DeRay McKesson, the activist who rose to prominence as an on-the-ground observer of the Ferguson Rebellion, co-founder of the data, strategy and policy platform called Campaign Zero, and former Baltimore mayoral candidate, has endorsed Hillary Clinton for president of the United States. On Oct. 26, McKesson wrote in the Washington Post that:
When Clinton started this campaign, she didn’t appear to understand the urgency of the need to address racism. When I first met with her in October 2015, she had not yet released comprehensive policy positions dealing with racial justice. She seemed slow to grasp why it was important to act with comprehensive proposed solutions.
The unrest and activism over the last two years has undoubtedly pushed Clinton, specifically on key issues that she and other Democrats otherwise would not have addressed as forcefully as the party’s platform does: private prisons, an increased minimum wage, the role of institutional and implicit bias in sustaining unjust systems and acknowledging the need to address racism directly, to name a few.
Clinton’s platform on racial justice is strong: It is informed by the policy failings of the past and is a vision for where we need to go.
McKesson’s comrade Brittany Packnett, a co-founder of Campaign Zero, also endorsed Clinton. Speaking with Melissa Harris-Perry in Elle Magazine last week, Packnett said her endorsement was “personal, not institutional:”
Ultimately, I arrived at two points simultaneously. First, Secretary Clinton can protect the important, though imperfect, steps taken by the Obama administration to improve equity in criminal justice, education, and health care. And second, I am completely fed up with Donald Trump's candidacy. It is not a joke. The policies he is proposing on issues like immigration, health care, and Supreme Court appointments truly are deeply worrisome and dangerous. Once I realized both of these things, I knew I couldn't look at myself in the mirror if I didn't stand up and do what I could do now to encourage young people to vote in this election.
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