This will be quick. I've spent way more time on DK tonight than I really have time to going back and forth over what happened in Seattle. I want to be as clear as I can be here.
I support the Black Lives Matter movement. As far as I can discern, it's still pretty organic and grass roots and the main focus has been (as far as I can see) to protest the indiscriminate tactics of police in this country that has seen hundreds of people of color killed unnecessarily. In fact over 600 people alone this year. The movement started not with BLM, but with the killing of Ferguson resident Mike Brown and this weekend marks the 1 year anniversary of his death.
On another accord, a couple of African American women coined the phrase 'Black Lives Matter' and it went viral.
The movement has mainly been about protesting these deaths and bringing to light a dark secret that mostly black folk seemed to have always known about.
As with any movement, it evolves into the political sphere.
There are many progressives on DK tonight demanding a lot of things from BLM. However I think that one of the original Ferguson activists, Deray McKesson can say it better than me:
I do NOT agree with the tactics of the individuals associated with the BLM movement in Seattle. I do NOT agree with demanding any individual -- let alone a Presidential candidate to 'bow down'. It's ridiculous and stupid.
More importantly it is a tactical epic fail. Those individuals do not speak for me and I would imagine they don't speak for many a black folk who are seasoned in the area of protesting and demonstrations.
I also think that the organizers of this event who invited Senator Sanders to speak failed to maintain control of their stage -- and microphones.
However I have to say that if some progressives on here use this as an opportunity to broad brush BLM, or make demands on this movement out of anger, then it won't get any of us anywhere.
While I appreciate the enthusiasm that some DKer's have for their candidates, it would be equally unfair of me to broad brush supporters so broadly that it would impede me from supporting the individual who will represent the Democratic Party in 2016.
So you can choose to 'call to task' the whole BLM movement over the actions of a handful of activists in Seattle.
However I do think that it will only serve to alienate us further. I don't think that would help anyone.