Some people have all the luck: escaping the wrath of #BlackLivesMatter | Blog#42

It’s now been three weeks since Netroots took place and I’ve been patiently waiting for Black Lives Matter to, at the very least, give Hillary Clinton equal time and, should they,too, find themselves roped off from Hillary as members of the press were recently, find some other way to put her through her paces, as was promised.

RopedOff

Meanwhile, in deference to those who now are no longer interested in a politician’s past record, here are some reminders of recent transgressions:

‘Hillary Clinton, At Black Church Near Ferguson, Says ‘All Lives Matter’

6/23/2015

FLORISSANT, Mo. — Hillary Clinton on Tuesday told a crowd at a black church near where the police killing of an unarmed teen propelled the “Black Lives Matter” movement that “all lives matter.” During a campaign stop minutes from where a white police officer fatally shot black teenager Michael Brown last summer, Clinton told a mostly African-American crowd at Christ the King United Church of Christ that “America’s struggles with race are far from finished.”

“We can’t hide from hard truths about race and justice,” she said. “We have to name them, own them, and change them.”

Clinton, running for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, was criticized last year for not immediately speaking about Brown’s killing. On Tuesday, she addressed racial inequity, the Confederate flag, forgiveness, and last week’s racially motivated massacre at a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina.

She said her mother, abandoned by her parents and forced to work as a teenager, taught her the importance of “kindness along the way from someone who believed she mattered.

“All lives matter,” Clinton said.

The phrase garnered most of Twitter’s attention about her speech, much of it negative.

Read the rest of  Hillary Clinton, At Black Church Near Ferguson, Says ‘All Lives Matter’ on HuffPo.


https://twitter.com/bdoulaoblongata/status/613435698863996929

https://twitter.com/wavyblackwoman/status/613435654148521985

Not only did she not get booed, but the day after Netroots, she took to Facebook to show off her BlackLivesMatter mad skillz:

HillaryClintonBLM

A year ago, when pressed by Christiane Amanpour, Clinton just would not acknowledge racism as a major reason for the treatment President Obama has received at the hands of the congressional GOP. Watch:

I remind you… Hillary Clinton’s slips during 2007 were race-related. I won’t delve too deeply to remind readers today. Betsy Reed’s excellent summation of the Clinton campaign’s problems with race and gender will tell a reader all that is needed:

Race to the Bottom

By Betsy Reed

May 1, 2008

How Hillary Clinton’s campaign played the race card–and drove a wedge into the feminist movement.

“Yet what is most troubling–and what has the most serious implications for the feminist movement–is that the Clinton campaign has used her rival’s race against him. In the name of demonstrating her superior “electability,” she and her surrogates have invoked the racist and sexist playbook of the right–in which swaggering macho cowboys are entrusted to defend the country–seeking to define Obama as too black, too foreign, too different to be President at a moment of high anxiety about national security. This subtly but distinctly racialized political strategy did not create the media feeding frenzy around the Rev. Jeremiah Wright that is now weighing Obama down, but it has positioned Clinton to take advantage of the opportunities the controversy has presented. And the Clinton campaign’s use of this strategy has many nonwhite and nonmainstream feminists crying foul.”

Also in The Nation, Richard Kim wrote in “How Does Hillary Clinton Feel About the White Racist Vote?

“As Betsy argues, Clinton has positioned herself to take advantage of the feeding frenzy around Rev. Wright, and her surrogates have portrayed “the black candidate” as less American, less patriotic and most importantly in what is now a race for superdelegates, less electable.

It’s that last word–electable–that really rankles me because it imputes “electability” to the candidates themselves. It’s as if “electability” were a personal quality–like integrity, compassion or in more biologized accounts, say, blonde hair–that candidates possess in varying degrees. All of this is absurd since “electability” is wholly determined by the voters, usually.”

A Google search will return plenty of additional instances, if more are needed. Interestingly… I came by the Betsy Reed piece via Richard Kim, who refers to Reed right in the lead-in to his column, with a hot link. Mysteriously, that link doesn’t lead to Reed’s piece anymore. Coincidence? I don’t think so anymore. Mediaite is another publication that seems to have trouble maintaining the integrity of links in past pieces and video clips many other news organizations include in their own content.

Whether it was deer in the headlights surprise or something else that caused Bernie Sanders not to jump when he was ambushed on stage, his record on many issues, but especially civil rights, has been golden. In the weeks since Netroots, he has given statements and speeches, including a major civil rights speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which was blacked out, again, inexplicably, by the press. A transcript is available here:

I’ve written plenty on this blog about Hillary Clinton and feminism, her responsibility as a part of the two-fer Bill Clinton ran on, at least in part, in both of her husband’s administrations for mass-incarceration, welfare reform that hurt Black women, especially in economic downturns.

I’ve attempted, in the past week, to call attention to Bernie Sanders’ civil rights speech and tweeted it to BLM leaders and others. I’ve not received either acknowledgement or response that those were received.

In a nation where we are all infected by the original sin and disease that is racism, there will be no perfect candidate. All we have are their actions, records, and history to judge them by.

I will close with a quote from Malcolm X:

“If you’re not careful, the media will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

–  Malcolm X

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