we have to learn, understand, and respond to the concerns of people of color. Actively and emphatically. That is where our future is. We can't just pay lip service. That was the very clear message, and it's absolutely right.

It will also be very good for our country. Racism is a huge wound, and we need to fight it to heal. Republicans sure won't work to heal it because they like it, so it makes sense to me that they'd protest Democrats.

Racial issues and other civil rights issues cannot be dismissed. Women's reproductive freedom is the other one we need to bring front and center. I'm sick of the unprecedented attacks on our reproductive rights being poopooed. We need to take it back.

about things that are important to them.

The #blacklivesmatters movement is perfectly prepared to sit out 2016. It's much easier to sit it out than to run the gauntlet and jump through the hoops that are now required for people of color to vote.

That terrifies me.

It should terrify everybody.

VOTING RIGHTS AND VOTING RESPONSIBILITIES

Never was this more apparent than the recent case in TX where the young black female "ALLEDGEDLY" committed suicide in her jail cell after being locked up for traffic violation ticketing incident. She was brutalized after being pulled out of her car by the ticketing cop, her head was bashed on the ground and she was carted off to jail. Suicide? I don't think. so. More will come out after the results of the on-going JD investigation. BUT the point I want to make is this:

The voting rights activists of all races need to do a much better job of not only registering people to vote in national elections but educating people about the importance of voting in ALL state and local elections. The fact the Sheriff overseer of the jail was himself elected to his position AFTER having been fired from a previous law enforcement position for acts of racism and brutality is evidence enough of how important state and local elections are. The tone of local police departments is set at the top of the law enforcement and judicial positions ELECTED to or appointed by ELECTED officials in those jurisdictions.

A massive effort to target state and local elections across the country for opportunities to not only ensure that minorities are able to exercise their right to vote BUT to ensure that minorities have the information, political education needed to vote for the people most likely to ensure their social and economic interests. ACORN is gone but there is a wealth of black activists around to get this grassroots movement started. Sharpton has visibility to call attention to this need. It can be done. Judgeships, councilmen, sheriffs, attorney generals, police chiefs, commissioners, mayors etc. These are the positions that affect the everyday lives of minorities and especially blacks. They must be encouraged, informed, and educated about the urgency of this type of voting.

and listen.

When "all lives matter" is added onto "Black lives matter" that's a problem. It seems to me that "all lives matter" is a plea for unity and a statement that we're all the same. I've had Black friends say "amen" when I say "all lives matter". Is the problem with with "all lives matter" just confined to white progressives? (When it's convenient?)

I have been struggling about how to say how it feels. That is simply just it right there. Thanks.

like in Sandra Bland's case.

No way would a young white woman be snatched out of her car, have her head bashed into the ground, and end up dead in her jail cell 2 days later.

That's why it's "Black Lives Matter" because black lives are ending.

THAT needs to be prioritized by these pols who want out votes.

When it isn't we get a feeling of phoniness coming through from neglect of our issues because our votes are taken for granted.

originally started on Twitter by Michelle Malkin , Glenn Beck and their trolls and astro turfers to marginalize the a Black Lives Matter movement . This is one of the reasons people are hostile to the term. Bernie, Hillary and Martin have all used all lives matter and their staffers should have been on top of this.

I've had Black friends say "amen" when I've added on "all lives matter". If someone has a problem with that they probably spend entirely too much time on the Internet.

It is time we, as a nation, have a real conversation. We need to discuss institutionalized racism. The #AllLivesMatter campaign isn’t about having that discussion. It’s about not having that discussion.

The #AllLivesMatter campaign is narcissistic and blind. It’s about inserting one’s own agenda. Case in point, this Blaze columnist who made it about abortion. Yes, really.



This particular fight is about one thing and one thing only. It’s about the fact that unarmed black men are being killed by the people who are supposed to protect them. It’s about the fact that to society, black people are far more disposable. Young black people are treated as convicts-in-waiting. These facts are a societal sickness and to treat that sickness would be to help save white lives as well.

Maybe white people would be a bit more understanding if the campaign was #BlackLivesMatterAsMuchAsWhiteLives, but that’s hardly pithy. Really, though, that’s all black people are saying. Their lives are as important as white lives and if you want to shut down that discussion, we will never grow as a country and people of all races will continue to die unnecessarily.

http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/12/13/alllivesmatter-means-no-lives-matter-so-stop-it-already/

One of my Black friends calls me aside, and we all know each other well enough to do that, and tells me it's wrong, I would stop using the phrase. But I don't think I'll let some group (mostly Sanders people) on DU that spends way too much time on the Internet tell me it's wrong when in the real world there's no problem. What you are describing is a cultural thing on the Internet. And the culture is one of a small microcosm where pretty much people have their own customs and mores and everyone else is wrong and they are right. I'll stick with the real world.

And I've spent entirely too much time on the Internet with this.

It's clear I wasted my words in trying to explain it to you because you don't care what someone "on the internet" thinks and, as such, we're both done here.

Good day

These are educated people that don't live on the Internet. I think they would find what you say insulting.

is what's insulting, neutralizing, belittling — and patronizing, as if they know what's the more appropriate term.

White lives are not being taken by police all over the country just about daily it seems.

"Black lives matter" was created because unarmed black men and women are being killed.

That is where the focus should stay.

It's not that hard to understand.

acknowledging the black female victims (like Sandra Bland).

100% agree!

Well said.

I am very up to speed now on this issue, and you are right, I was wrong. I see now whats going on and you are right. I get it now.

I wasn't paying attention for a while and got caught unaware.

"Their liberalism is a decidedly "colorblind" one, which is to say, a form of liberalism that de-emphsasizes the issue of race and racism, even as race and racism remain key dividing lines in this and all elections, and throughout the culture."

Exactly.

Seems we have left the discussion incomplete.

On whether it's an oppressed group who have a much higher than average chance of being murdered and whether the people who murder then are usually held accountable.