Michelle Alexander: Bill Clinton’s rant was a tutorial on all that’s wrong with the ‘New Democrats’

Bill Clinton says that he “almost” wants to apologize for his remarkable episode yesterday (Thursday, April 7) — you know, when he embraced long-debunked, racially coded “super-predator” rhetoric, compared Black Lives Matter protesters to Republicans and insisted that they support murderers, and blamed his crime bill on Black politicians.

Personally, I am not demanding an apology from Bill Clinton. Instead, I would like to say thank you. Thank you, Bill, for giving the nation a 10-minute tutorial on everything that was wrong – and apparently remains wrong – with the “New Democrats” and their approach to racial politics.

Unfortunately, much of the mainstream media seems to be buying – yet again – much of what Bill was selling yesterday. So to recap what should be obvious by now: Black politicians and activists were not asking for “get tough” measures and nothing else back in the 1990s.

Some Black politicians opposed the Clinton crime bill, and those who supported it weren’t seeking punishment and nothing more; they desperately wanted massive investment in jobs and schools so the young people trapped in communities where work had suddenly disappeared would have some hope of survival. It is a gross distortion to suggest that Black people wanted billions of dollars slashed from child welfare, housing and other public benefits in order to fund an unprecedented prison building boom.

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http://sfbayview.com/2016/04/michelle-alexander-bill-clintons-rant-was-a-tutorial-on-all-thats-wrong-with-the-new-democrats/