The Clinton campaign could use a public disruption from Black Lives Matter
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Version 0 of 1. The Black Lives Matter movement has had two major run-ins with Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders, both of which left him flustered. Some have criticized the movement and can’t understand why they would target Bernie Sanders, of all people, a candidate with a history of civil rights activism and a message of income equality. But the confrontations worked; Sanders’s immediate reaction was to draft a policy plan for racial justice that has been praised by important members of the Black Lives Matter movement. The plan calls for ending employment discrimination based on criminal history and steering people with drug problems into treatment rather than jail cells, among other progressive changes. Related: Why Bernie Sanders' run-in with Black Lives Matter activists made me squirm | Heather Barmore Despite how combative it appeared, they didn’t approach Sanders because he was an enemy. They wanted him to prove he was an advocate for their beliefs and a future collaborator toward positive change. What the activists did to Bernie Sanders was effective and has positioned him to be an actual ally. As the presumptive nominee, Hillary Clinton should be pushed and challenged publicly too, especially since her views may not align with the rights agenda Black Lives Matter is pushing. The enemies of Black Lives Matter are racism, sexism, homo/transphobia and capitalist exploitation. Clinton opposed gay marriage until 2013. Among the Black Lives matter list of demands are an end to mass incarceration and the prison industrial complex, which both grew exponentially under her husband’s administration. Clinton also has a record of racially divisive rhetoric. She turned to race baiting in 2008, claiming she was the candidate with the best chance of winning the general election because she could attract more working-class white voters than Obama, presumably based solely off of her whiteness. She was subsequently admonished by the black political organization ColorofChange. Black Lives Matter also is devoted to progress for the poor, while Ms. Clinton is a favorite of big banks on Wall Street. She has also been disapproving of Sanders’s economic approach to race-related issues. “There are some who say, ‘Well, racism is a result of economic inequality.’ I don’t believe that,” she said. But racism and white supremacy in this country are rooted in economics, and Black Lives Matter’s Sanders protesters never argued otherwise. The roots and motivation for the slave trade and slavery were economic. Some of the most effective means of protest, such as the Montgomery Bus Boycott, were also based around economics. Everything from the brutal convict leasing system to the present-day prison industrial complex have an economic component. Where Sanders and others have been wrong is to think that racial oppression hasn’t evolved and that solving income inequality alone will magically permeate all other elements of society that have been touched by white supremacy. But it can be hard to convey all this to Clinton, who has often shunned big crowds, making it difficult for Black Lives Matter activists to confront her. She is also covered by a phalanx of security. Her secret service actually barred activists from entering an event in New Hampshire on Tuesday. The group arrived late and had to watch from a side room, though she reportedly met with them privately after the event. This was not an aberration from normal Secret Service procedure, so Hillary and her staffers got away with not being approached publicly. The protesters also made it known that they were intending to attend and cause a disruption, a heads up for the Clinton campaign that Sanders apparently did not have. In the backroom meeting, Julius Jones, a Black Lives Matter activist from Massachusetts, stated that while suggesting that policy change needed to occur, Clinton did not discuss specific policy plans and instead resorted to telling the cadre what they should be doing. Related: Bernie Sanders: structural racism needs to end for economic justice to succeed | Sabrina Hersi Issa Clinton’s record, unlike Sanders, says she can never be completely trusted, but must chased and forced into dialogue. The Black Lives Matter movement cannot simply accept carefully worded responses and classic Clinton political platitudes in private meetings. She must be forced to answer for the shortcomings of her political career, many of which are tied to race and class, and to do so publicly. She should have to come face to face with a generation of black youth who lost their fathers and mothers to her husband’s failed drug policies. Occasionally, she should not be permitted to speak at all. Thus far, that strategy has yielded better results than backdoor meetings. |