Can Bernie Sanders Win Over Black Lives Matter? He Seems to Be Trying

[KamaAina]

http://www.yesmagazine.org/peace-justice/black-lives-matter-win-over-bernie-sanders-20150807

Supporters of Bernie Sanders may soon rejoice, as the progressive rock star is showing signs of making progress in how he speaks about the issue that until now seemed most likely to derail his campaign: race.

But in recent weeks, the self-identified democratic socialist has changed the way he talks about race and offered a more sophisticated message.

“We have got to say loudly and clearly that we will no longer tolerate police brutality in this country!” Sanders said to a receptive audience at the National Urban League in early August. “We have got to come together as a nation and work to eliminate structural racism in this country.”...

Sanders went on to stress some noneconomic solutions to systemic racism including prison reform and pointed repeatedly to the case of Sandra Bland as an outrageous example of police overreach.

[arcane1]

1. They're going to have to come up with some other smear.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

11. Look what they did to Obama!

but it didn't work

[LWolf]

2. If

BLM's goal is to have him prioritize racial justice and offer a specific plan to address racial justice, he's done that, and I hope some will be won over.

[RussBLib]

3. Bernie Sanders’ New Racial Justice Platform Wins Praise From Black Lives Matter Activists

so says the headline

After activists from the Black Lives Matter movement repeatedly disrupted speeches by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) over the past few weeks, the popular and populist presidential candidate released a comprehensive racial justice platform and hired a young racial justice activist as his national press secretary.

The platform, which has won praise from several prominent voices in the Black Lives Matter movement, focuses on different forms of violence against people of color in the United States: physical violence from law enforcement and extremist vigilantes, the political violence of voter suppression, the legal violence of the War on Drugs and mass incarceration, and the economic violence of crushing poverty. Sanders lays out several proposals to address each form of violence, from passing “ban the box” laws to prevent hiring discrimination against people with criminal records, to outlawing for-profit prisons, to restoring the gutted protections in the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The rest of the story at Think Progress

[nc4bo]

4. Even if he does not, black people will take notice....

Even if just to see what the hubbub is about.

It's not all about #BLM. Fighting racial injustices is the goal of other groups too.

[Adrahil]

5. I'm still an HRC supporter....

But I do think that maybe he is starting to get it. He still makes the mistake the turning all the solutions back into generalist statements, but he's been handling himself well, IMO. Not that I'm surprised. Sanders has always been a class act.

[daybranch]

6. I do not buy the baloney you are selling. He's a class act but Hillarys better baloney.

First off all the things you consider solutions are well kn0own and accepted by most liberal organizations- body cameras , community policing; getting rid of military equipment etc. etc. These band-aids pale when compared to the ideals and direction he points the country to. Generalist statements are indicative of longer term strategy in his case. Bernie knows as do many grear black American writers thar systemic racism is implemented by those that control the system in order to serve their purpose. Black Lives Matter Less because this allows the wealthy class to divide the working class. I recognize that African Americans are a target for police violence, economic exploitstion , unfairly defamed, and much abused, but systemic racism is a tool of those seeking election and reelection to create support for policies that target the poor both to prevent any income loss by the oligarchy and to drive the oligarchy necessary haters to the polls. Bernie knows this and targets removal of the oligarchy's influence on our government and thus their ability to continue inflicting pain in many ways on the black community, on immigrants both legal and illegal,on native Americans, on Asian Americans, on the homeless, on poor men and women in the ghettoes of the north and the coalfields of Appalachia, on working class families etc,. on Muslims, on unwed mothers, on any country that stands against their exploitation goals. The servants of the oligarchy are very successful in creating this class division and everytime I hear BLM say say the name and I am very aware that they want me to say Susan Bland, Michael Brown, John Crawford III , I want to shout oligarchy, Koch Brothers, Addeiman etc.. To me listing the victims without naming these most responsible for the killings is either cowardice to confront the problem head on as Martin Luther King Junior did in the months prior to his death, and as Bernie has done for over 40 years, or ignorance of the way the oligarchy has built the systemic racism particularly since reconstruction per black authors such as W, E. B. BuBois, or for some other reason.
But enough of the Bernie is good but I still support Hillary baloney. I have real problem accepting conclusions with no evidence of facts supporting that conclusion. Bernie people are about the issues as should be all Americans of good will towards our people. Your praise does not appear true and unless you start to explain why you support Hillary, we believe you are just trying to unite Bernie people behind Hillary. Sorry you are not credible.
I recognize you are working to portray Hillary as better on the issue of racism than Bernie. You provide no example of your thought process but wish us to grant you your conclusions as valid. Do you even remember the harm that her husband did to African Americans, immigrants and the homeless? Do you know about his stipulations regarding food stamp cuts, his removing of people who could not work from welfare after 5 years, his limiting of fund to legal immigrants, his denying funds to lawyers who might use them to pursue class aactions suits on discrimination, his support of NAFTA, his elimination of housing aid, his Crime Bill of 1996, his support of Minimum Mandatory sentencing creating direct pipeline to prison for many many black men and women. Hillry is tied to all this and has usually refused to speak out against Bills behavior or his policies. I will not even start to state how he rcurrent stands on issues will hurt blacks and whites, Glass-Steagall, Keystone Pipeline,TransPacific Partnership etc.
Now please tell us why you support Hillary, we are listening and watching.

[ibegurpard]

7. Calm down

There was no reason to respond to that post this way. No one owes anyone else an explanation as to why they support someone unless they choose to do so.

[Adrahil]

10. I've posted my reasoning multiple times before...

I'm not inclined to do so again just to satisfy you, especially since you are being kind of rude about it. Have a good night.

[ibegurpard]

8. from what I've seen so far I doubt it

But I am hopeful he can win over African American voters in general.

[whatchamacallit]

9. No

I don't think they're sincerely interested in "fixing" Bernie. He's already there. He's always been there.