Black Kos-Tuesday's Chile (Yes, I'm still around)

[Chitown Kev]

Hi, everyone, I'm still around even though I don't peek in as often as I should...life, more writing assignments, etc., etc..

Anyway, I just wanted to share my commentary over at Black Kos today and...I miss y'all. I've noticed that DU is as insane as DK nowadays.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/2/2/1477296/-Black-Kos-Tuesday-s-Chile

Talking to the Hand.

Commentary by Chitown Kev

First, I would like to congratulate former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on her hard fought razor-thin victory in the Iowa Caucuses last night (the first woman to ever win the Iowa Caucuses!). I would also like to congratulate Senator Bernie Sanders for being far far more competitive than anyone ever thought that a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist” would be. Both of the remaining Democratic candidates for the 2016 Democratic presidential candidate would be a great nominee for the Democratic Party for different and varied reasons.

Either Democratic nominee would be far more preferable to any nominee that Republican Party voters will offer in 2016; there can be no doubt about that.

There can also be no doubt that either President Sanders or President Clinton will have to pick, choose and prioritize what they get done from many varied items on their campaign agendas.

And history clearly shows that, inevitably, for black people (and all people of color, really), all of the various campaign promises and rhetoric that we hear now will give way to the harsh electoral and political realities.

As it relates to the electoral and political aspirations of American presidents (even, at times, the current occupant of the Oval Office, Barack Obama), black people are every bit as much of “a problem” as Dr. W.E.B. Dubois eloquently stated over a hundred years ago.

Inevitably, I begin to think of the picture that headlines this commentary which I first saw within a Democratic Underground thread almost three months ago.

This picture of then-Milwaukee Councilwoman Velvalea “Vel” Rodgers Phillips and future president John Kennedy was taken during civil rights demonstrations at the 1960 Democratic Convention in Los Angeles at the Shrine Auditorium. According to the LATimes, then-Senator Kennedy respectfully told the photographer, “No pictures, please.”

To be fair, the LATimes link does not speculate on why Senator Kennedy asked for the picture not to be taken. Given the political realities of the Democratic Party in 1960, we can probably make some educated guesses as to why the Democratic nominee would not want his picture taken with a black politician and committed civil rights activist during civil rights demonstrations at the 1960 Democratic Convention.

Of course, nowadays, a Democratic presidential nominee would wave for the photographer to come closer; in fact he or she would be on the lookout to get more blacks and POC in the picture, given the contemporary demographics of any given Democratic electorate.

Heck, even the Republicans/Dixiecrats do that at their convention, FWIW.

So as the New Hampshire primaries come and go and the 2016 primary calendar shifts to states with more people of color, trust me, black people can hear the lofty affirming sound and fury of Democratic campaign rhetoric coming from a loooooooong way.

We know that pretty much every fifth word that comes out of Secretary Clinton’s mouth will be “Barack Obama” and why (FYI, Secretary Clinton, it gets really irritating hearing it over and over and over...we heard you the first time).

(To be fair, I suppose that’s an improvement over hearing words and phrases like “super-predator” and “working, hard-working Americans, white Americans”...among other things.)

We know that Bernie “marched with King” and got arrested in civil rights demonstrations in 1960’s and has a “100 rating” on voting for all of the essential things (And I doubt that we’ll hear much about the differences between rural guns in Vermont and urban guns in Chicago...among other things).

Black people know what presidential candidates say.

And we know what elected Presidents do, in varying degrees.

I can’t think of a president that the history books label as a “friend of the Negro” that is an exception to that rule. Not one.

Black people don’t need to be reminded of this by “nice white progressives” or anyone else. We have lived it.

And we still are.

H/T commenter “KIndofBlue” at Democratic Underground

[Chitown Kev]

1. I have NO idea how to embed a picture here at DU.

[wildeyed]

2. Either right click the image and open

in another window, then copy the link into you post (which is naughty because it steals bandwidth from whoever is hosting the photo ) or upload it to photobucket and copy the link from there.

[Digital Puppy]

3. Nice essay, Kev...

Thanks for posting!

?1454438436

(Right mouse click on the image you want...copy location...past it into the DU Message Text)

[brer cat]

4. Good to see you back with us.

K&R

[Number23]

5. I agree with every bleeding word

C'mere you.

I am so glad to have your amazing, gifted voice back. Even if it's just for a short while.

What's the post that KoB made that gave you the idea for this OP? She always posts some of the most amazing things here.

[Chitown Kev]

6. KoB posted it in a months ago comment thread

and everytime I think of the way presidents (including President Obama to a small extent) deal with race, I think of this picture (which took place at the Democratic Convention in 1960, actually)...

I get sick and tired of how many "nice white progressives" bring up Sister Souljah or any number of things that occured on President Clinton's watch as if no Democratic President had ever done anything like that before.

Black folks are old hats at this; we are actually used to Presidents acting in this way to varying degrees. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Bernie Sanders will be an exception to that rule, if they are elected (hell, they aren't exceptions to that rule even now).

Black folks know this, of course, but nice white progressives don't seem to think that we know this.

[Number23]

8. Exactly. And I've said probably about a billion times, if black folks dismissed every politician

that threw us shade or let us down, we would have NO ONE to vote for. EVER.

I thought Michelle Alexander's comments were interesting but I was confused why she was lumping Hillary in with Bill's shitty policies. And in the Charles Blow piece I posted, not one of the black Iowa caucus goers that Blow spoke to even remarked on Alexander's comments. We know all of these people have done dirty by us in some form or the other.

[Chitown Kev]

12. OH, and of course, the Bernie people threw shade about THAT

and I threw that shade RIGHT back...

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/01/29/1476816/-Rant-Why-are-Bernie-supporters-giving-Sanders-a-pass-on-the-1994-Crime-Bill

Yes, people rightfully criticize Hillary's vote on Iraq even though Bush and his criminal cronies actually executed the war but when I brought up the consequences of Bernie's crime bill vote on mass incarceration in Vermont

http://mic.com/articles/124341/here-s-how-black-people-actually-fare-in-vermont-with-bernie-sanders-as-their-senator#.pX8cpQPLO

What does this mean? Black Vermonters make up just 1.2% of the state's general population, but 10.7% of its incarcerated population. Meaning that, proportionally, there are nearly 10 times more black people locked up in Vermont's jails and prisons on a given day than there are walking its streets.

Few in Vermont seem able to explain how this happened. The black incarceration rate grew faster than any other in the state between 1993 and 2007, before it leveled out and stayed relatively constant. But shortly before its peak, the Sentencing Project reported that Vermont had the second-highest black-to-white incarceration rate in America — topped only by Iowa, another state with a small black population.

They wanted to put all of that on Howard Dean...If Hillary Clinton is not to be exempted from the consequences of her votes, then why should Bernie Sanders?

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

23. Hilarious that they are now throwing Dean under the bus after worshipping him and bashing Obama.

But now that Dean has endorsed Hillary, they are throwing him under the bus.

Despicable hypocrites.

[Chitown Kev]

9. and how about the fact that in a very white state like Iowa

it seems that voters of color in Des Moines broke decisively for Hillary Clinton yesterday and it made a big difference...non-white voters in Iowa broke 58-34 for Clinton...

[Number23]

11. Don't tell the special crew Kicking and Rec'ing the latest "black folks are abandoning HilLLary!!11"

post in GDP. Their deliberate attempts to antagonize minority posters are apparently how they lick their wounds.

As telling as it is pitiful. And it's pretty damn hilarious too.

[Kind of Blue]

19. Heeheehee...it was that fun thread White People

Whitesplain Whitesplaining

[Number23]

20. Link, please!

[Chitown Kev]

21. as you wish

http://www.democraticunderground.com/118731307

[Number23]

22. Gracias, mon ami!

(And yes I know that was two different languages)

[Chitown Kev]

25. A votre service, madame

[randys1]

7. I have read a thousand posts on DU in the last 6 months, this is the most informative one.

And all I can say is , keep educating me...I like a free education.

I am a big fan.

And no , HELL no it isnt your job to educate me.

[FrenchieCat]

10. I'm not voting for anyone I don't think can get elected.....

and who's in Cornel West's corner, who has been Denigrating our First Black President for the past two terms.

I realize that Sanders will try hard in selling himself to Black folks, as that is his only path to winning the Dem Nomination, but I resent how his supporters have handled selling Mr. Sanders to many Black folks that I know.

It is a known and recorded fact, that some in the Sanders camp would rather blow up the Democratic party from within, if they must, and are currently attempting to denigrate Ms. Clinton, a very accomplished woman, anyway they can, including buying and selling what the GOP has sold us. There are too many cries of "Well I just won't vote if Clinton is the nominee" that raises serious doubts that many of Sander's supporters agenda is actually "keeping their eyes on the prize".

The Corporate media, like their corporate masters will be pushing and bolstering Marco Rubio, from now on until he wins the GOP primaries. They do not want a Democrat, i.e., neither Sanders nor Clinton to win the general election, and it is obvious, as they are encouraging infighting within the party....so that we can be distracted from our overall goal of keeping the GOP from gaining a Trifecta. They also would much prefer running against Bernie Sanders, as they believe him to be the weakest of the two candidates in a general election. Mr. Sanders has no foreign policy papers or experience, and a nice October surprise would be what they would pray, hope, and work toward. We know how badly they wanted Bush Jr. installed, and I saw the bold move they made to have the Supreme court nullify our votes. They vilified John Kerry's service in the Military, and we saw that work. They will stop at nothing, and with Sanders as somewhat of a blank canvas, it just makes their job easier still.

What will hurt Black folks more than anything, is if the Supreme Court is allowed to be changed to become a 6-3 vote for everything. So concentrating on electing a candidate who can win in Ohio and Pennsylvania is much more important than anything. I will contend that Mr. Sanders will not play well with middle Class American voters (after the Corporate media is done with him), who is whom we need to win over that those purple states in the General Election, because this election is specifically about winning, not so much winning primaries.....as the end goal.

I have had Bernie supporters call me a "Corporatist" because I own a Mom & Pop business, and look me up on my Facebook, and threatened to send "real progressives" after me somehow. I don't like feeling threatened, as it only smells of desperation, and does not help me, in any way, be attracted to voting for Bernie Sanders. Black folks tend to be practical, perhaps not the young ones as much, and understand quite well that in politics, you can't have your cake and eat it too, and they understand the battle that Obama's had to wage just simply to get anything done. Many also understand, that even if by some Fluke, Sanders would get in, none of those things he promised would see the light of day. Instead, I strongly believe that a Sanders nomination would result in a GOP president, and super majorities in the House and the Senate. On day one, President Obama's entire 8 terms will be erased, along with Food stamps, planned parenthood, voting rights, civil rights and everything else.

It took the Civil Rights movement many years to gain what it is that they were fighting for, and even that fight is not over. For anyone to believe that as a people, we should believe that all of the sudden, folks are gonna gain everything that we could possibly want economically, should know that I have a bridge to sell them as well.

I believe that this election is about winning the White House if nothing else, and ensuring that we can build on President Obama's legacy, rather than to demand what most of us know for sure is not going to happen, not in Sanders' lifetime. The next census election is 2020, a presidential year, so there is hope there. However, the gerrymandered congress will not change in this election, and especially if Democrats in every parts of this country are forced to run on a socialist platform. We will suffer the kind of defeat we have not experienced since McGovern, and that is not what my goal is.

[Cha]

15. Well Done, FrenchieCat, All of it! Excellent!

".. and who's in Cornel West's corner, who has been Denigrating our First Black President for the past two terms." Booom!

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

24. As long as Sanders aligns himself with Cornel West, he will continue to alienate black voters

who now see West as a fucking joke. And he is!

[FrenchieCat]

26. Totally agree!

West and smug ass Tavis Smiley!

[lovemydog]

13. k & r

For an outstanding article by CK!

[JustAnotherGen]

14. This

Black people don’t need to be reminded of this by “nice white progressives” or anyone else. We have lived it.

We also don't need interpreters.

Some of these folks behave, speak, and act as if they don't think we understand English.

Seriously - I'm perfectly capable of understanding the words that Clinton and Sanders speak and I do not need anyone to tell me, "what they said and what they meant".

I'm not illiterate - stop treating me as such. The condescension is appalling.

[Chitown Kev]

16. yeah, I get tired of the Bernsplainin' too.

[BlueMTexpat]

17. Thanks for the share!

[Kind of Blue]

18. Yes, Sir! "Black people know what presidential

candidates say."

It's so nice - for me, at least - to finally be able to go thru an election season emotionally detached from both candidates, just to watch and listen.

Aww, Chitown Kev, if you hadn't mentioned what you said in that thread, I would not have remembered the photo. It was in direct response to your words, "Whereas, I would submit, a Paul Wellstone or a Ted (or Bobby, for that matter) Kennedy would not have come off in this way...LBJ didn't come off that way even though, yes, he had his own prejudices and racism...if you actually do care, it shows...

It's seems to me this essay was just itching to happen, calling you from the future...if that makes any sense

Finally, for those who will listen, feel and wonder why black people this and black that from both ends of the Democratic spectrum, we're drawing you into our experience and your words illustrate that perfectly.

I'm noticing lately that the next stance for some Democrats, because they perfectly understand what you've written or similar words by author writers, is a scramble to believe that we are unnecessary afterall or how do we win without them... Well, we goen see if we return to the pre-Kennedy days within our party.

Talk to the hand, indeed!