See what I mean?

[bravenak]

Bernie mentioned black youth unemployment again. He still does not seem to think racism has anything to do with it.

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Bernie is a one-trick pony. nt

[Hoyt]

3. Although good at what he does.

[Metric System]

7. That remains my conclusion.

[bravenak]

9. Yep.

[Thinkingabout]

2. True to form, never changes his mind, wind up the ever ready bunny.

[bravenak]

5. But if you mention WALL STREET, he rushes to say his piece.

[Thinkingabout]

11. Only because his supporters expects him to jump the gun. He says he is from a rural state so he

Votes the NRA way, Clinton was representing NY and there is where Wall Street is. He is in with Lockheed Martin and voting corporate defense contracts their way. He is right there with them, Hillary is honest and takes ownership of her actions. Am I ever glad to have you here.

[bravenak]

12. I am glad you asked me to support Hillary.

[Thinkingabout]

23. Thanks we need good people

[okasha]

122. And I'm so glad you agreed.

You kick ass, woman!

[bravenak]

124. Thank you!

As do all of you!! We're outnumbered but we still rule.

[bettyellen]

84. Now it seems all of Wall St is the 1%. It's getting stupid.

[bravenak]

86. Soon money will be off limits completely.

[bettyellen]

92. I'm a bit disgusted that people think 9/11 had nothing to do with resident voters or economics....

it's as if people think it was one day, and one building.
As a NYer, I just can't listen to this resentful need to oversimplify what happened in NY. Fucking clueless. Tons of average Janes and Joes were effected, for years. They really think that the women who make up 60% of her donors were in the 1%? On what planet are women that wealthy?

[bravenak]

101. I have no clue how these minds work.

There is such a laser focus on breaking up the banks that folks just ignore anything that conflicts with their own thinking.

[Fearless]

4. He is the ONLY one mentioning minority unemployment... and he's WRONG for doing so???

You are clueless.

[bravenak]

6. He has the reasons wrong. HE DOES NOT GET IT!!!!

[Fearless]

8. You don't get it.

[bravenak]

10. I was a black youth. I mentor black and native youth. They say RACISM. Period.

[Fearless]

17. You just accused him of NOT saying racism!

[Lilith Rising]

19. She meant the kids, not Bernie.

[bravenak]

20. Where did he say it?

[Thinkingabout]

25. Don't you love it when they attempt to rewrite your post. Get it wrong everytime.

[bravenak]

26. It is automatic now. I wish they would chill.

[Fearless]

30. Attacking DUers is against DU TOS.

[Fearless]

29. He just did.

[bravenak]

32. Way after the fact. Too late.

[Fearless]

35. Still waiting for HIllary or Martin to say ANYTHING

So it went from "didn't say", "won't say" to "too late"


You'll vote for Hillary who STILL HASN'T addressed it.

What the FUCK logic is that??

[bravenak]

37. Hillary does address it.

[Fearless]

39. When exactly what that??

[bravenak]

41. Are you angry? I don't want to get you riled up. We can stop for today..

[Fearless]

43. Answer the question. When did Hillary address BLM?

[bravenak]

44. I think we better stop right here.

[Fearless]

47. Because she didn't, you're wrong and now you're being disingenuous

[bravenak]

64. I have decided to stop when folks get upset with me.

[John Poet]

112. It looks more like you "decided to stop"

when you didn't have a good answer to the question.

[bravenak]

114. Didn't like they way they Demanded answers. I always do the opposite if I don't like how something

Is asked. I do not owe answers any more than anyone else does.

[John Poet]

116. Oh brother.

[bravenak]

119. I know. I'm pretty funny.

Thanks for noticing.

[2pooped2pop]

50. it's never going to be enough for you

He cannot make a law outlawing racism.

[bravenak]

53. He could get a full undrstanding by spending time in the black community. Maybe that's wht's wrong.

[2pooped2pop]

56. perhaps. n/t

[freshwest]

88. Black unemployment was always a given because of racism. It's not like it was suddenly discovered.

Last edited Sun Nov 15, 2015, 08:04 PM - Edit history (1)

Ideologically, Marxism had to have known this, but didn't regard it as a racial matter, as it was developed by white male culture.

Karl wrote his opus while his wife scrubbed floors to support his sassy self. It was her sacrifice for the glorious revolution. And to male rule. Who's kidding who when they say women are going to get theirs under such a utopia when they couldn't even vote, get divorced from abusive spouses, or go any higher on the ladder than being maids, nannies and wives back then.

Any movement which has not put racial and sexual matters on the front burner, since they exist no matter what ideology wants to claim otherwise, is only telling half the truth.

Strange how some people just seem to get left out of all that great stuff. Black people ended up with an employment issue from the advantaged group by saying they should be paid for their work. Black people didn't lack work to do when they were slaves.

Black and native people have been denied equal opportunity because of racism. The GOP saturates our national consciousness with the notion these things were all dealt with by Obama's election, while making racist dog whistles every single chance they get.

Those black people who created their economies to escape racism worked so well, such as those working the land given by Sherman to set up their own towns with working governments based on the Constitution as it should have been, with schools and thriving farms and all, had no idea of the backlash brewing. The nation has just fought a civil war the Union had won and the Confederacy had offiically surrendered.

The majority race jumped up and stood for 'freedom and liberty' and killed the president and all whites who worked with them and they stole their lawful land, property and wealth.

The section of Tulsa run by black businessmen was so prosperous, it was called 'the black Wall Street.' Yes, 'Wall Street.' So it HAD to be bombed from the air, burnt to the ground and its inhabitants run out of town in fear of their lives.

Thus black people were safely back into the boat of the 'unemployed' and in reality, they were put back under control, just as all that are 'employed' are. A few people ought to put that in their pipe and smoke on it a while.

There is nothing in systems of capitalism, socialism, fascism or feudalism that frees a person from such. One might ask, to what purpose we are doing all of this work, and who benefits from the hours of our lives we give the employer?

And that is for another day and may even be pointless to ponder. One might still consider what their life is about in working it out.

But calling what was done anything other than racism is denying how it is black people were singled out to be robbed, lynched, used and abused. It was by the color of their skin.

It's stupid and pathetic that people looked at their skin color and assigned all kinds of characteristics to them, not knowing the individuals, their hopes, their dreams, their values and their similarity to those without that skin color.

Yes, it's been about race for centuries and will continue as long as people refuse to acknowledge that it just might be true that racism precludes the rest of the wrongs being done.

Okay, that's enough ranting.

[bravenak]

95. Thank you. If people would actually read your posts they might just LEARN something.

They want to always subordinate equal rights and participation for minorities and women to their desires for their freedom and equality. We always are expected to live vicariously through them, we are not real people, we have a place and must stay in it.

I think alot of people try to ignore history and pretend it has no effect on the present when It comes to thse matters.

[freshwest]

127. They must understand that prejudice, racism, sexism, etc., undergird their own prosperity. n/t

[KingCharlemagne]

102. You are aware, I trust, that the Communist Party of South Africa and the

CPUSA opposed apartheid in South Africa long before it became fashionable in the liberal circles HRC lays claim to?

I think you should ask yourself why exactly that is. Its not debatable -- its a matter of historical fact.

[Chitown Kev]

85. No, we don't get it!

WE don't KNOW Bernie (as if you do).

Maybe a majority of black people don't like his schtick here...it's not a crime for them not too.

[Vattel]

13. You don't think racism has anything to do with black youth unemployment?

[bravenak]

14. I do. Does HE? He sure did not say that in stage. That's my point.

[Vattel]

15. oh, that's your point. I guess I don't see the problem then

[Fearless]

28. He just did. Now what?

[bravenak]

31. Not good enough!!! It was way late like a throwaway line. Hers was better.

[Fearless]

33. Bullshit. AND NO ONE ELSE SAID ANYTHING.

[bravenak]

34. I decide what is good enough for me. Not you.

[Fearless]

36. Hillary has said NOTHING and that's good enough for your vote?

[bravenak]

40. Bernie has said nothing that appeals to me. Seems a bit wooden like an add on line.

[Fearless]

46. When did Hillary say ANYTHING? Yet she still gets your vote?

Your logic does not compute.

[bravenak]

48. When she discussed Jordan Davis, I nearly cried.

[Fearless]

52. .

[bravenak]

61. I like what she says about women.

[riderinthestorm]

60. Am I black enough for you? Are you the DU arbiter?

Your bullshit posts denigrate anyone who isn't 110% "with" you.

You say it's all about you like you speak for all AAs. But when crossed you lash out viciously at anyone who doesn't toe your line.

There are DU AAs who don't agree with you on all matters.

That disagreement isn't racism, sexism, or somehow being outside the AA meme.

You set yourself up as judge and executioner.

I reject that

[BainsBane]

79. Brave has got some dressage pics

Might be time to pull them out.

Race is about how one is perceived in society. When people are not perceived as black according to cultural standards of the society they live in, they do not endure the same prejudice. The absence of that prejudice is privilege, something those of us of Irish, Anglo, and Northern European appearance benefit from. That is not to say there may not be historical or familial influences that are other than European, but that is not the same thing as race.

[riderinthestorm]

80. Then you have pics of my husband or a student. I have zero pics online

I find it repulsive and despicable that DUers are stalking me in real life.

Thanks for confirming bravenak is continuing to stalk me and my family and clients in real life.

If Bravenak has pics of me on a horse then she's stalked my home computer photo album.

You're really okay with that?

From DUs own TOS:

Respect people's privacy.
Do not post or link to any private/personal information about any person, even if it is publicly available elsewhere on the Internet.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=termsofservice

You've all sunk to new lows.

[BainsBane]

93. I haven't stalked or searched for information on anyone

Frankly, I can't see myself getting to the point where I actually care enough to bother.

The low was whoever sent the letter to Bravenak's house. Looking at public websites doesn't come close to that.

[riderinthestorm]

96. And how do you know my business? You're outing yourself BainsBane

same as bravenak.

I've been very clear that what happened to bravenak was sick.

I'm finding the current RL stalking and putting out personal info, and/or threats to do so, here on DU equally as troubling.

[msanthrope]

128. Are you actually claiming you are Black? What do you base that on?

I ask because my niece is very well-known in dressage circles, so I have probably seen pictures of you. Do you identify in the dressage community as Black? Because that would be quite unusual.

[bravenak]

82. You are not black. I am looking at a photo of you right now. In the chicago tribune article you had

written about yourself by a reporter, you described yourself as white and said you lived as white for your entire life. You discovered you had a black ancestor from the 1850's. That does no make one black anymore than my Cherokee blood from 1905 makes me a member of the Cherokee nation. I do not look cherokee, I do not live Cherokee, my parents were not identifying as Cherokee.
You said in the article that BOTH of your parents were white. That you have white skin. Blond hair. Light colored eyes. Did not grow up black. Did not live in the black community as a black person. I am whiter than you are black and I do not go around saying I'm white. And My GRANDFATHER WAS White.

My one quarter white blood does not give me ANY of the white privilege you have by virtue of your being white. You might want to look up appropriation and get involved with a cultural sensitivity group in your community so you can begin to understand why black women are offended when white women call themselves black women.

Since you yourself stated clearly in the article that you have ALWAYS LIVED AS A WHITE PERSON, I will take it from YOU, you are white. There is NOTHING to be ashamed about. I do not wish to communicate further with you on this issue.

[riderinthestorm]

94. You're stalking me in RL bravenak. That's a TOS violation

You don't have a picture of me because there aren't any of me online.

You're distributing pictures via pm of my family and clients. That's sick. You're putting out personal info right here on this thread. It's despicable.

You don't get to decide a person's race bravenak. My family's passing had enormous consequences of their own. That doesn't fit your racial meme that you have going on here and I find your decision to set yourself up as DUs black authority to be phony. You're just mad about getting called out on that and are lashing out with RL stalking.

It's sick.

Mods?

[bravenak]

98. You posted the article, right? Not called stalking.

I am using my ignore function once again. I do not deal with lies and false accusations.
That accusation of me distributing your photos is not true. Skinner can check my pm box and see for himself at anytime that I do not send any photos of you and have never seen your family. You described them in the article.

A persons race is determined by the race of both parents. You called yours WHITE. You said that. You. You did. I am not interested in you enough to do any looking for you at all. I had you on ignore and was told you were saying strange things about me.

If you do not want people knowing your race, it is probably not a good idea to have the Chicago Tribune do a full story on your race. And then posting about it on DU. I can see you self deleted the op, but the comments tell the tale of what article you posted.

Now please stop with the stalking allegations. Nobody is stalking you. Better things to do. Be well.
This is my final post to you. Done with this topic.

[riderinthestorm]

103. Then Skinner will surely know you only got that article via PM from me

Because that's the only way you'd have known about it unless you were searching DU2 in the protected genealogy group.

Are you a denizen of the genealogy group bravenak?

No.

I sent you that link via PM to prove my bi-racial family heritage. Now you want to backtrack and say it's not "good enough". Can't have it both ways.

BaineBane says she got pics from you.

BainsBane has searched my business website. How did she find my website bravenak? How would anyone have found that unless you sent them personal info about me and my family.

Sabrina has also confirmed you're sending PMs as have others. It's sick.

[bravenak]

106. I had you on full ignore. Did not get anything from you.

You said your parents were white in that article. Period. You can have black blood while being white like you are. Read a bit up on race from a black perspective and you will understand why blacks may not accept you as black since you have always lived as white. Remember Rachael Dolezal? She LIVED as a black woman. But she is white no matter how she feels about things. You said you always lived white. As did your mother and father and on and on going back generations. How can you now claim to be black and try to force me to accept it? I do not have to accept anyone really.

I have no idea why this is so important to you to be seen as black when you are not.

She did not say she got them from me, just that I have them. You put the photos out for publicity. I do not understand why you think that after all of these posts, nobody reading could look up your business website based off of your screenname and that article. It had everything in it and you posted it yourself. I would never post your info. I have not posted your info.


I think you should just let this one go. I am not interested in you enough to even look for you at all. Someone sent me a link to your article after you lied to me. That is how I Put two and two together. Somebody checked you out for me without me even asking. They decided you were not being completely honest. Maybe you believe you are black. I don't know. But we are the race of our parents, not the race of our great great great grandmother. Yes, we have mixtures. But were are the race society sees us as and the race of our parents. I think you need to take a course. Cultural appropriation.

[msanthrope]

129. You are not a Cherokee princess? Damn. nt

[bravenak]

130. I continue to be shocked by the things people try to argue with me about.

I actually prefer Rachael Dolezal. She at least knew why people were pissed at her and got nice and quiet after a while.

[msanthrope]

131. Genealogy is pseudo-sciebce bullshit without DNA. And I say that as a

tested and formally accepted member of a particular people who share a physical anomaly.

[bravenak]

132. It damn sure is.

Nobody really knows if what is written on papers was the actual truth. Me and my mom are going to do those swab tests to map our DNA. I wanted to get the world map thingy to see where the hits are around the world. I think there might be a bunch of surprises.

[Vattel]

59. Lol. "Not good enough" Bernie! Whatever you say, whatever you do, you are shit on race!

You talked about black youth unemployment, but you didn't use the word "racism." You did use the word "racism" but it was an afterthought or it sounded wooden or it was in a throw-away line. You didn't say their names. You said their names, but you left out one. You said all of their names but you mispronounced one. You only talk about economics. You talked about prison reform, and the disproportionate numbers of blacks in prison for marijuana possession, but what about police brutality? You talked about police brutality but you then shifted back to economics.

It gets kind of ridiculous.

[bravenak]

63. He talked about black youth unemployment. I ALWAYS talk about racism.

Saying their names is NOT everything. Understanding their lives is MORE important.

[Vattel]

66. You said their names. But you don't understand their lives.

Nice one.

[bravenak]

72. He could TRY. Go and talk to inner city youth. Face to face.

[Vattel]

76. It wouldn't be good enough.

"You talked to inner city youth face to face, but you didn't really understand what they were saying."

Seriously, though, I believe that partly because of complete bullshit about Sanders and race, Clinton will win the nomination and may be the next president. And if she does win the GE, it will be the same old story: inner city youths will still be screwed over by institutional racism. And she won't even try to do anything about it except put a few band aids on a few small cuts, leaving the huge open wounds of racism to bleed freely.

[bravenak]

77. He never even CONSIDERED that he might need to do stuff like that, imo.

You do know she does go to the black community and ask for votes in person? Right? That is how you get votes. You go and ask, face to face. Hold photo op so other in the community can see your comfort level with them with their own eyes.

I personally do not think his economic plan will reach the inner city youth. People throw their applications away and their schools do not make them hirable. Many leave high school with barely a 9th grade education. I have relatives in their 40s working on their GEDs. One was on the channel two news up here when he finally got it. That is how good the schools are in our neighborhoods. They had to come to Alaska to finish high school. Does he get that when he talks about free college? Does he understand that they lack job skills? That they are over looked and their applications tossed? No. I do not see that he does. Hillary evolves. Bernie sticks to the same stuff that he has always been for.

[Vattel]

126. He has spoken about the need to heavily invest in poor urban neighborhoods.

I totally agree with you about the problems faced by inner city youth. I have an AA friend who is working on her second masters degree. She and her siblings are all doing great because when they were little her dad managed to move from the projects to a suburb in NJ with good schools. Her cousins are either addicts or incarcerated (one for life) or dead (one was shot to death) or at best struggling economically because they didn't get out of the projects. She says that she is sure she would be the same as them if her dad hadn't got them out. Same gene pool, different opportunities. Politicians like Bernie know that educational and economic opportunities are hugely affected by what happens at an early age. I agree with you that if you just give people free college the more serious problems don't get addressed, but Bernie has spoken of doing more. I do wish he would more consistently speak about the really big problems with institutional racism that politicians always ignore. If we as a nation want to do something serious about those problems, it will take money, it will take passion, it will take sacrifice. I haven't heard Clinton or Sanders or O'Malley really talking enough about the realities of racism in America. Obama has never done it either. And Clinton is the worst. She doesn't even seem to realize that African Americans have been screwed over by the criminalization of marijuana. "More research" she says. What a tool.

[Agnosticsherbet]

16. If it were just a class problem there should not be a huge difference

Between groups of the poor.


http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/07/21/329864863/the-youth-unemployment-crisis-hits-african-americans-hardest

Unemployment among black youth is far higher than just variation in a class of all the poor.

I think the differences occur because racism is a barrier thar has never been lowered. It needs to be addressed or a pure class economic approach will fail.

[bravenak]

22. Yes. I agree completely.

[KingCharlemagne]

105. would you support socioeconomic-based affirmative action? - nt

[Lilith Rising]

18. I continue to see what you mean and

apparently terrorism has something to do with the disappearing American middle class. Or something.

[bravenak]

21. I am so glad somebody can see what I mean.

[Recursion]

24. The system that is broken for white people is not the same system black people face

And I agree that if he does get that, he makes no sign of it

[bravenak]

27. Exactly.

[Chitown Kev]

120. BOOM!

[Comrade Grumpy]

38. Your posts are so biased as to not be worth reading. n/t

[bravenak]

42. Thank you for reading.

[Cha]

65. LOL.. busted! You are a "biased" Black woman giving your thoughts on what BS doesn't get.. OK.

Bernie and his fans are the ones who "Don't Get It."

[bravenak]

69. I am sooo mean.

[Cha]

70. And, BIASED! Because they are so not BIASED! LOLOLOLOL! Who do they think

they're kidding?

That little attack of theirs really does cracks me up.. "you're so biased.. "

[bravenak]

71. Just like I'm the racist. Same deal.

[Cha]

73. Right.. where would they be without their orwellian, robotic insults?

A lot better off I bet.

[bravenak]

74. Happy. The might be happy. Or at least content.

[ismnotwasm]

45. He's never gonna get it.

Probably gets his "racism" definition out of a dictionary

[bravenak]

49. The Websters.

Very wooden, very practised, but not real to me in some way. Like it's abstract to him.

[ismnotwasm]

54. Yup

Doesn't have a practical application when talking about real human beings

[TeeYiYi]

51. I thought that was the point that he was making…

...That young black males are disproportionately marginalized and therefore suffer higher rates of unemployment due to racism in America. That's how I heard it.

This has been a good debate and I would be happy with any one of the three democratic candidates vs the carnival clown car on the other side.

TYY

[bravenak]

55. I did not hear that from what he said.

[TeeYiYi]

57. Yeah, I'm not sure...

...why I heard it that way. I think it was because the question seemed to be predicated on the problem of systemic racism in America. For me, the issue of racism was inferred in his answer because it existed in the question...but I could be wrong.

I'll have to take a look at the transcript of tonight's debate to confirm my impression.

TYY

[jfern]

58. Racism is probably part of why it's so high

He certainly didn't say that racism isn't a problem. Such a ridiculous claim.

[bravenak]

62. He did not say it WAS a problem during that exchange.

[Hortensis]

67. Bernie's approach is ECONOMIC. A vigorous black

middle class was built before on AVAILABILITY OF GOOD-PAYING JOBS. I'm actually with him very much in that. Open up jobs with good pay and people will fix their own biggest problems.

[bravenak]

68. Are our kids getting sufficient education to get those jobs?

Are they getting called back? Did we get an equal share of the good paying jobs before? Ever? Economics won't help shaniqua get called back if those hiring toss ethnic names in the trash. We never got out fair share and WE NEVER WILL, until RACISM is fully addressed. Period. His approach IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Not for me. There is always some way to keep us from being competitive.
How can we fix the problem of cops murdering our sons and daughters with money? Mass incarceration, that he voted for keeps us in single parent families. Has he addressed his actions and made any amends? Admitted any fault at all? No. How? How does money save us from the PIC and police violence? Nobody has one damn answer to how money will save our kids. Think cops won't shoot us if we drive nice cars and have good jobs? Hmmm. Okay. Yeah right. No. He does not get it. He will never get it unless he walks those streets and speaks with the least among us.

[Hortensis]

91. Oh, I never said no social programs. Until fairly recently, good

education always topped my list of priorities. It's still way up.

But first regarding racism, because everything is in place if we will only use it -- we need to apply the law and apply it equally. A president who will send in the FBI and get the Justice Department involved matters, but IMO not a fraction as much as angry citizens wielding evidence and demanding change through proper application of laws and standards of behavior already in place.

We may all be biased in various ways, but those with hard-wired tendencies to actual hostility are almost all conservatives who tend to be very conventional in their thinking: if they see "good" people otherwise like them consistently get fired for racist abuses and go to jail they will eventually stop thinking of them as good people. The very same way jailing drunk drivers changed society's attitude of indulgence to one of strong disapproval. These are, notably, mostly the very same people who are happy to endorse authority and imprison even people of their own race without fair trials both because of their naturally punitive natures and because they want to believe anyone who crosses authority must have done something wrong. (They're called "reactionaries" for a reason!)

Raising incomes and smudging economic boundaries is so key to lessening racism, though, that IMO it would be a horrible mistake to dismiss it. The less economic difference, the less people who are wired to be racist (even poor ones) can point to whole groups of people and say they are inferior because they are not doing well. This is tremendously important because conservatives equate worldly success with worth and lack of it with unworthiness, with doing something wrong and being undeserving. The more strongly conservative, the more this is true. Even in the 1980s, after decades of a growing black middle class, conservatives still equated being black with poverty and thus saw their problems as something they mostly "caused themselves". They feel the same way about poor whites -- lack of a reasonable degree of affluence = undeserving.

Personally, I don't care if Blacks back Bernie because I don't want him going up against the GOP candidate in the general anyway. But just because Bernie is hitting his "lift-all-boats" economic message does not mean this other, obvious stuff would be not on his list. I feel sure, though, that since he never expected, and does not expect, to win the presidency, his big priority is changing the way we think about the economic structure of our country and benefiting everyone thereby.

[thesquanderer]

97. It is hard to "legislate away" racism.

So what are the practical remedies that Sanders is avoiding, that Hillary embraces?

It seems to be that Sanders focuses on what government can do. And a lot of that is related to things like education and economic issues.

Hillary may present more empathy, but I don't see her better solutions.

[bravenak]

99. What are his solutions?

I have plenty. But he is running for president. The government can do much mire that what he discusses. They can make laws and enforce them just like they did with Jim Crow. There Is LESS RACISM as a result.

[thesquanderer]

108. Since you asked,

his solutions are at https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/

[bravenak]

109. I do not even go to HER website to look for info.

If it is too hard to explain to the average voter, then it has no chance of going anywhere. Either post it or not, it's your candidate.

[thesquanderer]

110. Saving you the click

It's not hard to explain, it's just that there's a lot to it, so it takes up a lt of space. But okay...

We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.

Physical Violence
...Perpetrated by the State

Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.

...Perpetrated by Extremists

We are far from eradicating racism in this country. In June, nine of our fellow Americans were murdered while praying in a historic church because of the color of their skin. This violence fills us with outrage, disgust, and a deep, deep sadness. Today in America, if you are black, you can be killed for getting a pack of Skittles during a basketball game. These hateful acts of violence amount to acts of terror. They are perpetrated by extremists who want to intimidate and terrorize black and brown people in this country.

Addressing Physical Violence

It is an outrage that in these early years of the 21st century we are seeing intolerable acts of violence being perpetuated by police, and racist terrorism by white supremacists.

A growing number of communities do not trust the police and law enforcement officers have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect. Violence and brutality of any kind, particularly at the hands of the police sworn to protect and serve our communities, is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. We need a societal transformation to make it clear that black lives matter, and racism cannot be accepted in a civilized country.

* We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.
* We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together. Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments.
* We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities.
* At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America.
* We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable.
* Our Justice Department must aggressively investigate and prosecute police officers who break the law and hold them accountable for their actions.
* We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody.
* We need new rules on the allowable use of force. Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses.
* States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed.
* We need to make sure the federal resources are there to crack down on the illegal activities of hate groups.

Political Violence
Disenfranchisement

In the shameful days of open segregation, “literacy” laws were used to suppress minority voting. Today, through other laws and actions — such as requiring voters to show photo ID, discriminatory drawing of Congressional districts, not allowing early registration or voting, and purging voter rolls — states are taking steps which have a similar effect.

The patterns are unmistakable. An MIT paper found that African Americans waited twice as long to vote as whites. Wait times of as long as six or seven hours have been reported in some minority precincts, especially in “swing” states like Ohio and Florida. Thirteen percent of African-American men have lost the right to vote due to felony convictions.

This should offend the conscience of every American.

The fight for minority voting rights is a fight for justice. It is inseparable from the struggle for democracy itself.

We must work vigilantly to ensure that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely and easily.

Addressing Political Violence

* We need to re-enfranchise the more than two million African Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction.
* Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act’s “pre-clearance” provision, which extended protections to minority voters in states where they were clearly needed.
* We must expand the Act’s scope so that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely.
* We need to make Election Day a federal holiday to increase voters’ ability to participate.
* We must make early voting an option for voters who work or study and need the flexibility to vote on evenings or weekends.
* We must make no-fault absentee ballots an option for all Americans.
* Every American over 18 must be registered to vote automatically, so that students and working people can make their voices heard at the ballot box.
* We must put an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls.
* We need to make sure that there are sufficient polling places and poll workers to prevent long lines from forming at the polls anywhere.

Legal Violence

Millions of lives have been destroyed because people are in jail for nonviolent crimes. For decades, we have been engaged in a failed “War on Drugs” with racially-biased mandatory minimums that punish people of color unfairly.

It is an obscenity that we stigmatize so many young Americans with a criminal record for smoking marijuana, but not one major Wall Street executive has been prosecuted for causing the near collapse of our entire economy. This must change.

If current trends continue, one in four black males born today can expect to spend time in prison during their lifetime. Blacks are imprisoned at six times the rate of whites and a report by the Department of Justice found that blacks were three times more likely to be searched during a traffic stop, compared to white motorists. African-Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police. This is an unspeakable tragedy.

It is morally repugnant and a national tragedy that we have privatized prisons all over America. In my view, corporations should not be allowed to make a profit by building more jails and keeping more Americans behind bars. We have got to end the private-for-profit prison racket in America. I intend to introduce legislation that will end the private prison industry.

The measure of success for law enforcement should not be how many people get locked up. We need to invest in drug courts as well as medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that people struggling with addiction do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.

For people who have committed crimes that have landed them in jail, there needs to be a path back from prison. The federal system of parole needs to be reinstated. We need real education and real skills training for the incarcerated.

We must end the over incarceration of nonviolent young Americans who do not pose a serious threat to our society. It is an international embarrassment that we have more people locked up in jail than any other country on earth – more than even the Communist totalitarian state of China. That has got to end.

We must address the lingering unjust stereotypes that lead to the labeling of black youths as “thugs.” We know the truth that, like every community in this country, the vast majority of people of color are trying to work hard, play by the rules and raise their children. It’s time to stop demonizing minority communities.

In many cities all over our country, the incentives for policing are upside down. Departments are bringing in substantial sums of revenue by seizing the personal property of people who are suspected of criminal involvement. So-called civil asset forfeiture laws allow police to take property from people even before they are charged with a crime, much less convicted of one. Even worse, the system works in a way that make it nearly impossible for an innocent person to get her property back. We must end programs that not only permit, but actually reward officials for seizing assets without a criminal conviction or other lawful mandate. Departments and officers should not profit off of such seizures.

We must reform our criminal justice system to ensure fairness and justice for people of color.

Addressing Legal Violence

* We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain, in order to keep prison beds full.
* We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people.
* We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.
* We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training.
* We must abolish civil asset forfeiture programs which allow police departments to seize property from people who have not been convicted of a crime and profit off of such seizures.

Economic Violence

Weeks before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a union group in New York about what he called “the other America.”

“One America is flowing with the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality,” King said. “That America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits. . . . But as we assemble here tonight, I’m sure that each of us is painfully aware of the fact that there is another America, and that other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair.”

The problem was structural, King said: “This country has socialism for the rich, rugged individualism for the poor.”

Eight days later, speaking in Memphis, King continued the theme. “Do you know that most of the poor people in our country are working every day?” he asked striking sanitation workers. “And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of the economic life of our nation. These are facts which must be seen, and it is criminal to have people working on a full-time basis and a full-time job getting part-time income.”

King explained the shift in his focus: “Now our struggle is for genuine equality, which means economic equality. For we know that it isn’t enough to integrate lunch counters. What does it profit a man to be able to eat at an integrated lunch counter if he doesn’t earn enough money to buy a hamburger and a cup of coffee?”

But what King saw in 1968 — and what we all should recognize today — is that it is necessary to try to address the rampant economic inequality while also taking on the issue of societal racism. We must simultaneously address the structural and institutional racism which exists in this country, while at the same time we vigorously attack the grotesque level of income and wealth inequality which is making the very rich much richer while everyone else – especially those in our minority communities – are becoming poorer.

In addition to the physical violence faced by too many in our country we need look at the lives of black children and address a few other difficult facts. Black children, who make up just 18 percent of preschoolers, account for 48 percent of all out-of-school suspensions before kindergarten. We are failing our black children before kindergarten. Black students were expelled at three times the rate of white students. Black girls were suspended at higher rates than all other girls and most boys. According to the Department of Education, African American students are more likely to suffer harsh punishments – suspensions and arrests – at school.

We need to take a hard look at our education system. Black students attend schools with higher concentrations of first-year teachers, compared with white students. Black students were more than three times as likely to attend schools where fewer than 60 percent of teachers meet all state certification and licensure requirements.

Communities of color also face the violence of economic deprivation. Let’s be frank: neighborhoods like those in west Baltimore, where Freddie Gray resided, suffer the most. However, the problem of economic immobility isn’t just a problem for young men like Freddie Gray. It has become a problem for millions of Americans who, despite hard-work and the will to get ahead, can spend their entire lives struggling to survive on the economic treadmill.

We live at a time when most Americans don’t have $10,000 in savings, and millions of working adults have no idea how they will ever retire in dignity. God forbid, they are confronted with an unforeseen car accident, a medical emergency, or the loss of a job. It would literally send their lives into an economic tailspin. And the problems are even more serious when we consider race.

Let us not forget: It was the greed, recklessness, and illegal behavior on Wall Street that nearly drove the economy off of the cliff seven years ago. While millions of Americans lost their jobs, homes, life savings, and ability to send their kids to college, African Americans who were steered into expensive subprime mortgages were the hardest hit.

Most black and Latino households have less than $350 in savings. The black unemployment rate has remained roughly twice as high as the white rate over the last 40 years, regardless of education. Real African American youth unemployment is over 50 percent. This is unacceptable. The American people in general want change – they want a better deal. A fairer deal. A new deal. They want an America with laws and policies that truly reward hard work with economic mobility. They want an America that affords all of its citizens with the economic security to take risks and the opportunity to realize their full potential.

Addressing Economic Violence

* We need to give our children, regardless of their race or their income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free.
* We must invest $5.5 billion in a federally-funded youth employment program to employ young people of color who face disproportionately high unemployment rates.
* Knowing that black women earn 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, we must pass federal legislation to establish pay equity for women.
* We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history.
* We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families.

[bravenak]

111. Campaign Zero

[thesquanderer]

113. What does that mean? (n/t)

[bravenak]

115. S'where I saw that stuff first, mostly. Campaign Zero.

[thesquanderer]

117. So that makes it a bad platform? (n/t)

[bravenak]

118. Did not say that.

[thesquanderer]

121. So what is it you don't like about about Sanders' platform here?

Regardless of where the various elements came from, you asked what his solutions were, and there they are.

Looking at the Campaign Zero web site, it seems that BS addresses their issues more thoroughly than HRC does (they have a chart). For whatever that's worth.

What is it about Hillary's ideas that you find superior?

[bravenak]

123. It is not his platform I oppose.

I still think he is a good Senator. He is weak on foreign policy. He talks about the banks nonstop, that is not my pet issue, so I tune out. Everything is economics with him. I do not want a middle class tax hike. Would be nice to see him interact with some of those poverty stricken blacks he has been fighing for for forty years.
Look, he just does not quite get it. He talks okay for a minute then back to his stump speech for the rest about YOUR pet issues. Not interested in breaking up the banks being all I care about. The issues of racism are way more deadly and pressing for my group, than the oligarchy is. Don't want to tax the wealthy into submission. Sounds sucky to me. Like, why do we need them chastened so bad? If they are doing wrong then we should prosecute them, not I am not even Interested in a 90 percent tax bracket on ANYBODY, not even Croesus.
I am not actually mad at the rich. or pissed at Wall Street to the point where I make plans and have goals of taking them down. Black people REALLY do have different problems. Occupy was very light on AAs, not many of us and not much in the way of a full movement in our communities. Wall Street is not our biggest problem, but, boy oh boy, do we wish it were so!

[thesquanderer]

125. I get it, Sanders is not the candidate for you.

It was only your saying that he had no positions to address racism--other than ones centered on economics--that I took issue with. You can see that's not the case (whether they are Campaign Zero positions or others). But if he's still not for you, fine.

[lumberjack_jeff]

75. What a non-sequitur. n/t

[bravenak]

78. I am shocked that you think so. Really.

[lumberjack_jeff]

81. I don't understand how people can't see that the economy and how it is run...

... is a major element of institutional racism.

Fix the ways in which the economy disproportionately harms minorities and you reduce racism.

I reject the idea that it's either-or. I especially reject the idea that meaningful civil rights progress can be made without reducing class inequality.

[bravenak]

89. It is an element. Not the only thing or the main thing.

History of america and the way africans were and are treated is the MAIN THING. If people would understand that, there would not be this argument. Black people are always going to see racism as the barrier to full participation in the economy in the first place. Because it is.

[99Forever]

83. Nope, I don't "see what you mean."

I do however, have a pretty good handle on your agenda.

[bravenak]

87. Agenda. Sounds scary.

[99Forever]

90. Nope, just ridicuous and transparent.

[bravenak]

100. Yet here you are

[99Forever]

104. Which means what?

Better get some fresh bait. The stale stuff isn't working so well.

[bravenak]

107. Yeah right