Following is a partial transcript of an interview between rap singer Sister Souljah and Washington Post staff writer David Mills on the subject of the Los Angeles riots. Speaking at the Rainbow Coalition convention Saturday, Democratic candidate Bill Clinton cited remarks in this interview -- which appeared in The Post on May 13 -- as "filled with a kind of hatred" and criticized the group for having Sister Souljah at the convention.
Q: A lot of people look at the violence that was unleashed and say . . .let's talk now about white America and middle-class black America -- will see the videos of the looting, the burning, people with their kids walking away with merchandise, people shooting at firemen, and think, you know, "Thank God for the police, because the police is what separates us and our property and our safety and our lives from them, because look what they're capable of."
Sister Souljah: They {middle-class blacks} do not represent the majority of black people, number one. Black people from the underclass and the so-called lower class do not respect the institutions of white America, which is why you can cart as many black people out on the television as you want to tell people in the lower and underclass that that was stupid, but they don't care what you say.
You don't care about their lives, haven't added anything to the quality of their lives, haven't affectuated anything for the quality of their lives, and then expect them to respond to your opinions which mean absolutely nothing? Why would they?
Q. But even the people themselves who were perpetrating that violence, did they think it was wise? Was that wise, reasoned action?
A. Yeah, it was wise. I mean, if black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people? You understand what I'm saying? In other words, white people, this government, and that mayor were well aware of the fact that black people were dying every day in Los Angeles under gang violence. So if you're a gang member and you would normally be killing somebody, why not kill a white person? Do you think that somebody thinks that white people are better, or above and beyond dying, when they would kill their own kind?
Q. I'm just asking what's the wisdom in it? What's the sense in it?
A. It's rebellion, it's revenge. You ever heard of Hammurabi's Code? Eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth? It's revenge. I mean, that seems so simple. I don't even understand why anybody {would} ask me that question. You take something from me, I take something from you. You cut me, I cut you. You shoot me, I shoot you. You kill my mother, I kill your mother.
Q. And the individuals don't matter?
A. What individuals? If you killed my mother, that mattered to me. That's why I killed yours. How could the individuals not matter? You mean the white individuals, do they matter? Not if the black ones don't. Absolutely not. Why would they? If my child dies, your child dies. If my house burns down, your house burns down. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. That's what they believe. And I see why.