2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)MoveOn has a perfect response to Netroots controversy: [View all]
The presidential candidates responses today to the powerful protest led by Black activists at Netroots Nationas well as other remarks from the campaign trail in recent weeksmake clear that all Democratic candidates have work to do in understanding and addressing the movement for Black lives.
Saying that all lives matter or white lives matter immediately after saying Black lives matter minimizes and draws attention away from the specific, distinct ways in which Black lives have been devalued by our society and in which Black people have been subject to state and other violence.
Similarly, while economic and racial justice issues certainly intersect, and reducing economic inequality will benefit people of all races, portrayals of racial injustice as merely an offshoot of economic injustice or the implication that solutions to economic inequality will take care of racism represent a fundamental misunderstanding of how race operates in our country.
Frankly, all Democratic presidential candidates need to do better. Candidates must make clear that they stand in solidarity with the movement for Black lives and be willing to say explicitly Black lives matterfull stop, without qualifiers. Candidates should develop and convey an understanding of how racism operates independently of as well as how it intersects with economic inequality, and say what they intend to do to about it. And candidates should heed the call to say the names of Black men and women like Sandra Bland who have died in police custody, and give specific commitments to address police brutality and mass incarceration.
http://front.moveon.org/moveon-response-to-netroots-nation-presidential-town-hall/#.VarOYfmo3B5
It doesn't place blame, it speaks to all our candidates. When I heard what happened at Netroots today my first thought wasn't "how does this affect my candidate" it was " we have got a problem". We aren't addressing the anger and fear young black people are experiencing in a way that is connecting with them. I'm sure if Hillary Clinton were there she would have had the same experience as the other candidates.This is a problem for all of us,every democrat.