Tuesday, I had a great conversation with Ring of Fire TV. My segment--which is about 13 minutes--will air this Thursday and Friday. I am not sure if the whole segment will make the show. If not, it is quite likely that the segment in its full length will be posted online.
During that dialogue with host Farron Cousins, he and I talked about my essay on Dylann Roof, Donald Trump, and the Right-wing hate media. We then pivoted to a closing discussion of Bernie Sanders and the Netroots Nation Black Lives Matter protest that occurred earlier this week.
I was not prepared for Farron's question; I am glad that he shared it.
I spoke what I feel is the truth. I am in this weird liminal space: I have gotten so much more confidence in the last year where I have been chatting with Ring of Fire (and others), yet remaining always careful, but being much more "myself". I know such a description is vague. I also trust that you get my meaning.
Ultimately, in being "me" with the volume turned up, I try to speak the truth even if it is impolitic. Some folks may be surprised at my comments about Black Lives Matter and their theater--all the world is a stage, is it not?--at Netroots Nation.
I am very curious as to your thoughts about the Black Lives Matter activists and their intervention at Netroots Nation. What are your feelings and analysis of Black Lives Matter and their choice of tactics during that event? If you were advising Bernie Sanders about Black Lives Matter and "black issues" what would you tell him to do?
You have my ear. Please play some songs that I can try to do a cover of, with attribution whenever possible, if I am asked to sit in with the band in the near future.
20 comments:
O'Malley and Sanders were strictly adhering to liberal white supremacy and the Black Lives Matter folks called them out on it. Lets hope its a teaching/learning moment for the D candidates.
Do Democrats really believe that Black Lives Matter? O'Malley and Sanders were blindsided due to their ignoring the subject. Are they ignorant or just won't they go lest they alienate HRC's "good white Americans?" They have to be asking themselves how do we appease our black constituency while at the same time mobilizing Blacks?
One thing for sure, Clintonian triangulation has been exposed as the Democratic Southern Strategy and has thereby been rendered ineffective. If Democrats don't celebrate Civil Rights and Black Lives Matter they're condemning the party to irrelevance.
Indeed, hopefully their ignorance was not of the willful variety. O'Malley has since apologized for his "All Lives Matter" retort, seemingly understanding the implications of it.
Hopefully, with sincere intentions, O'Malley and Sanders will do their homework on this and proceed accordingly, assuming they are in agreement with Black Lives Matter. The movement needs all the allies it can get, but should expect democratic nominee candidates to be allies.
In Sanders' case, at least, I'd say the case isn't so much that he doesn't think black lives matter, but that he doesn't think blackness itself, or racism, is a useful category -- or at least not *the* most useful category, which for Sanders would be class. From what I've read about Bernie, he sounds like a classic (if not straight-up orthodox) Marxist thinker: progressive politics/policy comes from mobilizing the working class, and that's that. Alliances with other "interests" are possible and often sincere and devoutly to be wish'd, but at the end of the day orthodox Marxism is all that matters.
In other words, I'd say the failure of someone like Sanders isn't that he denies the perniciousness of racism, but that he underestimates how fundamental racism is as a political category, especially in the US. Hopefully he regroups, listens, and learns something. But he's been settled in this way of thinking for a long time (and, as a senator from Vermont, he's rarely if ever been forced to confront these issues because the constituency that most vocally cares about them just isn't there), so I imagine it might be tough to get him to fully come around even to talking the talk.
I think he's more of a LBJ democrat than a socialist (war hawk + Great Society advocate) but as you point out he doesn't seem to understand that racism functions to maintain white privilege; an orthodox Marxist would know enough about social class to get it.
Thanks for the historical background. The D's need BLM to energize the party just like the R's need the TP, but for opposite reasons of course.
The fact is, neither Democrats nor Republicans actually believe that "all lives matter." It's a defense mechanism. They believe that white lives matter. That's been the defining belief since the first white people landed on North America's shores.
Sanders definitely should have stopped his speech and invited the protesters to the stage. At least his recent tweets on show that he did get the message. It may be true that Sanders hasn't internalized the way white supremacy permeates our society, but intellectually he knows the score, the names and the stats. He showed that at the forum, and still he was being shouted down. I hope his experience with the protesters will drive home to him that this is a crisis that the African-American community can no longer abide. If their tactics were excessive, they served a purpose. That said, his work to get community health clinics into ACA is reason enough for him to have been given some slack.
Ultimately, it seems to me Sanders and #blacklivesmatter are on the same side and need to have a long chat.
it was a fail on sanders part. o'malley effed up with his 'white lives matter, all lives matter' shite, but stuck around, apologized, talked and did interviews about it while sanders took off and canceled his interviews and meetings. just in terms of someone trying to be the nom and president, that was incredibly weak.
now, his stans....
I can't wait to hear what you said!
Because BLM is not an organization as such, I'm hesitant to ascribe this action to anyone except the people who spoke. The MSM, the wingers, and the Clinton campaign show no such hesitancy. They were on it too quickly and fervently for my taste.
You may be disappointed. Tomorrow we will know :)
I wouldn't even say that he doesn't understand that racism serves white privilege -- more that he believes white privilege is fully covered by and merely a subcategory of what he sees as the larger, all-encompassing problem of "class privilege." Racism for him is a symptom rather than a root cause, and his policies would lift all boats, so to speak. And that's a pretty standard line in more orthodox socialist and communist discourse throughout the past century.
The key then is to get him to understand that American racism is not simply coterminous with or subordinate to runaway capitalism, and that the former can't be eradicated simply by solving the economic problems of the latter.
I thought it was a good and way overdue intervention! When Patrice Cullors spoke I got truth chills. Yes! Its an emergency. Here are the women who led the action in their own words:
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/watch-huffpost-live-interview-blacklivesmatter-activists-who-took-over-netroots-nation
http://mic.com/articles/122629/i-am-the-black-woman-who-interrupted-the-netroots-presidential-town-hall-and-this-is-why
I think Al-Jazeera had a decent take on what happened:
http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/7/20/sanders-confronts-progressive-divide.html
I pretty much stand with Spandan's analysis, it speaks to my own experiences with activism:
http://www.thepeoplesview.net/main/2015/7/20/i-dont-want-to-out-scream-you-bernie-sanders-and-the-liberal-establishments-colossal-fail-on-race
Would like to say more, but not able just now. I can't stop thinking and studying about Sandra Bland and Kindra Chapman. So hard. In different ways they each remind me of the audacious girl I was, and that I'm now so proud my grand daughter is. Thinking how assertiveness could lead to her being murdered by the state feels ... awful, enraging.
Char, I appreciated what you wrote. Thank you.
Yes, racism and class are not separate issues as European socialists and communist revisionists seem to believe, and that Sanders seems to be finding out.
I can appreciate Sanders' vision, and I can appreciate the Black Lives Matter cause and energy they brought to that forum.
There needs to be an alliance between the two, as they are both assets to a cause that most of us here can believe in.
With that said, I think Bernie missed an opportunity.
This is an absurdly and insultingly racist diatribe. And I notice you don't take Hillary Clinton to task or insist BLM treat her the same way they treated Sanders and O'Malley.
Liberal white supremacy?!? Is this site full of racists who hate white people?!? I'm white, so I guess I better leave.
Thank you. And thanks for the links.
As you point out the Sanders agenda would certainly benefit Blacks et. al. All indicators are that 2016 will be another historical election with the first woman president having momentum. Hopefully, Sanders' presence can keep HRC left of center. Since the fiasco I've noticed that Sanders has altered his spiel by being less robotic and better at speaking to the latest atrocity.
It is too early in the morning to remember the specifics, but I think Sanders did make a speech after NetRoots in which he laid his view of race issues and mass incarceration and how economic justice and racial justice link up.
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