--- title: Newt Gingrich Says Whites 'Don't Understand Being Black' description: Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said that white Americans "don't understand being black in America." canonical: https://time.com/4398908/newt-gingrich-whites-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/ author: Rosalie Chan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-08T18:27:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T23:08:29.695Z article:section: Politics og:title: Newt Gingrich: Whites 'Don't Understand Being Black in America' og:description: "You instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination" og:url: https://time.com/4398908/newt-gingrich-whites-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Newt Gingrich: Whites 'Don't Understand Being Black in America' twitter:description: "You instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Newt Gingrich: Whites 'Don't Understand Being Black in America' by [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Jul 8, 2016 6:27 PM UTC by [Rosalie Chan](https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/) ## Rosalie Chan Jul 8, 2016 6:27 PM UTC While speaking on this week’s shootings of [Alton Sterling](http://time.com/4394802/alton-sterling-police-shooting-baton-rouge/?iid=sr-link1), [Philando Castile](http://time.com/4397086/minnesota-shooting-philando-castile-role-model-school/?iid=sr-link1) and the [police officers in Dallas](http://time.com/4397911/dallas-police-shooting-victims-sniper/?xid=homepage), former House Speaker [Newt Gingrich](http://time.com/4396010/donald-trump-newt-gingrich-vice-president-ohio/?iid=sr-link1) said that white Americans “don’t understand being black in America.” [Gingrich](http://time.com/4384781/advocates-for-opioid-recovery/?iid=sr-link3) said on Facebook Live event with CNN analyst Van Jones that it took him a long time to understand this, [the Atlanta _Journal-Constitution_ reported](http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2016/07/08/newt-gingrich-white-americans-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/). “If you are a normal, white American, the truth is you don’t understand being black in America and you instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination and the level of additional risk,” Gingrich said. He added that white parents do not have to teach their sons to be careful when dealing with the police. [Gingrich](http://time.com/4358082/newt-gingrich-blasts-trumps-attack-on-judge-as-inexcusable/?iid=sr-link4) also spoke about moving to Georgia in 1960. “It was still legally segregated, which meant the local sheriff and National Guard would impose, by force, the taking away of rights of Americans,” Gingrich said. The U.S. has made progress, [Gingrich](http://time.com/4358239/donald-trump-republicans-judge/?iid=sr-link5) said, acknowledging Atlanta’s mayor, Kasim Reed, and Democratic Representative [John Lewis](http://time.com/4380552/democrats-use-gun-control-sit-in-to-ramp-up-fundraising/?iid=sr-link9). “But we’ve stalled out on the cultural, economic, practical progress we needed,” he said. Gingrich said the lack of progress “creates the kind of alienation where it begins to become legitimate to think about, whether it’s in songs or slogans or whatever, the shooting of policemen. If we were to continue in this direction of alienation on both sides, you could really be a very coarse and dangerous society in 10 or 15 years.” \[[Atlanta _Journal-Constitution_](http://politics.blog.ajc.com/2016/07/08/newt-gingrich-white-americans-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4398908/newt-gingrich-whites-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4398908/newt-gingrich-whites-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/"},"headline":"Newt Gingrich: Whites 'Don't Understand Being Black in America'","datePublished":"2016-07-08T18:27:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:08:29.695Z","description":"\"You instinctively under-estimate the level of discrimination\"","url":"https://time.com/4398908/newt-gingrich-whites-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/","keywords":["republicans","Race","justice","Dallas"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rosalie Chan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rosalie-chan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4398908/newt-gingrich-whites-dont-understand-being-black-in-america/","name":"Newt Gingrich: Whites 'Don't Understand Being Black in America'"}}]}] ```