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At the Democratic debate on Thursday night, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders spoke frankly about racism, with Clinton calling on white people to “recognize that there is systemic racism,” and Sanders again criticizing Clinton’s 1996 comments about “superpredators,” saying that “it was a racist term and everyone knew it was a racist term.”
But while competition for the so-called black vote continues to heat up ahead of Tuesday’s primaries, and the generational gap that has defined the primary race persists, members of Black Lives Matter remain determined to keep all candidates in check on matters of race and racism.
This week, at the 25th anniversary convention of the National Action Network (NAN), a civil rights organization led by the Reverend Al Sharpton, both candidates received their share of criticism. “Both said things that are harmful; our role is to hold them accountable,” the political strategist Angela Rye told The Intercept. In her speech before the convention, Rye continued to press the point. “The Democrats have to be accountable to us,” she told the audience, citing the over 90 percent of black voters who support the party and calling on them not to disengage after President Obama leaves office. “Our vote matters,” said Rye, who began her speech by calling herself “unapologetically black” and “super unapologetically black right now.”
“White Americans need to do a better job of listening when African-Americans talk, about the seen and unseen barriers that you face every day,” said Clinton, who has been sharply criticized for her tone-deaf response to a question about her own white privilege.
“We need to recognize our privilege and practice humility, rather than assume that our experiences are everyone’s experiences.”
She also paid tribute, one by one, to the mothers of several black victims of police and racist violence, many in attendance, who have endorsed her call for gun control and campaigned for her both in person and in a “Mothers of the movement” video. (Sanders, for his part, has been endorsed by Eric Garner’s daughter, Erica, and released his own video featuring her and calling for police accountability.)
Asked where the youngsters were, Phyllis Thorpe, 69, said she had seen some “50-year-olds.” She said she attends NAN events every year, to “get knowledge” and then report it back to members of her Harlem church who couldn’t make it downtown. “Knowledge is power,” she said, reminiscing of her college years in North Carolina, where she participated in sit-ins and flirted with the idea of joining the Black Panthers. “My family would have killed me,” she laughed. Today, she is decidedly more moderate, and planning to vote for Clinton on Tuesday. “Don’t call me old school, but I’m dedicated to her,” she said. “But the young ones, they all like Bernie Sanders.”
Some of the black supporters in attendance said they were there because Clinton’s message didn’t resonate with them. “She doesn’t know how to speak to the youth, he knows how to speak to the youth,” Skylar Fray, a 22 year-old wearing a “Bernie F***ing Sanders” T-shirt, told The Intercept, praising his appearance on a popular hip hop radio station and his conversation with a famous rapper. “He spoke to Ebro on Hot 97, I listen to Hot 97. Killer Mike interviewed Bernie, I listen to Killer Mike.”
Throughout the event, the many references to President Obama’s achievements drew more enthusiastic cheers than either presidential candidate, and Sharpton himself summed up the nostalgia lingering in the room when he joked: “We are in a place we’ve never been before in American history. We have never seen a white president succeed a black president.”
“Trump has directly offended several groups: Mexicans, undocumented immigrants, African-Americans, Muslim Americans, women, protesters; and he’s been extremely offensive,” Carmen Perez, an activist with Justice League NYC, told The Intercept ahead of the rally. “This only gives us in the movement the ability to see beyond our differences and come together, collectively, to take down a person who’s fueling so much hatred in this country.”
“I try to vote for what a candidate stands for, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re going to follow through, so I really try to focus more on the movement of the people, because really, it shouldn’t matter at the end of the day who we elect, if the power is still with us,” she said.
I will never understand why so much emphasis is placed upon the pigment of one’s skin.
Black Lives Matter, do everybody a favor and GO AWAY.
originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: eisegesis
I will never understand why so much emphasis is placed upon the pigment of one’s skin.
Then you say…
Black Lives Matter, do everybody a favor and GO AWAY.
Okay so they should stop expressing their feeling that institutionalized racism in America is endemic and directed at them.
Jail populations bear that out, most of the prison population is black.
Flame on…
Institutionalized racism is to blame for the number of black folks in prison??
The movement needs to disband and start over. Don't take my distaste for them as any indicator of my views on the issue of racism. It exists, I get it. The BLM doesn't need to shout it into my ear or hit me upside the head to make it any more apparent
originally posted by: JohnthePhilistine
a reply to: intrptr
Take the tour. You cannot define a roast beef sandwich if you have never seen one.
originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: eisegesis
The movement needs to disband and start over. Don't take my distaste for them as any indicator of my views on the issue of racism. It exists, I get it. The BLM doesn't need to shout it into my ear or hit me upside the head to make it any more apparent
What they hit us with is black thug gangtsa rap crime, in the media, right? All the time.
The BLM movement began the day they let George Zimmerman walk for murdering Treyvon Martin.
I won't go into all the other since killings of black people, by the police under suspicious circumstances, for which there was also no conviction or no sentencing, other than termination from duty and or pension.
The BLM movement began the day they let George Zimmerman walk for murdering Treyvon Martin.
The Washington Times exposed last January that leftist billionaire George Soros gave more than $30 million in seed money to Black Lives Matter affiliated groups.
According to Essence magazine, Google is also helping to fund the Black Lives Matter movement, giving $2.35 million in grants to activist organizations addressing the “racial injustices that have swept the nation.”
Politico reports that “some of the biggest donors on the left plan to meet behind closed doors next week in Washington with leaders of the Black Lives Matter movement and their allies to discuss funding for the burgeoning protest movement.”
The major liberal donor group Democracy Alliance (DA) will be holding its annual meeting from Tuesday evening through Saturday morning in Washington, and meetings will be held to discuss funding the movement.
Wealthy donors including Tom Steyer and Paul Egerman are expected to attend the DA annual meeting.
The Los Angeles Times has reported that Steyer, a hedge fund billionaire, gave the most to political campaigns of any single person in the 2014 midterm elections, contributing a whopping $74 million–almost three times as much as the second biggest donor, Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg gave $27.7 million.
The DA was started in 2005 by major liberal donors, including George Soros and Taco Bell heir Rob McKay, who hoped to build a permanent infrastructure to support leftist causes.
originally posted by: intrptr
Prison is equal opportunity racist.
The larger proportion of blacks in prison stems from they are profiled more, frisked more and arrested more, more often.
originally posted by: zazzafrazz
So lets NOT talk about racism?
OK...if it upsets you.
originally posted by: JohnthePhilistine
a reply to: intrptr
"knee jerk" That's pretty rich, coming from you. You brought up racism regarding prison, not me.
Your mom must have let you back in the house before you had the opportunity to meet too many people, or you would know that what I say is true.
The op makes excellent points as well but one would have to be fully matured to grasp them.
originally posted by: intrptr
a reply to: JohnthePhilistine
The larger proportion of blacks in prison stems from they are profiled more, frisked more and arrested more, more often.