The Boston-based Black Lives Matter activists who intended to interrupt Hillary Clinton at a New Hampshire event last week have now released
several videos of their post-event meeting with her. The conversation in two videos is mostly tame, with Clinton providing measured responses after BLM activists repeatedly confront her about her and her husband being "personally and politically responsible for policies" that dramatically increased incarceration rates of black Americans. The
third is more revealing.
Bottom line: this is a win for both sides of the conversation. That BLM got 15 minutes of the candidate's time is a big coup in and of itself. They also got to make their case to Clinton in a far better situation so she could understand what they were driving at. Plus, they got to release the video—so they got to gain every bit as much visibility through the interaction as they would have been able to through a protest.
Hillary looks like a candidate in two of the videos. In a third, she looks a bit testy but more like a woman with the courage of her convictions. BLM activists successfully pushed her to the point of saying something that actually revealed some of her thinking on the racial dynamics at issue. Here's what Clinton said in part of that exchange:
"I don't believe you change hearts. You change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not gonna change every heart. You're not. But at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them. ..."
BLM activists may not like all of what she said, but they certainly made their point. Guaranteed Clinton and her staff are now spending a solid chunk of time trying to figure out how to respond to and engage this vibrant movement in the same way that they have mulled how to engage Dream activists to try to win them over. She will need BLM activists every bit as much as she needs Dream activists to be excited about her candidacy should she win the nomination.
For partial transcripts of the interactions, head below the fold.
One woman asks, "I just want to know how you feel about your role in that violence and how you plan to reverse it."
Here's part of Clinton's response:
There's a lot of concern that we need to rethink and redo what we did in response to a different set of problems.
And you know, in life, in politics, in government, you name it, you’ve got to be constantly asking yourself, ‘Is this working?’ she said. 'Is this not?’ And if it’s not what do we do better? And that’s what I’m trying to do now on drugs, on mass incarceration, on police behavior and criminal justice reform.
I do think that there was a different set of concerns back in the '80s and the early '90s. Now I believe that we have to look at the world as it is today and try to figure out what will work now.
Another BLM activist asks, "What in your heart has changed that's going to change the direction of this country?"
A Clinton campaign staffer then interrupts to inform the activists that they've only "got a couple more minutes" before Clinton has to move along.
Here's Clinton, still measured:
It's a very thoughtful question and it deserves a thoughtful answer.
I can only tell you that I feel very committed to and responsible for doing whatever I can. I have spent most of my adult life focused on kids through the Children's Defense Fund and other efforts to try to give kids—particularly poor kids, particularly black kids and Hispanic kids—the same chance to live up their own God-given potential as any other kid. That's where I've been focused.
And I think that there has to be reckoning—I agree with that—but I also think there has to be some positive vision and plan that you can move people toward.
The exchange with the same activist becomes a bit more heated when he is seen warning Clinton against offering blacks advice about how to run their movement.
Activist: If you don't tell black people what we need to do, then we won't tell you all what you need to do.
Clinton: Well, I'm not telling you—I'm telling you to tell me.
Activist: What I mean to say is, this is and has always been a white problem of violence. There's not much that we can do to stop the violence against us. ...
Clinton: I understand, I understand what you're saying ...
Activist: Respectfully ...
Clinton: Respectfully, if that is your position then I will talk only to white people about how we are going to deal with very real problems. ...
Activist: That's not what I mean ... what you just said was a form of victim blaming. You were saying that, what the Black Lives Matter movement needs to do to change white hearts. ...
Clinton: Look, I don't believe you change hearts. You change laws, you change allocation of resources, you change the way systems operate. You're not gonna change every heart. You're not. But at the end of the day, we can do a whole lot to change some hearts and change some systems and create more opportunities for people who deserve to have them to live up to their own God-given potential, to live safely without fear of violence in their own communities—to have a decent school, to have a decent house, to have a decent future.
So we can do it one of many ways. You can keep the movement going, which you have started, and through it you may actually change some hearts. But if that's all that happens, we'll be back here in ten years having the same conversation. Because we will not have all of the changes that you deserve to see happen in your lifetime because of your willingness to get out there and talk about this.
12:43 PM PT: Here's the full transcript:
http://www.scribd.com/...