Look, I get the emotion surrounding this event...many people here and in general are following and supporting Bernie for very personal reasons, and the #BLM movement is a very personal movement to so many AA's here and throughout the country. Both groups have a right to their feelings and emotions, and neither are those groups completely independent of each other.
But, from a political and elections POV, I thought the Seattle incident was a very good thing for the Sanders campaign, that it went as well as it possibly could have given the circumstances, and will help insulate Sanders from further direct confrontations in the future.
First, Sanders handled it quite well. While I'm sure the campaign prepared for this sort of thing to happen again after NN, apparently there was little notice even amongst Seattle BLM that this was going to occur.
Per reports, when the interruption started, Bernie handed over the microphone. After it went about 4-5 mins, the campaign began to talk with the protestors to see if they were going to be able to continue, and when it didn't appear to be going anywhere, Sanders, ever man of the people, exited through a friendly crowd.
Apparently there is discord even with the BLM Seattle over what happened:
To the people of Seattle and #BernieSanders I am so sorry for what happened today in Seattle. I am a volunteer who just runs this page and I am only just starting to get into the movement. I was unaware of what happened and now that I've seen the video I would like to say again that I am sorry. That is not what Black Lives Matter stands for and that is not what we're about. Do not let your faith in the movement be shaken by voices of two people. Please do not question our legitimacy as a movement. Again I would like to apologize to the people of Seattle and I will be trying to reach out to Mr. Sanders.
And then there's
this tweet, apologizing as well.
Symone Sanders, Bernie's new national Press Secretary and an African-American herself, is quoted after:
(h/tMTmofo)
As for the Seattle protest, Symone Sanders said, “Do I think everyone in the movement agrees with the way the protesters commanded the stage today? No. Am I going to condemn the protesters for standing up and expressing themselves? No. Because their voices matter.”
“We’re all doing Black Lives Matter work. Some of us it’s policy, some of us it’s advocacy, some of us it’s activism, but we all have a place,” she said.
The Sanders' campaign official website now has a
Racial Justice issues page as well, though I don't know if it was posted prior to the Seattle incident yesterday.
***
The Black Lives Matter movement could've been a constant thorn in Bernie's side during his campaign for the Democratic Party nomination and for President, and his NN 15 performance when they first interrupted a speech of his wasn't the best. Fortunately, and unlike several people here at Daily Kos and on Twitter, the campaign realized it had a few problems around this issue and movement, and made concrete steps to mitigate them.
Meanwhile, the egg (if in fact there is any) landed on the face of the protestors, not on Bernie...and the bad optics of this being a targeted political hit on Bernie and the vast unpopularity of the interruption itself will make future BLM protestors think twice before directly interrupting Sanders again....which is only a good thing for him and his campaign.