Response to critiques of #BlackLivesMatter focus on Bernie Sanders (VIDEO)

Bernie Sanders event with 28,000 attendies

Once again Black Lives Matter interrupted Bernie Sanders as he attempted to give his stump speech in Seattle Washington at an event celebrating the anniversary of Social Security and Medicare. He did not give his speech that afternoon. Many in the crowd booed the protesters. Washington’s 37th District Senator Pramila Jayapal wrote the essay titled “Why Saturday’s Bernie Sanders Rally Left Me Feeling Heartbroken” detailing the event and the crowd’s reaction. It should be noted that later that evening Bernie Sanders gave his speech to his then largest crowd of 15,000.

A Rawstory piece titled “Black Bernie Sanders supporter to BLM protesters: You don’t speak for the majority” got my attention. YouTuber 3star2nr was none too happy with the actions of Black Lives Matter. “Bernie,” he said, “those three people who shouted you down tonight, those three people do not speak for the millions of African-Americans in this country and black people from other countries.”

I felt the guy’s sincerity and I understand where he is coming from. However I do not believe he sees the big picture. While one can say BLM does not speak for them, just like unions do not speak for all workers, all benefit from the positive results.

Protest is messy but sometimes one can only get results with protests that make us uncomfortable. The foundation of this nation had its genesis with protests. Every progressive success came about from uncomfortable protests. The same is true today. If the status quo is not made uncomfortable, the injustice of our justice and law enforcement systems will remain. I felt compelled to answer his video with the video below.

This led to a positive interaction in the comment section both at Rawstory and on the YouTube page.

The author of the video, 3star2nr responded as follows.

3star2nr
Agreed and like I said those 3 don’t speak for the movement. I saw one of them posting racist shit on Twitter they did it for attention. Not holding them accountable hurts everyone.

I agree with you wholeheartedly. My video wasn’t condemning the blm movement. It was condemning the tactics they employed that wasn’t right and we can’t simply pass it off. The danger is Bernie’s campaign will fall and that’s literally the only opportunity to change the things you’re describing. At the end of the day we want the same thing. We will get nothing if we tear each other down to get ahead. I had to make my video to counteract the decisiveness that was starting to happen. Thanks for sharing your video my friend.

Other comments follow.

Groot Groot
BLM is an important message. The problem is the messengers are now viewed in the same light as the westboro baptist church.

msdesertvoice
Well said, Egberto. Thank you so much for making sense of this. BLM is a good thing, but must become effective with their message and how they present it. Bernie is a good man and he is now awake to the black cause. We need to work together on this.

The following message should give liberal/progressives pause relative the authenticity of many of them.

DGardn100
Regarding your comments beginning at 3:55, you can see the same kind of reaction in these comments, and the comments on other posts about those two young women disrupting Sanders’ appearance in Seattle. As I mentioned on another post, opposition to anti-black racism isn’t automatically part and parcel of white progressivism, and we have to stop assuming that it is. It’s also interesting to note how quickly white progressive anger at BLM became as conspiracy-theorist and frankly, crackpotty as the Tea Party right. That’s very eye-opening, and we should never forget it.

Tonight in Portland Oregon, Bernie Sanders spoke to a crowd over 28,000 strong. He unveiled a sweeping policy platform to fight racial inequality. Does anyone doubt that this was prioritized because of the pressure brought forth to focus on this issue?