Michelle Alexander: Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote

[99th_Monkey]

Why Hillary Clinton Doesn’t Deserve the Black Vote
From the crime bill to welfare reform, policies Bill Clinton enacted—and Hillary Clinton supported—decimated black America.
By Michelle Alexander * February 29, 2016 * The Nation

Hillary Clinton loves black people. And black people love Hillary—or so it seems. Black politicians have lined up in droves to endorse her, eager to prove their loyalty to the Clintons in the hopes that their faithfulness will be remembered and rewarded. Black pastors are opening their church doors, and the Clintons are making themselves comfortably at home once again, engaging effortlessly in all the usual rituals associated with “courting the black vote,” a pursuit that typically begins and ends with Democratic politicians making black people feel liked and taken seriously. Doing something concrete to improve the conditions under which most black people live is generally not required.

Hillary is looking to gain momentum on the campaign trail as the primaries move out of Iowa and New Hampshire and into states like South Carolina, where large pockets of black voters can be found. According to some polls, she leads Bernie Sanders by as much as 60 percent among African Americans. It seems that we—black people—are her winning card, one that Hillary is eager to play.

And it seems we’re eager to get played. Again. ~snip~

Black voters have been remarkably loyal to the Clintons for more than 25 years. It’s true that we eventually lined up behind Barack Obama in 2008, but it’s a measure of the Clinton allure that Hillary led Obama among black voters until he started winning caucuses and primaries. Now Hillary is running again. This time she’s facing a democratic socialist who promises a political revolution that will bring universal healthcare, a living wage, an end to rampant Wall Street greed, and the dismantling of the vast prison state—many of the same goals that Martin Luther King Jr. championed at the end of his life. Even so, black folks are sticking with the Clinton brand.

What have the Clintons done to earn such devotion? Did they take extreme political risks to defend the rights of African Americans? 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?

No. Quite the opposite.

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

[840high]

1. k/r x100

[loyalsister]

2. Bernie is talking reparations

Not just for slavery.
He's talking reparations for Clinton's policies. Check out this talk and Bernie's plans.

In social justice circles, we often talk of the abolition of the criminal justice system as it stands today: prejudiced, unaccountable, and dangerous. But when we finally arrive at that promised land, when we have deconstructed the American criminal justice system and created systems that empower us, what happens? When we have made it so none of our citizens feel endangered by the people who have sworn to protect and serve them, how will we move forward? Will we acknowledge that the war on drugs led to nothing but pain and lost opportunity for communities of color? Will we assess the financial and emotional costs of those lost opportunities?

http://www.mnnoc.org/reparations2016

Executive Director Anthony Newby asked Bernie Sanders if he was willing to commit 200 billion dollars to underserved communities. Sanders said he would invest a trillion dollars over the course of five years to underserved communities.

&feature=youtu.be

[Bonobo]

3. I'm going to give that its own thread. Thanks! nt

[99th_Monkey]

5. Wow! Thank you for this. Looks like Bonobo is running with it. <-- Like. n/t

[Katashi_itto]

4. K&R! Down with 3rd Way, the Vichy Dems

[kath]

6. Kick!