which is racist and broken, disproportionately made up of African-Americans and Latinos and Native Americans who are in jail. So we need an economy that focuses on the needs of oppressed, exploited people, and that is the African-American community.

MODERATOR: Senator Klobuchar, here in California, people who identify as Hispanic, black, Asian or multiracial represent a majority of the population, outnumbering white residents. The United States is expected to be majority nonwhite within a generation. What do you say to white Americans who are uncomfortable with the idea of becoming a racial minority, even if you don’t share their concerns?

AMY KLOBUCHAR: I say this is America. You’re looking at it. And we are not going to be able to succeed in the world if we do not invite everyone to be part of our economy. Our Constitution says that we strive for a more perfect union. Well, that’s what we are doing right now. And to me, that means, one, that everyone can vote, and that includes our communities of color. This action that’s been taken by this president and his people and his governors all over the country is wrong. They have made it harder for African-Americans to vote. As one court said, discriminated “with surgical precision.”

What would I do? As one of the leaders on voting in the U.S. Senate, one, stop the purging. As Stacey Abrams said, you know, you do not stop having your right to assemble if you don’t go to a meeting for a year. Because you don’t go to a church or synagogue or mosque for three months, you don’t lose your right to worship. You shouldn’t lose your right to vote. I would pass, as president, my bill to register every kid in this country when they turn 18 to vote. That would make all of these discriminatory actions in these states go away. And I would stop the gerrymandering, in addition to the agenda of economic opportunity, because as Martin Luther King said, “What good is it to integrate a lunch counter if you can’t afford a hamburger?”

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