2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Black Leaders who support Hillary Slam Bernie Sanders on race issues [View all]cascadiance
(19,537 posts)Aren't you all trying to make the case that Bernie hasn't done enough where Hillary has? Why are you posting these photos here, if there isn't something that Hillary has done that Bernie has done to provide some rationale for criticizing Bernie for no being in those shots.
I have NO criticisms of John Lewis here. He has always been a great person in our history and putting his life on the line for what he believed in. Not many can claim that.
As I've noted in another post on this thread. I acknowledge that many people of color have had experiences that someone with white privilege can't understand or fully appreciate. I get that, and I try hard to be understanding of every person of color I meet on issues they've dealt with in their lives that I haven't.
But if you really want a movement where you can get other white people to work with you and work for you as leaders, then you have to meet them half way and appeal to their sense of understanding, not berate them because they don't have the same experience you do. If you don't give them any room to meet you half way, you'll not accomplish anything without a violent revolution. Most of us in this party don't want that.
I've had experiences in my childhood that I'd wager not many people of my age had experiences of too before 9/11. My seventh grade teacher's boyfriend was kidnapped by Turkish terrorists when I lived in that country. Fortunately he got away, but many other incidents out there didn't end so fortunately at that time. Living under martial law isn't always a picnic. At that time, the most anyone heard about terrorism was when someone hijacked an airliner to Cuba. I don't hold that against people, but I can get a little how some here feel when they are surrounded by those that don't have such experiences.
Even though white, throughout my school life, I was a racial or national minority until my sophomore year in high school. I lived in AA part of DC where my best friend was AA there. Moved to Hawaii where I was a minority amongst ethnic Asians there, and lived overseas in Thailand and Turkey after that. For me, moving back to the states and going to a school where there wasn't many minorities actually felt odd to me at the time. The prejudice felt odd to me then too. That is why I move to more diverse communities because I enjoy living with a diverse community of people, and hope that we can have more global community sense of that some day. I hope that others that have had to deal with the traditional white majority culture that has created a lot of stress can find ways to put that aside for a newer atmosphere of inclusion too.
I see Bernie wanting that, and helping us move to a society that empowers 99% of us to do that if we all choose to make that happen.