Home > Sister Souljah moment

The term originates in the 1992 presidential candidacy of Bill Clinton. In an interview conducted May 13, 1992, the rapper Sister Souljah was quoted in the Washington Post as saying:

"If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?"

The remark was part of a longer response to the Los Angeles riots of 1992. The quote was later reproduced without its context and widely criticized in the media (see echo chamber).

In June 1992, Clinton responded to the quote, saying:

"If you took the words 'white' and 'black' and you reversed them, you might think David DukeDavid Duke (born July 13, 1950) is a White nationalist politician in the United States. He is also a former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Louisiana State Representative, and ran unsuccessfully for various offices including the Louisiana Senate, Governor of was giving that speech."

Clinton thereby repudiated the "extremist" position that Souljah's quote represented.

Clinton's response was criticized by members and leaders of the Democratic Partylogo depicts a stylized donkey in red, white, and blue. The Democratic Party is one of the two major United States political parties. The Party is currently the minority in both the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives, as w's African-American base, such as Jesse JacksonThe Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson, Sr. born October 8, 1941) is a civil rights and political activist in the United States. Early Life He was born as Jesse Louis Burns in a poor household in Greenville, South Carolina. He married Jacqueline Lavinia Brown o. However, it also produced the image, in the eyes of "moderate" and "independent" voters --- particularly white voters --- of a centrist politician who was "tough on crimeSee crime fiction for a survey of the fictional treatment of crimes and their detection and criminals and their motives. Crime Lake is a lake between Ashton-under-Lyne and Failsworth in Greater Manchester in England. A crime is an act which violates a law" and "not influenced by special interestA special interest is a person, group, or organization attempting to influence legislators or other public officials in favor of one particular interest or issue. In the UK, a group which specifically aims to influence public policy is known as a pressures." Since moderates and independents represent swing voteSwing vote is a term used to describe a vote that may go to any of a number of candidates in an election. Swing votes are usually sought after in elections, since they can play a big role in who wins and loses. Who is a swing voter? In an election, theres, whereas the party base will not usually leave for the other party, Clinton's condemnation probably won him more votes than he lost.

Clinton's Sister Souljah moment, whether born of political calculation or not, was consonant with his larger strategy to move the Democratic Party to a more centrist stance on many issues. Other elements of this centrist strategy included an embrace of Third WayOriginally, there was the view that a "middle way" exists between communism and the free-market capitalism associated with Anglo-American societies. This view was developed in the 1950s by German ordoliberal economists such as Wilhelm Ropke, resulting in economic policy and close relations with the Democratic Leadership Council. Clinton went on to win the presidency, and the term "Sister Souljah moment" subsequently entered political jargon.