Hip hop artist and activist Talib Kweli defended protesters Mara Jacqueline Willaford and Marissa Johnson during a conversation withBill Maher on HBO’s Real Time, saying that “the job of activism is not to be liked, not to be polite.”
Maher and Kweli were discussing the actions of Willaford and Johnson, who had taken over a rally for Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders in an attempt to draw attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. Maher pointed out that Sanders has a strong record for civil rights and that therefore he might not have been the proper target for the protesters. But Kweli countered, saying that Sanders “is somebody who — just because someone has a record of civil rights doesn’t mean they are automatically entitled to the black vote.”