When I was in college I worked in the Chancellor's Office at Berkeley. I have seen many, many protests. Some good, some bad, some just plain stupid.
I offer my perspective in regards to the current #BLM movement.
The second year I was in college, the state of California passed Prop 209. For those of you that don't remember, it was the Prop that banned affirmative action at public institutions.
There was a protest group on campus called By Any Means Necessary (BAMN). They still exist. The protesters at the time were a mix between good and terrible. BAMN was always dominating the campus headlines for some antic that they were pulling.
Their message was 100% spot on. Banning affirmative action was going dismay the numbers of minorities at the UC system. Without a complete overhaul of education and intervention at the K-12 level, the few minorities at flagship schools would plummet.
Those of us that were minorities on campus were soon to be fewer in numbers. We faced a hostile environment where many of our classmates thought we had gotten in on unfair standards. The Republican Student group held a cookie sale where they sold cookies to different ethnic groups for different prices. Black students could buy cookies at 50 cents, Asians at $1.25.
I had many conversations with well meaning white classmates that thought the ban was good. "Didn't I want to know that I got in on my own merit?" I would have to explain I was a 4.0, three sport varsity athlete, student body treasurer, high SAT scoring individual, heavily recruited high school student. I had no doubts why I got in. I also had to explain that Berkeley offered the one thing that a lot of more prestigious schools didn't...A reasonable price plus a scholarship.
The BAMN movement was important. Diversity at college DID matter. Yes, they were loud and sometimes obnoxious.
The BAMN movement didn't always get a right. They chained themselves to things, pulled fire alarms during finals. Raided the Chancellors office on many occasions, got themselves arrested.
More important, they were fighting a cause and it was messy. Not everyone agreed with everyone else's tactics.
Another leaderless movement comes to mind...OWS. Sometimes messy, sometimes silly, sometimes harmful to itself but we all still believe in the central message because it was right and good.
So when you denounce the entire #BLM because a few protesters interrupted a stump speech, I want you to remember that a few protesters don't make up an entire cause. That the central message is good. That a little inconvenience of your candidate is small potatoes in saving the lives of people of this country.
I want you to see the protest through the eyes of whatever your pet cause is. Would you be angry that OWS did x to get their message through? Do/did you let a few disruptive protesters define an entire movement?