My heart breaks this Marissa Johnson girl, who apparently has been so wronged and ginned up on hatred for white people that she'll unleash such vitriol at a man who marched with King. A man who got arrested in the name of fair and equal housing for minorities, and who's been against the disastrous war on drugs an mass incarcerations from the beginning. A war on drugs that ruined the lives of an entire generation of black men. A man who wants equality through universality. But let's face it; Bernie is an old white guy (and worse yet a jew) so therefore the enemy. More below
There are exactly three people who can do anything immediately about the crisis/emergency issue the BLM movement is screaming and demanding a federal fix for. Obama, who can use his bully pulpit and threaten to veto any and all bills until a comprehensive criminal justice reform package is sent to his desk (I'm not suggesting he do this BTW) and Mitch McConnell & Kevin McCarthy who control the docket for their respective legislative houses and can control what bills see a vote. So the shouting down and protesting of presidential candidates as they try to present their platforms and agendas IF they take office 18 months from now has nothing to do with urgency, and everything to do with misplaced anger and misdirected political energy.
I recently did my own mini poll among African American people I'd campaigned with in 2008 for Obama. I had sensed on social media a disinterest in this years primary from African American people who had been really involved in canvassing in 2008. I reached out and asked if they had chosen a candidate yet. Now I'm only in touch with 6 African American people who canvassed with me in 2008 and I only got responses form 4, so this is far from scientific and highly anecdotal. One (probably the most active one from 2008) is all in for Bernie, two I'll call soft Bernie supporters and last said he "can't get excited about a guy who looks like my landlord." (If you live in the Bushwick/Williamsburg area of Brooklyn You'll understand this.) 2008 was a trans-formative year for Politics. A generation of Black Americans reengaged in the political process. This is an amazingly good thing. Now, African Americans under 29 have never been asked to vote or campaign for anyone other than a fellow African american. To some of them this feels like a loss of power or influence. Regardless of who the nominee is we are going to need the African American Community to turn out in big numbers to get a real agenda for change enacted. Nobody understands this better than Bernie who's absolutely reliant on that "people power" as opposed to ad dollars & big donations.
There is a fierce urgency of now. The Primaries are where real change is made. Obama knew this and started his campaign early. We need all hands on deck ASAP. So it's gut check time for my African American brothers and sisters. There's no strong African American candidate this year, and only one candidate running on Obama's "New politics" philosophy that shuns big money and PACs for people power and small donations. Bernie may be an easy target to generate press for yourself (since he's actually out with the people), but who needs you more? Who's going to do more in the long run for equality? It's time for frank talk about why some people in the African American community seem to hate Bernie Sanders.
What can be done about police brutality and institutional racism if we have a progressive wave in this election:
There is no device yet invented that can peer into the hearts of man and identify a racist. Communities and municipalities will always want to hire and train their own police (and rightly so, a federalized police force is a slippery slope to a police state).
So what can be done on the federal level:
Most of it relies on controlling the purse stings of federal aid and insisting that cities that want federal assistance (for anything) must;
1) Demilitarize their police
2) Attend a federally managed and defined deescalation training regiment.
3) Implement means base citation schedules so that police are not balancing their budgets on the working poor and people out in the street.
4) Roll back the war on drugs sentencing guidelines for minor drug offenses.
5) Provide incentives for community policing and racial diversity within police forces.
Aside from these items, appoint a federal Attorney General that will go after bad cops aggressively.
Even with all this, so long as young black men are denied the same job and educational opportunities as their Caucasian peers, there will be a perpetual underclass that will be on the streets seeking to survive in whatever way they can. Too often this ends up being through violent and or criminal behaviors. Which brings us to equality through universality:
Universal health care is a black issue; You're 30% more likely to be uninsured if you're a minority. How many thousands of African american suffer, die, or see their life expectancy shorted by this?
Universal higher education is a black issue: While Affirmative action has improved the disparity between blacks going to college they are twice as likely to drop out.
The most common reason being financial hardship.
Imagine what a truly level higher education playing filed would do for young African Americans. Free college for all and no onerous debt when your degree is achieved. Instead of needing to immediately become a corporate wage slave to pay down education debt, our young people of all colors might have financial freedom to start businesses and live their dreams.
A livable minimum wage is a black issue: Minimum wage earners are disproportional women and minorities.
It will not be until we raise all of the working poor and close the enormous income inequality gap in this country that true and lasting change in racial relations will take root.
In 2008 I went door to door with many African American volunteers and we asked many old white men to look past the indoctrination of there parents, to see past skin color, and examine the character of man named Barack Obama. This year some of those same volunteers need to examine at their own capacity to see past the outward appearance of a man.