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Nas Talks Race Relations on CNN

Queens MC says Americans are "looking like barbarians."

Untitled rapper Nas participated in the AC360 "Race and Justice In America II" town hall Tuesday night (July 23), appearing alongside guest commentators Tea Party 365's David Webb; The New York Times' Charles Blow; Davenport University's Andre Perry; and BET's Micheala Angela Davis.

Nas, who has a hip hop fellowship named after him by Harvard University's W.E.B. DuBois Institute and the The Hip Hop Archive, pointed to "guilt" and "ignorance" as factors dividing color lines.

"People, we tend to judge each other," Nas told CNN host Anderson Cooper. Expounding, he added, "If I don’t know something about you, Anderson, I’m going to judge you based on a bad experience I had with another white person. If you don’t know me and you walk down the street and you see me, my pants are hanging — you’re going to assume the worst."
The nation has to look towards being better than that, he said. "We need to learn how to deal with each other, basically, because at this point, America’s looking like barbarians."

CNN's townhall was broadcast over two nights, taking an in-depth look at hidden biases in the nation and inspired by the verdict and polarized reactions to verdict in the George Zimmerman criminal trial for the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

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(Photo: Anderson Cooper 360 via CNN)

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