Racial Justice
We must pursue policies that transform this country into a nation that affirms the value of its people of color. That starts with addressing the four central types of violence waged against black and brown Americans: physical, political, legal and economic.

Physical Violence
Perpetrated by the State
Sandra Bland, Michael Brown, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Tamir Rice, Samuel DuBose. We know their names. Each of them died unarmed at the hands of police officers or in police custody. The chants are growing louder. People are angry and they have a right to be angry. We should not fool ourselves into thinking that this violence only affects those whose names have appeared on TV or in the newspaper. African Americans are twice as likely to be arrested and almost four times as likely to experience the use of force during encounters with the police.
https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/
https://berniesanders.com/issues/racial-justice/

Last edited Mon Aug 10, 2015, 09:22 AM - Edit history (1)

...and his campaign evidently doesn't consider that a criminal justice reform plan. Neither do I.

Reports says he's coming out with one 'in the near future.'

about O'Malley and his supporters beforehand.

couldn't get black support before or after Netroots?

Not that I think we would be able to have a constructive conversation about this. Have a great day.

Last edited Sun Aug 9, 2015, 03:37 PM - Edit history (1)

...tries to make an issue out of the decades-ago policy of his city police force when he was mayor of zero-tolerance detentions for petty crimes and tenuously relates that to tensions today because of the recent Baltimore uprising. Almost every article about the black community and O'Malley. He hasn't escaped criticism and is very much under scrutiny by black activists and advocates, among others commenting on his relationships with blacks.

His actions in that regard, as mayor, are questioned in almost every interview he's had, including at the very beginning of the Netroots Nation interview! How did you miss that?

Obviously that poster is in the dark about O'Malley -hopefully he/she knows.

at netroots. Thanks for the reminder. and I admit--with so many asking why ONLY sanders-I made the assumption it was ONLY sanders. OOPs

and his supporters did too!

If you read all the posts here on DU, you would think that it is ONLY Bernie being targeted, and yet as far as I know there have only been two times so far that this has happened. The first one at Netroots where it was "O'Malley" that had his mic taken from him, and yesterday at a Sanders event. I even have a thread asking if I am wrong and there might have been more, but so far nobody has given be an answer.

If I am right and it's only happened twice and once O"malley was the one they went after, then I really think the meme that Bernie has been "targeted" is just plain silly.

for their victim-hood complex?

Good times!

I get so tired of those playing the "victim" card all the time. If Bernie had been targeted by this group at every event he has had, then that would be a different story, but it happened once when O'Malley was on stage at an event that also hosted Bernie, and than again yesterday, this does not constitute any kind of a pattern where he, and he alone has been the target. For his supporters to come up with this meme, and to also try and lay the blame on Hillary, is absurd.

Sanders is being targeted. I would never resort to brown-shirt comments, but am not so naïve as to believe political dirty tricks by the perpetually slick Clintons and their acolytes are not a possibility.

Because he is being overlooked by the vast majority. Rightly or wrongly, he has no following to speak of. It would be futile to hound him.

is a big issue within the black community. Did #BLM miss that memo? Has #BLM not connected the Clinton prison-industrial-complex dots of the 1990s? For some baffling reason, Sanders is being targeted, and none of it appears to be in good faith. It appears to be about nothing other than tantrum-throwing children getting the opportunity to call Sanders supporters "white supremacist liberals." It stinks to high heaven.

Sure, there are a lot of bigots down the street, but protesting them won't garner focus.

Not saying O'Malley is a bigot.

I am just saying he has no chance, at least at this moment, of getting attention for himself let alone being used as a lightening rod.
The clouds are not in his sky.

in the Holocaust, to attack. And to ice the attack cake, they refer to his supporters as "white supremacist liberals."

Oh, they're getting attention alright. But not for the right reasons.

Hmm, Sanders/O'Malley. I like it.

about Bernie the person and not even so much Bernie the candidate.

It is about a large group of people gathering together how on the whole, haven't paid attention to BLM. They are ripe for getting in your face.
It worked in the long run with Code Pink, the MADD, PETA.

PETA is a great example. They threw paint on furs...whoever was wearing them it didn't matter. People were outraged.

But now, very few people wear furs. The fake fur market is now fashionable. They reduced the number of animals being killed for their fur.

Very effective and very agressive.

The target is actually not the most important part of the action.

I shit you not. There is an example down-thread. Even on DU I hear how members are "soured" against Sanders because of anonymous posters on a message board. Idiotic, and I question how seriously these people take voting.

MADD got drunk-driving laws on the books. Not sure how effective Code Pink are, but I support their actions against warmongers like Kissinger and Rice. ACT UP was effective. But if you read Seattle's #BLM press release, they're cheesed off because they don't believe Sanders has sufficiently sucked up to their movement. Never mind that he has been a civil rights advocate for DECADES, and has invited #BLM into the fold. They didn't like his response at NRN, but need to learn that Sanders doesn't suffer fools. As someone pointed out last night, they're getting *mauled* on social media by a diverse crowd. We'll see where this goes, but attacking the ONE candidate who sincerely gives a shit makes zero sense to me.

PETA needs to start throwing paint again -- a lot of new money has embraced fur.

I think the number of supporters of Bernie is far larger than anyone is estimating. The number of asshats in any one group is always a certain percentage. Because there are so many mean twitterers, that means the pool from supporters that they come from is large. Very large.

Also, people in social media tend to be more vocal and extreme. Read any yahoo reply section. We are invisible and able to let out our screaming personality.

I was so disgusted by PUMAS and old white feminist women in 2008 that it took me a while to untangle it from feminism, white women of a certain age and Hillary.

Hillary is still not untangled in my mind. No way.

I'm just baffled as to why so many take tweets as gospel. I mean, when I wade into any online Comments sections, I weed out those I consider sincere, and those of a shit-stirring nature. It's pretty easy to tell who is being constructive, and who is not. But I don't let the asshats influence my opinion of anything, especially my vote! I seem to differ from many others in that regard.

Those hashtags are in response to his supporters not Sanders himself. Most of the people tweeting those hashtags aren't Hillary supporters. Most are Obama supporters who don't really like any of the 2016 candidates. But, Bernie's supporters are the only ones being assholes to AA twitter users. Seriously, look at the twitter feeds for @elonjames, @GoldieTaylor, @JoyAnnReid, @CharlesMBlow, etc. to see the stuff that is being tweeted by Bernie supporters. It is horrifying.

at DU thanks to a couple of BOGers who never miss an opportunity to slam, and I don't go running to Twitter to create a #bowdownobama hashtag. Grow up, people. And the hashtag should read #bowdownberniesupporters if the issue is indeed with the supporters and not Mr. Sanders himself.

Just yesterday a group of my peers was called "white supremacist liberals" at a Sanders event. Does that fit into your idea of "horrifying"?

That's social media for you, the good and the bad.

I haven't been on Twitter or Faceoobk in ages.

It's not something I would do.

each and every item of disruptive politics in which we engaged and many of those folks on DU are now Hillary supporters and they are now fully supportive of disruptive political tactics. They called us complete fools, said that anyone who heckles anybody for any reason at anytime was an idiot.
What would YOU make of that?