The Bernie Sanders and BLM (Black Lives Matter) camps need to stop bickering and start working together
Just yesterday, I got into a rather heated Twitter debate with a die-hard Bernie Sanders supporter, who told me that due to Black Lives Matter activists Marissa Janae Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford interrupting a Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle a little over a week ago, he was no longer a BLM supporter. Sanders allowed the activists to speak at the rally, which I found to be a classy move, however, he himself didn't get to speak for more than a minute, which left many attendees highly disappointed. In the week plus since then, a decent number of progressive blog posts and comments have read as follows:
- "Thank you, Marissa Janae Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford! Black Lives Matter!"
- "Bernie Sanders Has Always Been a Civil Rights Leader!"
- "BLM Activists Should Apologize To Bernie Sanders!"
- "Bernie Sanders Should Apologize to BLM Activists!"
The two camps have been pointing fingers at one another and bickering ever since the Seattle rally it seems, with neither side appearing to listen to nor back down from the other, as opposed to collecting their breaths and trying to find ways to come together on this issue and others. Not only that, but now I'm reading about conspiracy theories regarding the BLM movement (these two activists in particular) being funded by Hillary Clinton supporters, the Koch Brothers, George Soros, communists, yeah, you name it. Ms. Johnson and Ms. Willaford have also received mixed reports on their allegiances, both with regard to the Black Lives Matter movement and their party affiliation. Some have called Ms. Johnson out for being a "radical Christian" and "Sarah Palin supporter" (and with that, a Republican plant), while others have reported that at least the latter is no longer the case. Likewise, reports have been swirling around that Ms. Johnson and Ms. Willaford, while both considered to be Black Lives Matter activists, are part of a more radical wing of the movement, called Outside Agitators 206.
Not long after Sanders' speech was interrupted, he posted a rather lengthy outline on his webpage with regard to "Racial Justice" reforms he feels are needed, including the following:
"- We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.
- We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together. Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments.
- We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities.
- At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America.
- We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable.
- Our Justice Department must aggressively investigate and prosecute police officers who break the law and hold them accountable for their actions.
- We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody.
- We need new rules on the allowable use of force. Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses.
- States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed.
- We need to make sure the federal resources are there to crack down on the illegal activities of hate groups.
- We need to re-enfranchise the more than two million African Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction.
- Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act’s “pre-clearance” provision, which extended protections to minority voters in states where they were clearly needed.
- We must expand the Act’s scope so that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely.
- We need to make Election Day a federal holiday to increase voters’ ability to participate.
- We must make early voting an option for voters who work or study and need the flexibility to vote on evenings or weekends.
- We must make no-fault absentee ballots an option for all Americans.
- Every American over 18 must be registered to vote automatically, so that students and working people can make their voices heard at the ballot box.
- We must put an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls.
- We need to make sure that there are sufficient polling places and poll workers to prevent long lines from forming at the polls anywhere.
- We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain, in order to keep prison beds full.
- We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people.
- We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.
- We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training.
- We need to give our children, regardless of their race or their income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free.
- We must invest $5.5 billion in a federally-funded youth employment program to employ young people of color who face disproportionately high unemployment rates.
- Knowing that black women earn 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, we must pass federal legislation to establish pay equity for women.
- We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history.
- We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families."
So while it appeared as if Marissa Janae Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford's actions last week in Seattle may have been a little over-the-top and seen as rude by some, they did prompt Sanders to go into much detail about what he hopes to do for the Black Lives Matter movement if he were to become President of the United States. The question now is, "Can the two camps let this event go and come together to hopefully ignite necessary change?" Did this protest do more to help or hurt the BLM movement, short- and long-term, especially with self-described liberals, moderates, and Independents? Will Sanders supporters let the conspiracy theories go? Will BLM supporters continue interrupting Bernie Sanders events? At the end of the day, can the two sides finally look one another in the eyes, say, "We may differ some on strategy on how to reach a certain point in the progress of this country, but we agree on that final point"? Like I mentioned at the outset, just yesterday I engaged in a heated Twitter debate revolving around these issues and questions. While I tried to play things in the middle, being a supporter of both Bernie Sanders and the Black Lives Matter movement, this one particular Sanders supporter had made up his mind that the conspiracy theories he'd heard and read regarding BLM were actually facts, and due to me not being one for conspiracy theories, I was blinded by BLM and didn't believe in facts (yes, ironic, isn't it?).
In the end, I think Marissa Janae Johnson, Mara Jacqueline Willaford, Bernie Sanders, and many others, have reached our Howard Beale moment, where we just want to scream at the top of our lungs, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" No matter where we may disagree with one another on tactic, though, come November of next year, we're going to need a large majority of the Bernie Sanders camp, Hillary Clinton camp, and Black Lives Matter movement to come together and vote on election day, so we can make certain a third Bush, a Scott Walker, a Ted Cruz, or a Donald Trump doesn't get elected to the White House. So, no matter which side you're on in this debate, I think it's time we all took a deep breath, looked each other in the eyes, listened to one another, and fought alongside one another, as opposed to with each other.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/
- "Thank you, Marissa Janae Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford! Black Lives Matter!"
- "Bernie Sanders Has Always Been a Civil Rights Leader!"
- "BLM Activists Should Apologize To Bernie Sanders!"
- "Bernie Sanders Should Apologize to BLM Activists!"
The two camps have been pointing fingers at one another and bickering ever since the Seattle rally it seems, with neither side appearing to listen to nor back down from the other, as opposed to collecting their breaths and trying to find ways to come together on this issue and others. Not only that, but now I'm reading about conspiracy theories regarding the BLM movement (these two activists in particular) being funded by Hillary Clinton supporters, the Koch Brothers, George Soros, communists, yeah, you name it. Ms. Johnson and Ms. Willaford have also received mixed reports on their allegiances, both with regard to the Black Lives Matter movement and their party affiliation. Some have called Ms. Johnson out for being a "radical Christian" and "Sarah Palin supporter" (and with that, a Republican plant), while others have reported that at least the latter is no longer the case. Likewise, reports have been swirling around that Ms. Johnson and Ms. Willaford, while both considered to be Black Lives Matter activists, are part of a more radical wing of the movement, called Outside Agitators 206.
Not long after Sanders' speech was interrupted, he posted a rather lengthy outline on his webpage with regard to "Racial Justice" reforms he feels are needed, including the following:
"- We must demilitarize our police forces so they don’t look and act like invading armies.
- We must invest in community policing. Only when we get officers into the communities, working within neighborhoods before trouble arises, do we develop the relationships necessary to make our communities safer together. Among other things, that means increasing civilian oversight of police departments.
- We need police forces that reflect the diversity of our communities.
- At the federal level we need to establish a new model police training program that reorients the way we do law enforcement in this country. With input from a broad segment of the community including activists and leaders from organizations like Black Lives Matter we will reinvent how we police America.
- We need to federally fund and require body cameras for law enforcement officers to make it easier to hold them accountable.
- Our Justice Department must aggressively investigate and prosecute police officers who break the law and hold them accountable for their actions.
- We need to require police departments and states to provide public reports on all police shootings and deaths that take place while in police custody.
- We need new rules on the allowable use of force. Police officers need to be trained to de-escalate confrontations and to humanely interact with people who have mental illnesses.
- States and localities that make progress in this area should get more federal justice grant money. Those that do not should get their funding slashed.
- We need to make sure the federal resources are there to crack down on the illegal activities of hate groups.
- We need to re-enfranchise the more than two million African Americans who have had their right to vote taken away by a felony conviction.
- Congress must restore the Voting Rights Act’s “pre-clearance” provision, which extended protections to minority voters in states where they were clearly needed.
- We must expand the Act’s scope so that every American, regardless of skin color or national origin, is able to vote freely.
- We need to make Election Day a federal holiday to increase voters’ ability to participate.
- We must make early voting an option for voters who work or study and need the flexibility to vote on evenings or weekends.
- We must make no-fault absentee ballots an option for all Americans.
- Every American over 18 must be registered to vote automatically, so that students and working people can make their voices heard at the ballot box.
- We must put an end to discriminatory laws and the purging of minority-community names from voting rolls.
- We need to make sure that there are sufficient polling places and poll workers to prevent long lines from forming at the polls anywhere.
- We need to ban prisons for profit, which result in an over-incentive to arrest, jail and detain, in order to keep prison beds full.
- We need to turn back from the failed “War on Drugs” and eliminate mandatory minimums which result in sentencing disparities between black and white people.
- We need to invest in drug courts and medical and mental health interventions for people with substance abuse problems, so that they do not end up in prison, they end up in treatment.
- We need to boost investments for programs that help people who have gone to jail rebuild their lives with education and job training.
- We need to give our children, regardless of their race or their income, a fair shot at attending college. That’s why all public universities should be made tuition free.
- We must invest $5.5 billion in a federally-funded youth employment program to employ young people of color who face disproportionately high unemployment rates.
- Knowing that black women earn 64 cents on the dollar compared to white men, we must pass federal legislation to establish pay equity for women.
- We must prevent employers from discriminating against applicants based on criminal history.
- We need to ensure access to quality affordable childcare for working families."
So while it appeared as if Marissa Janae Johnson and Mara Jacqueline Willaford's actions last week in Seattle may have been a little over-the-top and seen as rude by some, they did prompt Sanders to go into much detail about what he hopes to do for the Black Lives Matter movement if he were to become President of the United States. The question now is, "Can the two camps let this event go and come together to hopefully ignite necessary change?" Did this protest do more to help or hurt the BLM movement, short- and long-term, especially with self-described liberals, moderates, and Independents? Will Sanders supporters let the conspiracy theories go? Will BLM supporters continue interrupting Bernie Sanders events? At the end of the day, can the two sides finally look one another in the eyes, say, "We may differ some on strategy on how to reach a certain point in the progress of this country, but we agree on that final point"? Like I mentioned at the outset, just yesterday I engaged in a heated Twitter debate revolving around these issues and questions. While I tried to play things in the middle, being a supporter of both Bernie Sanders and the Black Lives Matter movement, this one particular Sanders supporter had made up his mind that the conspiracy theories he'd heard and read regarding BLM were actually facts, and due to me not being one for conspiracy theories, I was blinded by BLM and didn't believe in facts (yes, ironic, isn't it?).
In the end, I think Marissa Janae Johnson, Mara Jacqueline Willaford, Bernie Sanders, and many others, have reached our Howard Beale moment, where we just want to scream at the top of our lungs, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" No matter where we may disagree with one another on tactic, though, come November of next year, we're going to need a large majority of the Bernie Sanders camp, Hillary Clinton camp, and Black Lives Matter movement to come together and vote on election day, so we can make certain a third Bush, a Scott Walker, a Ted Cruz, or a Donald Trump doesn't get elected to the White House. So, no matter which side you're on in this debate, I think it's time we all took a deep breath, looked each other in the eyes, listened to one another, and fought alongside one another, as opposed to with each other.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/
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