Rep. Emanuel Cleaver: Paul Ryan doesn't know anything about 'inner city' men

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Member of the Congressional Black Caucus Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) joined MSNBC’s News Nation today to discuss House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) controversial comments last month about the culture of the “inner city.”

“We have got this tailspin of culture in our inner cities in particular of men not working,” said Ryan on a conservative radio show. “And Just generations of men not even thinking about working.”

“The problem though is that he was quoting Charles Murray, who has been pouring racist sewage into open ears for a couple generations now,” Cleaver said Wednesday. “He has been pushing his theories of the Bell Curve and white supremacy, and Ryan quoted him as one of the authorities.”

After receiving backlash for his comments, Ryan said his comments were not race-related and agreed to meet with the CBC.

Cleaver said he expects at the meeting “there will be much more light than heat.”

“I think that it is important for Mr. Ryan to know that he has probably not had experiences in inner cities around the country or in Wisconsin,” said Cleaver.

“He probably doesn’t know anything about people, African-American men or the Latino men, in the inner city. He doesn’t know.”

Follow Carrie Healey on Twitter @CarrieHeals.