Discussion for article #239539
So is it fair to ask what, specifically, they would like the candidates to do? A laundry list of actions that candidates, with absolutely no power to influence anything, can take while still candidates to get BLM support?
Promises to take action if elected can be forgotten quickly.
I’d like to know from someone in the know what BLM expects to get from this, other than visibility. The candidates can’t do much of anything for them, as candidates.
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Exactly what they are doing right now, elevating the group’s visibility and thus injecting their issues into the national debate. They want to see their issues brought up, for example, in the debates…and discussed specifically in their framing, i.e…not generically about mass incarceration, specifically about black mass incarceration.
The problem, which Hillary was pointing out, is that they don’t seem to have clearly defined objectives that can be articulated. Very similarly to OWS, they are very reluctant to getting pinned down to any one set of objectives.
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And as you pointed out, unless BLM changes their tactics, they are fated to go the same route as OWS. Their antics don’t make me uncomfortable, they make me annoyed. Calling Democrats racist, while not proposing a single policy action that they want, and leaving the R’s alone, makes me want to give them the finger, not help them. It is the Dem party that is working for change. Maybe not fast enough, but this isn’t going to speed the process. Hillary was right in what she said to them.
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But that was the downfall of OWS as they accomplished basically nothing.
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The main problem I have with the criticisms of #blacklivesmatter is that people keep getting shot, cops who shoot the kids keep getting off, and nothing seems to be changing.
I understand that you can say, “Well, you’re not getting anything done, and you’re too vague.” But whatever it is that we’ve been doing until now (mostly nothing) hasn’t been getting anything done either.
I just don’t think it’s viable to say, I know kids are getting shot, but trust us, we’ll get to it, but first we have to win this election. If your hair catches on fire, you’re going to focus on that, to the exclusion of everything else, until you put the fire out. I think that unarmed kids (and adults) getting shot by cops is a “hair on fire” kind of problem. It deserves to sit on the top of the stack.
Having said that, I totally get where Hillary is coming from. I think there’s wisdom in it. I think she’s right. But I’m not so sure she’s right that I’m going to suggest that the activists who take the other side of it should shut up. Their position is legitimate, and they have the right (and a duty, really) to play their hand as they deem best, according to their conscience.
Also, OWS did a lot. It didn’t fix the world, but it inspired a lot of people, and put the issue of inequality on the table and into our discourse. The discussion we have now is completely different than it would have been. What those folks did was important and heroic.
I live in NYC, and I would point to Occupy Sandy as a great example of what came out of OWS. They helped a lot of real people who had real problems. And again, they didn’t fix the world, but they did make it a little better.
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First I must say that and as a child of the sixties and a minority, a Jew, I don’t feel I have a free card to be racist as Wilmore and many comedians of color (including white} feel they do and I still wince when I here the little jibes from any of them, But to the subject at hand, BLM I agree they are annoying and to me not informative and I yell oh fuck off when I see the tape with Bernie.BLM reminds me of the great things Ralph Nader did for us in getting G,W, Bush elected if they think that is going to help them make progress in their cause good luck. On its face it feels to me that at least their leadership is more interested in creating a history of activism that they as individuals can turn back to someday for personal benefit rather than accomplishing any real goal, after all who knows what their goal is?
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They are not making white Americans uncomfortable.
They are just race baiting Americans that are creating animosity which just increases the “racial divide.”
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I wish these two amateurs would stop getting so much air time. They have nothing but the ability to disrupt, and can’t even coherently describe their gripes, nor a short list of policy changes that could reasonable be enacted. Attacking one’s natural allies is no way to build a coalition to start a real movement for change.
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A laundry list of actions that candidates, with absolutely no power to influence anything, can take while still candidates to get BLM support?
I am not affiliated with BLM but, on the GOTP side, there are 4 sitting Senators and 3 sitting governors who could introduce legislation to change police and prison and criminal justice policies tomorrow if they wanted. On the Democratic side, Sen. Sanders pledged to introduce legislation banning private prisons in September. The [edit] candidates are far from powerless.
The activists couldn’t be clearer. They told Wilmore they want their rallies to “show up” in the fight to stop police violence against them.
Too many forget that blacks in this country have always had ideas and proposals to stop the racialized institutional violence they have endured. Anti-lynching campaigns, efforts to integrate and re-train police, legislative proposals like videotaped police confessions and reformed drug sentencing are examples of decades of programs, proposals, and strategies that did not protect Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Freddie Gray, or Sandra Blunt.
White people have not/are not listening to black proposals for police and law enforcement reforms. Juries, prosecutors, and cops who look the other way as the body count rises are doing so with white voters’ and politicians’ silent acquiescence.
The activists told HRC that police violence is a white problem. Cops are killing people and getting away with it daily. It’s a moral outrage and the outraged whites who are part of the conspiracy of silence and cover-up shouldn’t need the victims of the outrage to tell them what they should do to stop the killing.
Like most people, I get pissed off when classified based on the color of my skin.
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Don’t become anonymous like the ANONYMOUS MOVEMENT DID.
Black Lives Matter have done a done a great job of bringing awareness to the fact that blacks have been targeted by law enforcement. They have a huge base to build on. I hope they continue to build organize to bring change.
Hillary has fought for the rights of many, she is a brave-heart and stood her ground to point out the fact that the Black Lives Matter movement need to organize and continue to build on their base.
There are changes being made all over this country in law enforcement, but there needs to be more. We can thank the Black Lives Matter movement for bringing awareness to a VERY BIG PROBLEM. Their movement have saved lives.
Fuck these two clowns. They don’t speak for me.
BLM is going to go the way of Occupy Wall Street. Without an agenda, clear message and capable messengers, a movement will end up being defined by its worst elements.
And lets be fucking real: hundreds of black men die every year in America at the hands of other black men. Those lives matter just as much as the black guy killed by the white cop. Where is the outrage for their deaths? When are we going to protest these deaths? When are we black people going to get outraged about out own people? Black Lives Matter! Unless we address that, all we’re doing is lying to ourselves. Some accountability would be nice.
And stop blaming all cops for the actions of a few – especially if you don’t want to be defined by the few clowns that show up to start trouble at BLM protests.
How about an honest conversation?
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“All the Democratic nominees, are not showing up for black lives,” Jones said. “Bernie Sanders, for as much as he was walking with MLK, he ain’t walking that walk now,” Jones said.
Baloney.
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Denial is a pretty good sign of discomfort and yet the discomfort hasn’t helped at all. Maybe need a different strategy and tactics.
Here’s one for them to start with: all police shootings are handled NOT by local prosecutors, but independent counsel, with full prosecutorial discretion and subpoena power.
And yes, just having candidates “show up” would be a fair demand - if there were a place for the candidates to show up to.
When you start looking at the shootings and killings individually you see that merely the fact that a white cop killed a black citizen doesn’t mean it was unlawful and some outrageous act, Some shootings over the last 20 years are with damn good reasons. Many whites get pissed when activist start yelling no justice no peace and kill whitey five seconds after the fellow stops breathing without ever knowing the facts. The Ferguson shooting is a perfect example, we were feed a line of shit for days and very few, Capehart is the only one that comes to mind, apologized for continuing to spread the disinformation about the shooting. This is the problem with yelling and screaming anyway, folks tune it out. MLK took a very different approach, Ghandi took a different approach, who is that succeed with the brand of activism BLM is ussing?