How Do Democrats Really Feel about Racial conflict in this Country?

[louis c]

I was born in 1952. In 1968 I was politically active at 16 years old. I was brought up in a political family. I remember that year in detail, starting with the Eugene McCarthy upset in New Hampshire (he actually lost the state, but got over 40% against an incumbent President). Through the assassinations and Chicago convention, to the narrow Nixon (ugh) win. It shaped what I am today.

It was the most politically turbulent year in this country since the Civil War. But just as Lincoln gave one of the greatest speeches in our history at Gettysburg, Bobby Kennedy did the same thing in Indianapolis a hundred years later, and about 50 years before today.

Kennedy spoke to the soul of the Democratic Party during an American crisis. He spoke for me in 1968 and he speaks for me now.

[LWolf]

1. That was painful.

I have not forgotten, although I was only a child, born in 1960. I remember. I remember my family, grieving all of the assassinations of that decade. I remember growing up knowing that hate and fear and corruption are always with us, and that too many people allow them to flourish and to grow, instead of working to shrink them. I remember, in my young adulthood, feeling betrayed by those around me, by the direction my country was taking, feeling more and more marginalized as the decades marched on.

That was painful.

[Doodley]

2. The racism in America shocks me every day.

I was brought up in Europe and have been here for ten years.

Things that shock me every day:

The hatred and distortions of truth that is aired on the radio and TV on the right that would not be tolerated in other Western nations.

The segregation of blacks that I see in my city (Atlanta), where some areas are near to 100% black - a result of poverty, resulting from past racist policies and continued inequality.

The injustice of the criminal justice system and policing.

The attitudes of my own family (extended in-law family) disgust me.

The anger and hatred and obstructionism aimed at Barack Obama, because of his color.

The Islamophobia, whipped up by right-wing media.

The Christian Right that thinks Christian Values equate to Republican greed in enriching the wealthiest and its meanness to those in need.

Donald Trump - King of racists winning nearly as much support as Hillary Clinton.

America has moved a long way, but it still has a lot further to go. It will take eight years of Hillary Clinton and then another eight years of a DEMOCRAT to cleanse the Republican Party of its bigotry and move it into the 21st century.

[jamese777]

3. There are words & there are actions

"On October 10, 1963, U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy committed what is widely viewed as one of the most ignominious acts in modern American history: he authorized the Federal Bureau of Investigation to begin wiretapping the telephones of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Kennedy believed that one of King's closest advisers was a top-level member of the American Communist Party, and that King had repeatedly misled Administration officials about his ongoing close ties with the man. Kennedy acted reluctantly, and his order remained secret until May of 1968, just a few weeks after King's assassination and a few days before Kennedy's own. But the FBI onslaught against King that followed Kennedy's authorization remains notorious, and the stains on the reputations of everyone involved are indelible."
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/07/the-fbi-and-martin-luther-king/302537/

[La Lioness Priyanka]

4. i feel like most of us do not know the daily racism that black people face

even those of us who are of color, do not fully get it, unless we have really tried to get it.

i feel like we are very very callous about systemic and institutionalized racism.