Here's Why Black People Should Think Twice Before Voting For Hillary Clinton - HuffPo/TheNation

[WillyT]

Here's Why Black People Should Think Twice Before Voting For Hillary Clinton
Michelle Alexander, the author Of "The New Jim Crow," outlines the presidential candidate's support for some questionable policies.
Julia Craven - HuffPo
02/10/2016 07:21 am ET | Updated 9 hours ago

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Michelle Alexander has questioned what the Clintons have done to deserve such devotion among black voters.
Brad Barket via Getty Images

<snip>

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Clinton has the black vote in her hands.

Eighty percent of black Democratic voters intended to cast their ballots for the 2016 presidential candidate in August 2015 -- and not much has changed since then. But with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) becoming a serious opponent for Clinton in the race to the Democratic nomination, many African-Americans are asking if the former Secretary of State really deserves the black vote.

Author and legal scholar Michelle Alexander doesn’t think so.

"What have the Clintons done to earn such devotion? Did they take extreme political risks to defend the rights of African Americans?" the author of The New Jim Crow asks in a new essay for The Nation. "Did they courageously stand up to right-wing demagoguery about black communities? Did they help usher in a new era of hope and prosperity for neighborhoods devastated by deindustrialization, globalization, and the disappearance of work?"

Alexander skillfully poses these questions before taking a deep dive into Clinton's past...

<snip>

Link: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-black-voters_us_56ba797fe4b08ffac12328f0

The piece at The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/article/hillary-clinton-does-not-deserve-black-peoples-votes/

[EdwardBernays]

1. This topic

Last edited Wed Feb 10, 2016, 08:46 PM - Edit history (1)

Is essentially currently taboo. The degree to which it becomes a mainstream conversation is probably an indicator of Bernie's actual chances.

[WillyT]

3. Excellent Point...

[pablo_marmol]

4. + 1,000 NT

[Android3.14]

9. I know of one strong Hillary supporter

I know of one strong Hillary supporter who is aware of this sort of thing, appears to know it is indefensible, and still supports Clinton.

I do not understand people.

[guillaumeb]

2. On the same topic:

I posted this yesterday:

Adding to a growing list of prominent African American voices backing Bernie Sanders in his presidential bid, former NAACP head Ben Jealous will reportedly endorse the Vermont senator and campaign with him this weekend in New Hampshire.........

The Clintons both benefit from a perception that they are concerned.

[pablo_marmol]

5. It's IMPOSSIBLE to read 'Dog Whistle Politics' and come away feeling good about the Clintons.

Thanks for sharing this, WillyT. Potent stuff.

Edited to add: Ho. Lee. Phuk!!!

In her support for the 1994 crime bill, for example, she used racially coded rhetoric to cast black children as animals. “They are not just gangs of kids anymore,” she said. “They are often the kinds of kids that are called ‘super-predators.’ No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”

[FailureToCommunicate]

7. It's best to hear it in it's ORIGINAL language: dogwhistle...

[dorkzilla]

8. Bring them to heel...like a dog?

I still don't understand how Bill got the moniker "The first black president".

[KoKo]

11. I never understood that myself!

[FailureToCommunicate]

12. Well, Bill was **kinda** cool after all. Hillary not so much.

[chknltl]

6. KnR nt

[Bohemianwriter]

10. Those were the days...

where democrats really ran and hid...

[Uncle Joe]

13. That Nation article by Michelle is an excellent read.

Thanks for the thread, WillyT.

[mgmaggiemg]

14. Loretta Lynch plus HRC=social justice dream team

CBC is very mindful of history

[DemocraticSocialist8]

15. Powerful article!

Yes...this discussion needs to take place.

[jonestonesusa]

16. Balanced and thoughtful analysis by Alexander.

It is definitely not a puff piece in favor of Sanders (it criticizes him for the reparations commentary and his vote for Bill Clinton's 1994 crime bill). It uses multiple examples of policies favored by both Clintons and their impact on black lives.

Chances are that none of the usual water carriers for Hillary Clinton will be challenging Alexander on her reasoning. That's unfortunate, because this article is a great kick-start for the discussion we need to have about the future of this country and the globe, black lives included. I hope we can all leave the partisan clichés behind and talk about the real issues, like Alexander does.

Wouldn't that be great!!

[Cassiopeia]

17. I've been pretty hard on Obama for the last 6 years.....

I'm so very thankful he hasn't run his administration the way the Clinton's did.

[Peace Patriot]

18. "What have the Clintons done...?" Nothing. They have done NOTHING...

..for black Americans or for anybody else, and, for black Americans, they created the special hell of mass incarceration, via the corrupt, murderous, failed U.S. "war on drugs," utterly destructive to children and families, and devastating to black communities. Then, THEN they destroyed the fire wall between banks and speculators, and helped nuke our economy, with the heaviest fallout falling on guess who?

Nothing! They've done nothing but harm to black Americans and to all of us. And I'm so glad that this brilliant legal scholar, Michelle Alexander, and other black Americans, are pointing this out and starting to be heard.

See this, too (Tim Black):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1017328733

[Cassiopeia]

19. No, they did far worse than nothing

they created a whole new "war" on the AA community.

It didn’t have to be like this. As a nation, we had a choice. Rather than spending billions of dollars constructing a vast new penal system, those billions could have been spent putting young people to work in inner-city communities and investing in their schools so they might have some hope of making the transition from an industrial to a service-based economy. Constructive interventions would have been good not only for African Americans trapped in ghettos, but for blue-collar workers of all colors. At the very least, Democrats could have fought to prevent the further destruction of black communities rather than ratcheting up the wars declared on them.