OPINION: Mississippi Women's Activist - Bernie Sanders Can't Come to the Cookout

[EffieBlack]

20. Just because YOU dont agree doesnt make it an air ball. Why not THINK about what shes saying

or what I am saying or what many other people are saying nstead of just assuming that you’re right and anyone who differs with you can’t know what they’re talking about and are just out to get Bernie?

I’ve been deeply involved in the civil rights struggle for nearly 40 years from the local grassroots to the national level, so I know a little something about this space. And one thing I know is that many, many white people have participated in the battle to varying degrees and they deserve a lot of credit for their efforts. I personally know scores if not hundreds of white folk who protested in college. Some of them continued working alongside us in the movement, some went on to other things. But I can count on one hand the number who protested 20, 30, much less nearly 60 years ago and go around talking about it as if it made them special. And they certainly don’t think it makes them some kind of expert on civil rights who knows all the answers and they would never have the nerve to ignore what black people are telling them about civil rights, social justice and equal opportunity or would claim that they can’t be criticized for their view because they participated in a couple of protests a few decades ago.

My problem isn’t with Bernie’s view - he has every right to his opinion. But I do object to and am deeply offended by his belief that he knows better about civil rights than everyone else and his refusal to listen to black folks’ opinions that may differ from his own - an attitude that is compounded by some of his defenders’ similar but exponentially more aggressive approach.

The response to this article is a perfect case and point.instead of actually considering the author’s perspective, it’s dismissed as “an air ball” that needs to “have a sock put in it.”

Nice.