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

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