Hi.
I am new here. I've been lurking off and on for a long time. I finally joined because I need to express myself about the whole Bernie Sanders rally yesterday.
I was troubled by what happened. But, more troubled by many African Americans who say we don't understand. We would not know how they feel. We just have 'White Guilt' and therefor are not really in sympathy with them.
I'm sorry but, we do know.
We all have faced adversity, fear, bullying of some kind.
We don't have to be black and bullied by the police to understand and feel something.
People in general are empathetic.
Some are not but, on the whole, most are. We have the ability to empathize or put ourselves in someone's shoes.
If we were not, we would not enjoy watching a movie, a television program or read a good book. The reason we do is because we may not be in space, or a single woman in New York or where ever the setting is. And we would not experience the emotions that the characters feel.
A horror movie, we feel fear. A touching moment we feel sympathy or happiness or sadness.
We don't know these people. They are just characters. We don't live their lives. But, we feel their emotions. We can put ourselves in their shoes.
A white kid going to a school in suburbia feels the same emotions a black person feels when a cop comes after them. That kid gets up everyday and faces with trepidation going into that school. That school where those kids will hit him, call him names, hurt him. And no one will help him. Not the teachers. Not the principal. Surely not the lunch ladies. But, that kid feels the same feeling you feel who are black with a cop. And when he grows up he becomes one of those useless progressives you see as racist and has no clue what you feel.
The woman who lives in that huge house down the street with the gardens and pool could never empathize with what you go through on the streets with the police. How could she know. She has money, a handsome husband and a huge house. What you don't know is that she cringes every evening when she hears the car door shut wondering if she is going to take another beating like last night. The fear, the pain, the wondering if she is going to die.
Then, there are those of us who grew up to accept everyone as equals. To treat people with decency. To reject racism. When we hear of another young black man being murdered by the police we feel anger and we feel sick. We want to know what is going on and why it keeps happening. We feel outrage.
I am haunted by a little boy at the park with his toy gun and police officer jumping out of his car blazing bullets at the boy. No questions. No finding out if the gun was real first. Just shooting and killing. That little boy never saw the soon to be Christmas or got to open his presents. I am a mother. I am a grandmother. I can feel the pain, the outrage and the sadness.
I think about the young man in Walmart who was playing around with a toy gun, thinking of getting it for his kid. Walking around the store and looking around as we all do before purchasing his kid's toy. From behind, before he could react, he lays dead as the police didn't even talk to him first before murdering him. How can I not feel emotions. How can I not feel enraged and outraged?
How can you say Bernie Sanders doesn't care? Is a racist. It seems unfair to me. Especially when BLM has not disrupted one of the republican candidates when the party has ginned up racism, playing dog whistle, stirring up hate. When the republican party has pushed the Southern Strategy beyond all bounds due to rage over a black man becoming President. Why isn't BLM holding republicans accountable for their role and actions in the booming industry of hate and stereotyping those who are not white and male. Why isn't the movement asking them to answer for this and what they are going to do about it.
It puzzles progressives why BLM is focusing on Bernie Sanders. And the refusal to answer the simple question of 'why'.
Why turn on allies who support you?
No one answers this question so, many are left feeling angry and betrayed. They cannot understand why BLM is doing this and going after only one man.
I hope no one takes offense. I am just trying to show that people can feel the same emotions even though they are not black. That they can empathize. That many are not feeling some kind of 'White Guilt'. And the confusion many feel over why the targeting of progressives and just one candidate.
Thank you.