Folks, I’ve articulated in many ways that Black folks aren’t feeling Bernie Sanders and that’s why he’s struggling to move beyond 20%. I watched his speech closely at the National Urban League and was not at all impressed with his message. However, I will clearly admit that I’m probably biased now.
Consequently, I searched for analysis from fair-minded progressives who don’t have an agenda like me. I discovered an article by one of my favorites, Tommy Christoper who is “The Daily Banter's White House Correspondent and Political Analyst. He's been a political reporter and liberal commentator since 2007, and has covered the White House since the beginning of the Obama administration, first for PoliticsDaily, and then for Mediaite.” http://thedailybanter.com/...
Tommy articulated what I’ve been trying to say without vitriol and I truly want you to read his analysis because Bern’s message is getting worse, not better in our community. Excerpts from Mediaite http://www.mediaite.com/...
TOMMY CHRISTOPHER’S ANALYSIS OF SANDERS AT NETROOTS AND SCLC
“A deep rift has developed between Sanders’ mostly-white supporters and the more diverse Obama coalition, which came to a head a few weeks ago at the Netroots Nation conference. While #BlackLivesMatter protesters wanted to hear Bernie’s plans to address police violence and criminal justice discrimination, he elected to crankily remind them about his civil rights record, and insist that his economic policies were the gateway to solving their problems.
With a week to think about it, Sanders addressed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference last weekend, and while he paid some lip service to the issues of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, the overall gist was more of the same. The few policies he offered fell well short even of those offered by Hillary Clinton (for example, Clinton favors mandatory body cameras, while Sanders merely proposes making them available), and even though he railed against the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, he still, in front of an audience thirsty for action on black issues, maintained that his only litmus test for Supreme Court justices would be overturning Citizens United.”
TOMMY CHRISTOPHER’S ANALYSIS OF SANDERS AT THE NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE
Now, with a second shot at repairing that rift before a largely black audience, Sanders has whiffed again. In a speech to the National Urban League this week, Sanders name-checked the movement that confronted him in Phoenix, but still came up well short in the policy department:
“A growing number of communities throughout this country do not trust the police, and police have become disconnected from the communities they are sworn to protect. When I was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, the largest city in the state, one of the things we did — and I believe this very strongly — is we moved toward community policing. Community policing means that police are part of the community, not seen as oppressors in the community, and that is the direction that we have got to move.
Sandra bland, Michael Brown, Eric gasher, Walt — garner, Walter Scott, Freddie grey, we know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. Let us all be very clear, violence and brutality of any kind particularly at the hands of law enforcement sworn to protect and serve their communities is unacceptable and must not be tolerated. We must reform our criminal justice system. Black lives do matter, and we must value black lives.
CHRISTOPHER: SANDERS MINORITY POLICIES DON’T MATCH HIS RHETORIC
Sanders then took a major detour from his prepared remarks to riff on criminal justice for several minutes, emphasizing things like community policing and prison reform, but still came up well short of the positions Hillary Clinton has taken, and even completely omitted voting rights from his speech. He also left out the body cameras. That contrast was made all the more noticeable by Hillary Clinton’s strong speech on those issues from the very same stage.
Bernie may have gotten the memo, but he didn’t read it too closely. The clear emphasis of his campaign remains “middle-class economics” and the fight against the “billionaire class.” Sandra Bland had a job. What she didn’t have was a chance to ever get to it, because she asked why she had to put out a cigarette in her own car. It wasn’t a billionaire who killed Sam DuBose, it was a middle-class cop. If Bernie Sanders wants to reach out to Obama coalition voters, he’s got to let go of the universality of his policies, and their eventual appeal to black voters. This isn’t that complicated; mandatory body cameras, mandatory federal reporting of profiling statistics, and mandatory federal jurisdiction over all use-of-force investigations are a good, quick start to assuring black voters they might be around to get a job fixing roads.
CHRISTOPHER ON WHY THE MAJORITY BLACK ACTIVIST DON’T TRUST SANDERS
As someone who agrees with Sanders (and Elizabeth Warren) on many issues, it is tempting to wonder what the harm is in getting those issues out, and the answer is none. To the extent that a Sanders candidacy can build support for things like a $15-an-hour minimum wage, it’s a good thing. The problem is that the rift between the Sanders/Warren Wing and the Obama coalition has become deep and bitter, much like the 2008 rift between Hillary’s supporters and then-Senator Obama’s. There are still many Obama supporters who don’t trust Hillary Clinton, who suspect that her advocacy on black issues is opportunistic and audience-specific. Unfortunately, Bernie Sanders isn’t even giving them that much. For any Democratic candidate to turn out the Obama coalition in real force, they’re going to need to put the right solutions to these problems front and center, not at a table near the kitchen.
My main problem with everything Sanders is saying now is that he’s only beginning to figure-out that we exist. Steve Kornacki describes Bernie’s problem this way:
STEVE KORNACKI’S DESCRIPTION OF SANDER’S RACE PROBLEM
The self-described Democratic socialist has focused almost exclusively on economic issues in his years in elected office, and his staff is 90% white, according to a recent study from the group INCLUSV.
… And Sanders’ message on race is very much rooted in his larger class-based analysis, something that did not sit well with the Black Lives Matter protesters at Netroots.
Racial and economic inequalities are “two issues which some people look at as separate issues, I really don’t,” Sanders said.
That message received applause Saturday night, but may satisfy some in the Black Lives Matter movement, who are not convinced racism will go away even if economic justice solved. http://www.msnbc.com/...
WHY MANY OBAMA ACTIVIST ARE NOW SUPPORTING HILLARY CLINTON
My expectation now is to be verbally assaulted again for daring to contribute the thoughts of others on why many black activists at every level aren’t feeling Bernie Sanders. I honestly believe he will never earn our support because many of us (not all) sincerely believe he’s simply playing lip-service to our issues. When he throws out names like Sandra Bland, we believe it’s disingenuous.
You see, I don’t need a job from the Bern because I’ve been in professional employment for decades. My circle of political friends that were established during the Obama campaign are already solidly in the upper middle-class. They are already financially solid, many have post graduate degrees and are economically whole.
We are with Bernie on many economic issues for those less fortunate but we know who’s in Congress. We understand that a speech without an "approved" policy is worthless.
PERRY BACON ON HILLARY BLACK SUPPORT
Many of us support the Clintons because they a ruthless, cut-throat, vindictive, punitive, conniving and most of all effective. We believe Hillary will have a greater chance of delivery on her $12.00 an hour than Bern’s $15.00.
Way back in 2013, Perry Bacon wrote a powerful article on the Grio.com about how Hillary was stacking-up chips with Obama’s black activists:
Why Hillary is courting African-Americans so early
by Perry Bacon Jr. | December 2, 2013 at 1:52 PM
A New York Times feature on Sunday illustrated the most important way Hillary Clinton is preparing for a likely 2016 presidential run: building strong alliances with African-Americans. The piece detailed her moves, from a speech on the Voting Rights Act to an appearance at Howard University to former President Clinton’s writing hand-written notes to key black members of Congress.
http://thegrio.com/...
We believe Hillary cares more about our voting rights being taken away as well the many other issues negatively affecting minority businesses.
OBAMA DELIVERED IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY
We love Obama because of the things he “hides” in policies for our community.
These are actual policies Obama delivered for us because he’s always thinking about us and Hillary has promised the same:
1. Obama Helped Minority Businesses Secure 3.5 Billion in Small Business thru-2009-10
2. 21% share of Jobs Act loans went to minority-owned businesses,
3. Kept 1.4 million African Americans out of poverty through tax credits, improvements
in unemployment insurance, an increase in food stamps, and relief for retirees,
veterans, and people with disabilities.
4. The President’s Recovery Act allotted $1.25 billion in funding to help re-train the
unemployed so they could find work.
5. $250 Million in Recovery Act funds were utilized to build/improve career training center
6. The Recovery Act also provides earned income and child tax credits that will help an
estimated 2.2 million African-American families and 4.7 million African-American
children by allowing working Americans to keep more of what they earn.
7. Saved Head Start : Gave $5 billion for early learning programs, such as Head Start,
Early Head Start, child care, and programs for children with special needs.
8. President Obama’s policies will benefit the significant number of African-American
students who apply for Pell grants, by providing 820,000 more grants by 2020.
9. The President also secured a $2.55 billion investment in HBCUs and minority-serving
institutions across ten years to ensure more AAs have access to higher education
10. Black and Hispanics are the largest beneficiaries of Obamacare.
11. $11 billion for infrastructure enhancements to community health centers, which will
allow them to provide access and treatment to 40 million patients by 2019.
12. The Fair Sentencing Act repeals a five-year mandatory sentence for first time
offenders, and for repeat offenders with less than 28 grams of crack cocaine.
13. The new law will reduce sentencing disparity between crack and powder cocaine
from 100-to-1 to 18-to-1
All of this is real. Obama delivered, Hillary claims she will to and this truly the definition of blacklives matter.
Thanks for reading my thoughts.