2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumEverybody needs to calm down
BLM has already apologized for what happened today. It's pretty clear there is little organization in the way the group is run, which means that a few kids do not speak for everybody else. The last thing we should be doing, and I mean the *last* thing, is to devolve into conspiracy theorists on why BLM targeted Bernie. That road leads to madness. We all need to step back, calm down, and discuss this event like rational adults.
Le Taz Hot
(22,271 posts)peacebird
(14,195 posts)Until then I say they are swiftboating Bernie. Their tactic is NOT helping thei cause, and the fact they are ONLY targetting Bernie proves their partisan intentions
Joe the Revelator
(14,915 posts)Erich Bloodaxe BSN
(14,733 posts)(I found this in a comment over on Daily Kos.)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1014&pid=1170850
MH1
(17,600 posts)whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)Or they are affiliated but went off the rails? What is it?
SonderWoman
(1,169 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)to try to kill the other half of the 99%
but I would finger dedicated anti-socialists like the Kochs rather than Soros.
Rosa Luxemburg
(28,627 posts)and we will do EVERYTHING to help the BLM.
peacebird
(14,195 posts)MH1
(17,600 posts)I really don't like it at all.
Yeah I'll calm down at some point but not just yet.
LWolf
(46,179 posts)You could be correct about organization; I don't really know.
I know that I don't think today's action was rational. I've read what BLM has to say about it, and while I support their cause, I don't think this was a great way to go about it.
This is the statement released by Black Lives Matter Seattle;it doesn't exactly sound apologetic:
https://www.facebook.com/BLMSeattle/posts/716844418437393
MEDIA CONTACTS: Marissa Johnson (360) 840-6234 blacklivesmatterseattle@gmail.com
Black Lives Matter Seattle organizers and supporters take over Bernie Sanders rally at Westlake on Saturday, August 8, 2015.
Today BLM Seattle, with the support of other Black organizers and non-Black allies and accomplices, held Bernie Sanders publicly accountable for his lack of support for the Black Lives Matter movement and his blatantly silencing response to the #?SayHerName #?IfIDieInPoliceCustody action that took place at Netroots this year.
Bernies arrival in Seattle is largely significant in the context of the state of emergency Black lives are in locally as well as across America. The Seattle Police Department has been under federal consent decree for the last three years and has been continually plagued by use-of-force violations and racist scandals amongst their rank and file. Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has refused to push any reform measures for police accountability, not even the numerous recommendations of his self-appointed Community Police Commission. The Seattle School District suspends Black students at a rate six times higher than their white counterparts, feeding Black children into the school-to-prison pipeline. King County has fought hard to push through a plan to build a $210 million new youth jail to imprison these children, amid intense community criticism and dissent. The Central District, a historically Black neighborhood in Seattle, has undergone rapid gentrification over the past few decades, with Black people being displaced from the only neighborhood that we could legally live in until just years ago. While white men profit off of the legalization of marijuana, our prisons are still filled with Black people who are over-incarcerated for drug offenses.
This city is filled with white progressives, which is why Bernie Sanders camp was obviously expecting a friendly and consenting audience for todays campaign visit. The problem with Sanders, and with white Seattle progressives in general, is that they are utterly and totally useless (when not outright harmful) in terms of the fight for Black lives. While we are drowning in their liberal rhetoric, we have yet to see them support Black grassroots movements or take on any measure of risk and responsibility for ending the tyranny of white supremacy in our country and in our city. This willful passivity while claiming solidarity with the #?BlackLivesMatter movement in an effort to be relevant is over. White progressive Seattle and Bernie Sanders cannot call themselves liberals while they participate in the racist system that claims Black lives. Bernie Sanders will not continue to call himself a man of the people, while ignoring the plight of Black people. Presidential candidates will not win Black votes without putting out an explicit criminal justice reform package. As was said at the Netroots action, presidential candidates should expect to be shut down and confronted every step along the way of this presidential campaign. Black people are in a state of emergency. Lines have been drawn in the sand. You are either fighting continuously and measurably to protect Black life in America, or you are a part of the white supremacist system that we will tear down in the liberation of our people.
On this, nearly the one year anniversary of the ruthless murder of Mike Brown, we honor Black lives lost by doing the unthinkable, the unapologetic, and the unrespectable. Out of radical love for our Black brothers and sisters, we put our lives and our bodies on the line to testify to their persecution and resilience. We join together in Black love to #SayHerName and declare that #BlackLivesMatter, understanding that our love will disrupt the complicity and corruption of our anti-Black society; GOP, Democrat, and otherwise.
There is no business as usual while Black lives are lost. We will ensure this by any means necessary.
With the strength of our ancestors and for the future of our children,
Black Lives Matter Seattle Co-Founders
Marissa Johnson and Mara Willaford
#BowDownBernie
#SayHerName
#IfIDieInPoliceCustody
#?NotOneMoreDeportation
#?FreePalestine
#?MikeBrown
#BlackLivesMatter
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)When Bernie Sanders is their one and only target, I say BULLSHIT.