VIDEO: White Occidental prof. says America has 'white supremacist society'

A college professor said on MSNBC that Americans live in a “white supremacist society” that “dehumanizes people of color” during a discussion over the symbolic role that the Confederate battle flag allegedly played in Charleston church shooting.

“It’s a myth to think that racists are unusual. We are a white supremacist society. We are a society that on its face values white people, what they do, and their body, their integrity, more than people of color, not just African-Americans, but all people of color,” said Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College, during an interview on The Ed Show on Friday.

According to her faculty profile, she specializes in the “presidency, media, gender, and race in the American context.”

“We dehumanize people of color in this country and so once a white person recognizes this, if they are given the opportunity and privilege of education then it is a constant struggle throughout the course of your lifetime to overcome it,” Heldman said.

Dylann Roof shot and killed 9 people during a bible study at Emanuel AME Church. All victims were African-American. According to a New York Times article published this past Saturday, Roof allegedly managed a website featuring white supremacist content. In one photograph found on the website, Roof is seen posing with the confederate battle flag and a pistol.

Heldman described the Confederate battle flag, which currently flies over the South Carolina state capitol building along with the state and American flag, as a “symbol of hatred.”

“I do think that that flag is very much a symbol of hatred and for some it is a symbol of heritage, but that is a heritage of hate. So the fact that we have a flag of essentially treason flying next to a flag of the United States, it just doesn’t make sense in 2015,” said Heldman.

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