Oh, hello.
It has come to my attention that some of the Daily Kos community are very angry over the disruption that occurred at #NN15's Town hall with Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley. And on top of said anger it seems that some of you have decided that I either started, planned, or participated in the interruption based on my twitter stream which clearly voiced support for the action.
So for the record, I did not plan the action. That was done by amazing Black Women organized by Tia Oso. I was not even in the same venue that the action was planned in. I was hosting the #TWIBnation #NN15 party. And when the protest started I was actually standing on the TWiB! Media Stage at NN dealing with the theft of all of our cameras the night before. I ran into the auditorium and immediately started covering the action as I have done across the nation from NYC to Ferguson to Baltimore to Berkeley.
Some of you have called for my firing from Netroots Nation. Some of you have said I helped destroy a progressive space. And to these folks I say, what do you think Netroots is? Every year there are protests. This shouldn't be a surprise. And while yes I am affiliated with Netroots, my stance on these issues and actions are quite public. And why in the world would Netroots Nation be upset at me for being the exact person that was hired in the first place. I've been a member of this space before my official capacity for years. I would think that many of you would be happy that NN is a space that's accepting of strong voices and wouldn't ask us to tone down or silence us.
Also, Netroots Nation released a message in support of the action that took place. Why would you want this progressive space to be simply a spot where people drop stump speeches and not listen to the people? Do you know how White Netroots has been? And now you're angry that PoC are actively coming to this space and demanding a place at the table? I find this very problematic. Your desire to protect politicians is being placed above the state of Emergency that is Black Life in America. So just to be clear, I will continue to be as vocal as I have been because I actually give a shit about the progressive space. I want it to be inclusive and supportive of voices that are constantly be silenced and give them a platform to make people listen. We've seen it start to work already.
So as opposed to throwing anger towards the protestors or myself, perhaps you should throw that same energy towards the candidates so that they will get their shit together. If you care about a coalition that can win then maybe you should care about the voices that have been ignored for decades.