Assumed in all of the Black Lives Matter confrontations and interruptions that you've seen of Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, and Hillary Clinton is the reality that many African Americans believe that those candidates have the capacity to understand and care about racism, but must still be taught, sometimes through direct confrontation, about the issue in order for them to actually announce policy proposals addressing it.
Sure, all three of those candidates have heard of racism and have had friends experience it in one way or another, but is it wrong for us to yearn for someone, who at this later stage of their life, doesn't need to be seriously corrected or coached on the horrors of police brutality? Am I wrong to want a candidate who has a clearly defined and verifiable history of standing against racial injustice?
Perfect presidential candidates are a myth. I get that. Bernie, Martin, and Hillary each have real strengths and weaknesses and that would be the case with anybody, but it stings a little, at this point in the game, to even feel like you must interrupt the plans of candidates in order to be heard. You may disagree with how Black Lives Matter activists interrupted your heroes, and I understand, but you cannot disagree that they felt it was completely and totally necessary in order to be heard, understood, and addressed.
I accept that each of those Democratic candidates have had points in their career where issues of injustice mattered to them, but until they were fully interrupted, it was very hard to see how it mattered today. I'm still waiting to see a full policy proposal from Hillary Clinton addressing police brutality, racial injustice, and the disturbing flaws of our criminal justice system.
But, here we are. These are the candidates we have. Joe Biden may enter the race, and I don't have any illusions that he is more progressive on these issues than any of the current candidates, but I think what I am feeling in my circle, among my family and friends, is that we're still yearning for a candidate who gets it.