Watch and learn, progressives: Donna Edwards and Elizabeth Warren show how to talk about BLM

[DonViejo]

Watch and learn, progressives: Donna Edwards and Elizabeth Warren show how to talk about Black Lives Matter

Donna Edwards thrilled Netroots with a speech Sanders could love, while Elizabeth Warren improved her pitch on race

JOAN WALSH

All week long Sen. Bernie Sanders has shown that he’s learned from his tough Netroots Nation experience. He’s beginning to incorporate the concerns and the passions of the Black Lives Matter movement, and even its language, into his populist campaign. He’s said the name of Sandra Bland more than once. He more regularly talks about unjust police practices and mass incarceration in his speeches.

We know Sanders’ class-before-race approach has derived from his belief that economic justice would go a long way toward making life better for black America. And yet many of us feel emphasizing class over race misses the way that racial attitudes, and the assumption of white superiority, is embedded in society in ways that aren’t necessarily economic. It’s even a factor in this debate, as white progressives – and I’ve done it myself – try to tell black activists what they should care about, rather than listening to what they do care about.

That’s why I was struck by the stellar way Rep. Donna Edwards, a Maryland Democrat, approached these issues at that same Netroots Nation event. Edwards is a Netroots sensation, whose election was an early success of the online progressive advocacy that began to develop in the middle of the last decade. She remembers her roots, and has always worked closely with white progressives.

But Edwards’ speech was a clinic in the way a progressive politician can seamlessly integrate the concerns of the Black Lives Matter movement into an economic populist appeal. I’ll quote it at length below.

more
http://www.salon.com/2015/07/24/watch_and_learn_progressives_donna_edwards_and_elizabeth_warren_show_how_to_talk_about_black_lives_matter/

[spirald]

1. Donna Edwards shows us how to get past the "race wedge"

What Donna Edwards said has clarified an issue that has been bugging me for a while. Forgive me if I'm being captain obvious, but this is how I see the issue:

* The right wing uses race as a wedge issue to divide Americans, in particular the vast majority of us who are either middle class or would be if we weren't under constant assault from a variety of malefactors.

* Perceptions about race are used to create and maintain tribalism and enmity between various groups, preventing them from joining together as a voting block.

* The myth of the "black welfare queen" is used to convince taxpayers that "entitlement programs" are untenable because they will be looted by irresponsible black minorities. A message that "we can't have nice things because moochers" is sent, and the reaction becomes "shut off the spigot, we're hemmoraging money".

* The myth of the the "southern heritage" is used to normalize racist symbology and institutions that are frighteningly and justifiably offensive, while the justifiable reaction to these symbols is used to convince white working class southerners that their culture is under assault.

* The myth that "black people are more prone to being criminals" is used to promote the self segregation of whites from diverse neighborhoods, and is constantly reinforced by biased reporting and pervasive profiling and discrimination by police and "fear-washed" civilians.

* The pervasive and extreme level of white privilege with respect to our criminal justice system creates a natural comfort level which deprioritizes the need to address race issues in our political dialog among whites who have not yet become aware of how fundamental the issues of race-based propaganda and racism are to the issues we are fighting for in this country.

* Efforts by blacks to protest these conditions are cynically used to scare some groups that we are going to have a race war that will result in the enslavement of whites, prompting a bunker mentality and stochastic violence from certain tribes.

* Efforts by blacks to protest, sound the alarm and be heard are cynically used to portray black political organizations as disorganized, disrespectful, racist, and not allies of traditional progressive movements.

* The deprioritization of race issues by privileged whites in the political dialog is used to convince blacks that white privilege, even racism is pervasive among left wing whites and that politically allying with them is not tenable.

* Very few of us are completely immune to the impacts of the messaging and propaganda in which we are awash.

* Destroying the race-wedge and forming a united progressive front is key to regaining control of our democracy.

* To destroy the race-wedge, we must have patience with each other and not ascribe the ignorance of some individuals to all members of a movement.

* To destroy the race-wedge, we must have humility and realize that our attitude towards others is colored by our perceptions, upbringing and conditioning, some of which may be wrong and/or offensive. We must be prepared to learn and grow and adjust to the reality of the experiences of those we seek to ally with.

* The movement against "political-correctness" is designed to shut down the process of coalescing the shared ideas of disparate groups and reconciling differences between tribes. If we allow ourselves to generate enmity between each other, we will destroy our ability to work together and we will collectively lose.

* To destroy the race-wedge, when we engage in dialog we must always seek to understand and empathize with other's perspectives and find common ground. We must also be willing and able to reflect on and question our own perspectives and correct our understanding when we find it lacking, especially if we find ourselves taking offense and something and responsing in a knee-jerk fashion.

* To destroy the race-wedge, we must call out behaviors, policies, laws and institutions which directly and indirectly perpetuate this kind of racial-tribalism. If we can collectively see the problem and identify the individuals and institutions behind it we may at least be able to avoid falling for the bait.

* To destroy the race-wedge, we must find common ground with those who have been deluded into beliefs that may anger us, and seek to gently make them aware how they are being manipulated.

[daredtowork]

2. Masterful

But doesn't it seem that Hillary's campaign is doing quite a bit of that? This is the whole complaint about peeling the social from the economic, doing the #AllLivesMatter dogwhistle, tailoring the "hard work and address crime" speeches to "middle class" white audiences, etc.