Jemele Hill gets shut down on CNN after making 'absurd and laughable' statement

Kmele Foster and Jemele Hill debating capitalism on CNN.

Sparks flew during Tuesday night's episode of Newsnight with Abby Phillip during a discussion about Texas senate candidate James Talarico's claims that capitalism is inextricably linked with white supremacy.

Magazine writer Jemele Hill echoed Talarico's remarks, saying that capitalism is oppressive and the result of white supremacy, still pushing the wokest of talking points from the pandemic era and not making any clear argument that actually connected the two. But Tangle News editor and Fifth Column podcast host Kmele Foster shut down her premise with a lengthy response. 

“It's one thing to not think capitalism isn't working ideally. It's another thing entirely to insist that it is oppressive, that it is bound up with white supremacy," Foster responded. The idea that people can own property, that they can exchange it freely with one another for profit, that they can find ways to put their resources to good use and profit in a way that is actually beneficial to everyone else, that there can be gains from trade that are mutually beneficial. These are foundational ideas that have created more wealth than any other system in human history. That is what capitalism is! That is not white supremacy.”

Hill tried to argue with him, declaring, “That ain't how it's always worked.”

Foster continued his takedown, pointing out facts that are roundly ignored by anyone on the left. “Slavery is an institution that is older than writing. It predates capitalism," Foster said. "The notion that white supremacy and all these other things are bound up with capitalism in an intrinsic and fundamental way is so absurd and laughable, it barely needs to be defended.”

Watch a highlight from the tense exchange below.