Black Lives Matter Movement Offers Badly Needed Lessons on Electoral Politics

[reorg]

truthdig
Posted on Aug 12, 2015
By Sonali Kolhatkar



Bernie Sanders has energized voters like no one in recent memory save for Barack Obama. In a series of speeches addressing bigger and bigger audiences, Sanders has rocked the political establishment that dismissed him almost before he announced his intentions. While it is indeed exciting for progressives to embrace the thrill and “Feel the Bern,” a number of cautionary tales must be heeded. After all, President Obama’s “hope and change” campaign that excited so many Americans fell significantly short once he took office and failed to live up to expectations.

Which is why the tactics of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement are so important. Twice now, in Phoenix and in Seattle, members of the movement have interrupted Sanders’ events and been unapologetically firm about their demands. But the backlash from his supporters, upset at the public embarrassment of their favorite candidate, has been strong. From the very ugly audience responses in Seattle to reports of a fake petition against the action to the vicious maligning of BLM activist Marissa Janae Johnson as a “radical Christian Sarah Palin supporter,” progressives have exposed their intolerance and shortsightedness.

Despite the denunciations, BLM’s activism has worked. Although he initially stumbled when confronted, Sanders has recently shown himself to be responsive to concerns of those who want racial justice to be front and center alongside economic justice. His hiring of Symone Sanders as his press secretary and the release of his extensive racial justice campaign platform have been significant steps in proving he is serious about the issue. In his speeches, Sanders has begun promising to end institutional and other forms of racism.

It is highly unlikely he would have spontaneously decided racial justice was important on his own. Like many white progressives, he mistakenly conflated economic injustice with racism, as if by addressing the former one can automatically solve the latter.

Still, he has a ways to go. His response to the press about the Seattle confrontation was less than graceful, for instance. “I am disappointed that two people disrupted a rally attended by thousands at which I was invited to speak about fighting to protect Social Security and Medicare,” he said. “I was especially disappointed because on criminal justice reform and the need to fight racism there is no other candidate for president who will fight harder than me.” Clearly Sanders is annoyed at being interrupted. But that is OK. Movements do not need to be liked. They need to be effective. ...

[Maedhros]

1. #BlackLivesMatter is a Twitter hashtag.

Sticking it next to your name does not automatically make your message genuine, nor does it automatically guarantee your credibility.

Marissa Johnson, for example, is an Outside Agitators 206 activist who appropriated the #BLM tag for publicity. I will assess each person's message upon its merits, and Johnson's had little to none.

I agree with the stated goals of the BLM movement in general.

[n8dogg83]

2. I also agree with the goals of Black Lives Matter.....

As a Sanders supporter who is AA, I was very apprehensive about the disruption in Seattle at first. Looking back on it, I think it may have greatly helped the Senator. He responded well by listening to their demands, put out a racial justice platform, committed to expanding upon it with the help of some BLM activists, hired Symone Sanders as press Sec. (who is amazing btw). Now racial justice is a regular and prominent part of his campaign stump speeches. I didn't agree with how they went about it, but its not for me to tell them how to do their thing. It obviously worked.

[daybranch]

3. Who did it work with and who did it work for?

It portrayed BLM as a loud unlistening group unwilling to hear anything but their own voices. I t created a sense that somehow Hillary Clinton is better for African Americans, the chant that Main Stream Media was pushing already as a way of making Bernie seem unelectable. So who did it work for? Did Ferguson actually change? I read earlier of the great progress and election victories in Ferguson but the protest legitimately continues it appears.
And did the push to include BLM messagre as overriding the message of class struggle Bernie espouses more relevant to solving the racism, poverty, poor education, crime, etc. that afflict people in communities of color. Certainly not, BLM created anger and distrust as they attacked those wgho would help them. They helped the establishment which depend on black misery and resultant anger to create a very negative image of black people and make Black Lives matter less. Jesse Jackson and other more experienced black leaders are speaking out telling you this is a class war. If BLM wants to be a positive force, they will expand their attention to the totality of the problem and quit being a pawn of the established oligarchy.

[n8dogg83]

4. It worked with Bernie & O'Malley and it worked for all the Dem candidates....

who are now having to make racial justice a major part of their platforms and who- assuming BLM survives and continues on past the general election- will hold the future president accountable for the promises included in that platform. I don't know about you, but I have been closely watching the comments on BlackLivesMatter's various twitter accounts, I have been looking at their facebook accounts, I have been looking at comments from AA's on various black publications regarding what happened in Seattle, and there are a LOT of AA's who thought Bernie did a great job in handling the situation and were very pleased to see his response to it in the days following. There were some who took the protesters side of the argument, and many who thought what they did was stupid, but my sense is that it was by no means unanimous either way. All black people don't think alike and, naturally there will be different reactions. I don't give in to the conspiracy theories that have been spouted on this site and some others (not until I see some concrete evidence, anyway). I think BLM being what it is (a very loose concept of overriding principals and goals that pretty much anyone can adopt in their own particular way) makes it likely that drastically different tactics will be used by different chapters and parts of the organization. I respect the movement too much to assume it has been co-opted by someone without first seeing some irrefutable proof.

[apnu]

5. Agreed. Please allow me to expand on your points.

I've not picked a horse in the primaries and I'm white. I'll be 100% OK with Bernie or Hillary or O'Malley.

I too was apprehensive about the Seattle disruption, and I needed a few days to process it. I think, for both BLM and Bernie, its a positive thing.

The only critique I have was using "white supremacy" to Bernie and progressives, and everybody else on the left. We may be prejudiced and know it or not know it. We may be discriminatory and know it or not know it. Our privilege masks us and so we don't always know or think we're doing something prejudiced or discriminatory, no matter how well intended we are. Our privileged culture is taught to us and there's a lot of unlearning to do. We are dealing with very subtle racism which is just as evil and destructive as overt racists like we see on the Right. But none of it has anything to do with white supremacy.

The interruption of Bernie in Seattle worked for good on several levels.

Obviously, it raised the banner of social justice which has languished for decades on the side lines. On the left our leaders have been distracted with other things, equally important, but they've left this issue fall to the way side. Since the issue affects non-whites and non-heterosexuals, its a bigoted act. Calling our attention that we should be working this issue along with all the others, is exactly what we need.

It also got Bernie to release his Social Justice platform and make a show of it. I suspect he'd been planning on doing that for a while, and BLM forced the issue early. That's fine. Bernie was caught flat-footed in Seattle, but he recovered quickly and showed he's serious about this and has a clear plan. It makes Bernie stronger in the long run, IMO. It shows Bernie listens. Granted, we progressives already knew that, but sometimes its important to show that you do something. Kinda like showing your work in math.

It also made every other pol running for President sit up and pay attention. They are all now scrambling to figure out what they're going to do. Hillary took a different track, she shunted them away from her rally, but then gave them a private face-to-face meeting and listened. Both Bernie and BLM have a hand in that.

Bernie and BLM are dragging the conversation in the left direction. Sure its a little rough at times, but then change is never smooth, its not a big deal. We'll all get past it and be better for it.

Change is happening, its real, and its great.