Cummings: Young black males ‘going to have a lot of barriers’

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) on Sunday offered advice to young black males growing up in the United States.

“I would tell him that he’s going to have a lot of barriers to get to where he has to go, but that he can make it,” Cummings said on CBS’s “Face The Nation” when asked what he’d tell a young black male who came to him and asked what his future would look like.

{mosads}Cummings said he would tell him to do everything he can to get a good education.

“But I would also tell him to be careful in whatever he does,” he said.

When asked if that meant to be careful with interactions with the police, Cummings said: “No doubt about it.”

Cummings then pivoted to talking about the fatal police shooting of Philando Castile in Minnesota last week, noting Castile was “a man who was doing everything right.”

“I think that what has happened is that a lot of people don’t understand what it’s like for African-American men and boys, to know that at any moment you’re going to be pulled over and that your life could end,” he said.

He said all people are asking for is respect.

“We have to make sure that we understand that the community needs the police,” he said, “and the police need the community.”