WATCH: Ramaswamy confronted about race, Black history at Cincinnati town hall

At a Cincinnati town hall Monday held in the wake of brutal beating of a White woman that went viral online, Vivek Ramaswamy was put on the spot by an audience member who claimed Black history has been swept “under the table” in America.

Answering the man’s concerns, the Ohio Republican candidate for governor said, “We have to confront what is true. Not just what makes us comfortable.” But he also praised America as a country built on ideals and that strives to uphold them, however imperfectly.

The questioner, identified by his first name Robert, told Ramaswamy that when it came to the debate over public safety in the U.S., he does not take a partisan side, but Robert complained that the history of Black people in America has not been adequately part of contemporary conversations around public safety. 

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“You have to understand how our people feel, because we were brought here in slave ships over 400 years ago, and we were treated like animals, like cattle hung on trees, families separated, our heritage taken from us so that we didn’t know who we were as a people. Now, I say, you act like this is a new thing. This balance that you see out here,” Robert posed to Ramaswamy. 

“Well, look over the 400 years of all the violence that was perpetrated on our people… You want to sweep our history under the table, but you don’t sweep the Ashkenazi Jews with the Hitler thing under the table. All the things that you did to the other races of people, you don’t sweep that under the table. But when it comes down to the black Negro, we can always sweep what happened to us under the table.”

In response to the question, Ramswamy quipped about how the difficult question was proof that the night’s questions were not pre-screened by him or his team. Ramswamy candidly added that the question made him a bit “uncomfortable” but said leaders should be expected to answer such difficult questions.

“Of course, we’re not perfect. In fact, we’re destined to never be perfect because we’re not a nation comprised of gods, we’re a nation comprised of human beings, and we’re a nation founded on a set of ideals. So, that means you will always be imperfect,” Ramaswamy said in response to the race-conscious question. 

Ramaswamy pointed to China and Iran to further explain his point.

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“Nobody ever criticizes China, or Iran, or whatever for hypocrisy, because to be a hypocritical nation, you have to have ideals in the first place,” Ramaswamy said. 

“I’m not going to say America was perfect for every chapter of our national history. Of course not. We’re a nation founded on ideals. We’re nation founded on human beings, so we’ll always fall short of those ideals,” Ramaswamy continued. “But I would rather live in a country that has ideals and falls short of them. Than to live in a country with no ideals at all.”

While Ramaswamy went on to say that no one’s ethnic history should be swept under the rug, he also posited that last week’s history, referring to a widely publicized public beating caught on camera in Cincinnati that went viral and caused an uproar of criticism over public safety and crime, should not be ignored either.

“We have to confront what is true. Not just what makes us comfortable, but precisely when it does not,” Ramaswamy said.

As Ramaswamy concluded his response to the question about race, the potential Ohio governor noted one part of the questioner’s ask, which “land[ed] with [him] a little bit differently.”

“When you say our people, when I hear that, I’m thinking that ‘our people’ is everybody in this room. I see black, white, brown, man, woman. These are our people. America is our people. Ohio is our people. Cincinnati is our people. And I believe it is the God-given right of every person to be able to live a life free of violence,” Ramaswamy said before ending his response to the question. “And may I even say, if you’re a hard-working American, to go into your city whether you’re black or white without fear of actually being assaulted or battered, that ought to be the birthright of every American. That’s what I want for ‘our people.’”