Daniel Cohen, who is president of Indivisible Houston, called me up a few days ago. He was irate that many who label themselves as progressive were not overtly vocal in condemning the recent anti-Semitic speech given by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.
Cohen was explicitly upset that Tamika Mallory, a leader and organizer of the Women’s March, was “fraternizing” with Farrakhan. Mallory spent a lot of time defending her attendance.
“I have a response that I need to get out,” Cohen said to me.
Soon after, I received a very long essay from Cohen, in which he methodically deconstructed the behavior of the Women’s March national leadership before, during, and after the speech.
Cohen received a lot of pushback from purported progressives, who accused him of creating disunity and fostering division within the progressive movement and the Democratic Party.
At Netroots Nation 2015, the most significant gathering of progressive bloggers and activists in the world, Black Lives Matter disrupted the event to confront Democratic presidential primary candidates. To my surprise, a large plurality of these progressives objected to their tactics. These are the same progressives that were all in with the Occupy movement, as well as the disruption it created.
My disappointment led me to write an article, where I reminded these liberals that:
Every year some form of protest occurs at Netroots Nation. It is an activist group. After-all, its genesis lies with activist bloggers. Politicians seek us out because it is at the center of the energy of the Democratic Party. While some may not have heard of the DailyKOS, the most traffic Liberal site, or Netroots Nation, much of the Liberal narrative is driven by those that write or are somehow affiliated with them. …
The disappointment with some of my Netroots Nation brothers and sisters was their willful inability to empathize. Activist liberals that have stood for civil rights, that have marched for civil rights, that have had their skulls cracked for civil rights were now either dismissive or critical of a group whose mission is noble.
I tried to implore them to look through the eyes of those that they claim to be fighting for, as opposed to their own.
Houstonians voted to repeal the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) in 2015. Unfortunately, some of the most prominent advocates for the repeal were the city’s black preachers. They promoted an anti-homosexual hysteria, the epitome of prejudice and discrimination to the nth degree. Back then, I wrote:
There is another story that must be told. Houston is a very diverse city. It is a majority-minority city. As such there is a very large percentage of the population that understands discrimination. An ordinance like HERO should have no problem passing. ...
here was a very unholy alliance that occurred. A sect of Black preachers allowed themselves to be co-opted by The Right Wing Religious Complex. They appeared on television at well advertised press conferences to influence their pews. The local stations were eager to carry. Ratings anyone?
The unholy alliance between the sect of Black preachers and the Right Wing Southern Religious Complex with a less than stellar past on social justice, perverted the electorate. Ironically, while those Black preachers collaborated in the promotion of hate the Right Wing, it is a certainty that the Right Wing Southern Religious Complex has not been there and will not be there to support policies that positively moves the Black preacher’s pews, their followers, forward. Those who willfully allowed themselves to pervert the election must be held accountable.
Progressives are not unlike the population at large. All of us have our prejudices and biases that reflect the country as a whole. What makes us different is the ability to see this as a problem, and to work assertively to solve it. Our intent must always be to work on ourselves and on others in order to modify our recessive demons.
Attempting to sweep these under the rug in the name of unity is no different than a scab hiding a deadly infection. Our movement is suffering because many are seeing the deception—and they’re choosing to either leave the movement, or live a life of political apathy.