2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Dear Black People, [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)If the audience feels there's something worth saying, they'll get behind a protest. If the audience feels that the person/people on the stage are getting slammed or sandbagged, they'll say that, too.
I agree with your point about the NAACP--of course, they probably would have had a whole Q and A worked out on the topic of BLM, with a good dose of "candidate listening" leading off the program in the first place. A sort of "This is how we feel--OK, now you can react to it" type of exchange.
Both candidates could have defused that scenario by asking the protesters to line up, take the mic and speak their truth, and then acknowledged their input and insight.
It sure beats getting defensive when someone wants to simply express that there IS a problem and it IS getting worse, not better.