The George Zimmerman trial, during which ZImmerman was found not guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black youth, has sparked countless discussions about the race and insitutional bias in the United States.
One such conversation was featured on CNN’s “AC360,” where Anderson Cooper hosted a town hall-style discussion. Among the speakers at the even was Nas, who offered his thoughts on the opinion that America is “post-racial.”
“It’s guilt. It’s guilt, it’s ignorance. People, we tend to judge each other,” offered the Queens, New York emcee. “If I don’t know something about you, Anderson, I’m going to judge you based on a bad experience I had with another white person. If you don’t know me and you walk down the street and you see me, my pants are hanging, you’re going to assume the worst.”
Nas concluded that American citizens have no choice but to learn to coexist. “We need to learn how to deal with each other, basically, because we’re starting to, at this point, America’s looking like barbarians.”
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Watch the interview below:
Nas has spoken extensively on the subject of race, and specifically the Trayvon Martin case as well. Race was the primary subject of his 2008 album Untitled, which was originally going to be titled the N-word.
Earlier this year, CNN called Nas Hip Hop’s “Finest” emcee.
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