Rubio: We need to address race as a society

Marco Rubio on Thursday questioned whether there is a political solution to protect African-American men from racial profiling by police, while noting that the problem of racism must be addressed in other ways.  

“Whether you agree with them or not, if a significant percentage of the American family feels that they are being treated differently than anyone else, we have a problem then. We have to address that as a society and as a country,” he said during CNN’s GOP town hall. 

{mosads}”I do not believe we can fulfill our potential as a nation unless we address that. I’m not sure there is a political solution to that problem, but there are things we can do.” 

He added that he is familiar with stories of minority Americans who have been targeted by police based on their race. 

Rubio went on to note that many minority Americans grow up in poverty-stricken and dangerous neighborhoods in “broken homes” and are “forced by the government to attend failing schools.” He cited a nonprofit that sought inroads into Harlem’s impoverished families in the latter part of the 20th century. 

The Florida senator, who is running to be the first Hispanic president, said that as a child, some children in his neighborhood told his family to go back to their country, in response to Anderson Cooper’s question if Rubio had ever experienced racism personally.