2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Dear Black People, [View all]KittyWampus
(55,894 posts)Since you brought up Ellen Sturtz.
Telling black people how they should vote, protest, behave seems like a current topic here on DU.
And over the years many, many DU'ers have fully supported Code Pink's protests. Even when it's been Democrats.
BTW, I am ambivalent about the BLM protestors from yesterday.
CODEPINK Statement Regarding Twitter
Posted by Alli
We would like to apologize for our recent actions that displayed an undeniable insensitivity to persons of color, especially women of color.
As an organization, we strive to speak truth to power and stand for human rights for all. We respect intersectionality and strive to stay aware of the many forms of privilege among our group. We would like to make an unequivocal apology to Michelle Obama, Alicia Keys, and everyone who took offense to messages we posted on Twitter.
By tweeting about how Michelle Obama should have responded to Ellen Sturtzs interruption, we behaved in such a way that reflected a long history of white women dictating how Black women should behave. Our actions were not in keeping with our own values as an organization. While yesterdays interruption was not a CODEPINK action, it is exemplary of CODEPINK tactics, and the way we responded to it was insensitive and thoughtless.
When the process of petitioning, lobbying and writing letters fails, and when mainstream media ignores the real issues, interruptions of high-profile officials are one tactic to make our voices heard. Because it crosses the line of agreed-upon civility, this tactic is always messy.
We appreciate all the people who gave us instant feedback over Twitter and it has been and will continue to be a learning opportunity for CODEPINK. We are immediately reviewing our process and criteria for social media use, as an organization, and we invite any of our our critics to speak with us directly about issues of race and privilege in order to prevent a similar occurrence in the future.
Onward to peace and justice,
The CODEPINK Staff
http://codepink.org/blog/?p=63489&preview=true