Hip-hop artist and Bernie Sanders supporter Killer Mike appeared in an NRATV video Saturday to speak out in support of gun ownership and expressing some very curious arguments to boot.
Sitting with NRA member and host Colion Noir, Killer Mike listened to the host express how he has empathy for children who are shot and killed in school shootings—even though Noir thoroughly mocked the Parkland, Fla., shooting survivors and their planned March for Our Lives as a “carnival” in a previous video.
Whatever, dude.
One of the first things Killer Mike opened up with was,“In Wakanda, everyone had guns and spears and everything else you needed.”
The guns part is simply not true. Okoye grumbled, “Guns, so primitive” in Black Panther, the movie Killer Mike referenced.
He also told Noir that he declined to support an anti-bullying campaign because he believes “your child needs to get punched in the face so he can learn to punch someone back. That isn’t saying it’s right to be punched in the face. That’s saying, as sure as you’re an adult, someone or something is going to punch you in your fucking face.”
This statement is troubling because it ignores the real issues behind bullying and the psychological trauma it produces. The Root has reported on the intersections of bullying and suicide, for example.
As for the school walkouts that were prompted by the Parkland school shooting, Killer Mike said he told his children that if you walk out of school, “walk out of my house.”
Listen, Killer Mike can believe what he wants about gun rights and be friends with whomever he chooses, but the problem most folks have is his appearance on an NRA-funded platform. In case you didn’t know, the NRA cares nothing about black people. Killer Mike mentioned Jordan Davis without, at least in the video, explicitly calling out the NRA for not supporting his mother. Same with Philando Castile and other black people shot and killed by cops.
Killer Mike’s detractors online said as much:
While Killer Mike isn’t backing down from what he said, he may not make any more NRATV appearances:
Check out his interview for yourself: