More from Tim Wise on Netroots Nation protest

[gollygee]

Regardless of how one feels about the "disruption" of Martin O'Malley and Bernie Sanders' sessions at Netroots Nation by Black Lives Matter activists (i.e., whether you agree with the strategy of it, or whether you think the timing was bad, or whether you like either or both of these guys' policy stances on various issues), please understand why it was important, and why their handling of it was problematic. First, it is important that white liberals, progressives and leftists are kept honest when it comes to their commitment to racial justice. Many white folks on the left who have very strong stances on economics or the environment or militarism, for instance, don't come out of a racial justice frame and oftentimes take those issues for granted, or think racial equity will follow from economic populism or reigning in the 1% (even though this is entirely wrong). So making sure they keep these issues front and center is important, in that it signals their understanding of the foundational element of racial justice to any truly progressive future for the country. As such, Sanders' history from the 60s, or O'Malley's comments about Baltimore police (who, it should be remembered, he once empowered to do exactly what they are now being rightly critiqued for) is inadequate.

And it isn't enough to say the right things about the one issue that even Rand Paul and Newt Gingrich and the Koch Brothers are willing to speak on (mass incarceration and its dispro impact on POC) in order to be considered "down." Racial justice is about doing something to close the unemployment gaps between POC and white folks; to end racialized tracking in schools, to end educational policies that promote the firing of veteran teachers of color and the use of standardized tests on students facing profoundly unstandardized conditions and challenges. It's about community CONTROL of police forces, not just body cams and diversity training. It's about stopping the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, cracking down on housing discrimination, illegalizing predatory lending, banning all racial profiling, closing the wealth gaps between whites and POC with substantive and systemic reparations (along the lines of the Marshall Plan, Homestead Act or GI Bill ). Candidates don't have to be perfect on all these things. But to not have any real focus on them at all is not leadership in these times. It is cowardice. And it's disrespectful. And to get pissy and defensive at the protesters rather than acknowledge their frustration, applaud it and commend them for their passion and determination and bravery is saddening beyond belief. If the white left cannot do better than this, the prospects for truly multiracial left coalitions will be nil. We cannot keep asking POC to wait, or to trust us, or to make their issues secondary to the ones we are more comfortable with. That day is done.

[MuseRider]

1. I really like

everything I have ever heard from this man. I am by no means an expert on what he says but have listened to a few of his longer talks.

Everything he says sits right with me. I question it from all sides and it still sits right.

I hope all our candidates will find time to talk to BLM, really spend some good time. Until then I hope they keep yelling. I think our candidates get it but they are not properly addressing it.

Thanks for this.

[gollygee]

3. He's had some criticism

for leading rather than following and for passing on wisdom he's gotten from people of color without adequately saying where he got it - though he's also written that he recognizes that it's the job of white people in the anti-racism movement to follow and not lead, and to work with white people rather than try to lead or define the anti-racism movement. He's also had some criticism for getting so much media attention when black anti-racism workers don't, because white privilege is in play even in the anti-racism world.

I think he's learned in the field and some of that criticism is probably deserved. None of us is perfect - we're all learning, and we can hopefully learn from the problems he's had. Overall, I'm a fan.

[MuseRider]

6. Agreed.

Anyone who talks about issues like this needs criticism from time to time to keep learning. I am glad he is out there doing this.

[Le Taz Hot]

2. NN is done. Toast.

No serious candidate will ever go there now.

[gollygee]

4. That's beside the point

There's a large BLM movement and they're only part of it.

[geek tragedy]

5. Sure they will. It's the liberal version of CPAC.

This is the most grassroots, activist thing that's ever happened there.

People actually did something instead of blogging about people doing things.

[jeff47]

10. No, the people at CPAC wield power. The people at NN don't.

NN could have been built into something that had CPAC-like power, but shitty organizing means it didn't.

Clinton's reception in 2007 and setting up Sanders and O'Malley yesterday mean no significant candidate will show up again. There's only risk and no upside to that risk.

And no big candidates mean no increase in importance.

There isn't a good way out of this chicken-and-egg problem.

[geek tragedy]

14. CPAC is much older and has always been

about hardcore, on the ground ideological activists. NN is people who blog about activism. It has a ways to go before it catches up in importance.

But, it is a liberal media event. Candidates who need the exposure will go there.

But whoever goes will have to be ready to handle hecklers.

Politics ain't beanbag. Better O'Malley and Sanders figure this out in July than in December.

[jeff47]

16. There's a difference between "Handling hecklers" and being set up

by the organizers of the conference. Hecklers happen. Organizers planning to screw you over doesn't. At least, not if organizers want anyone to show up again.

The Communications Director from NN tweeted about the "hecklers" before it happened. Which indicates the organizers knew what was coming. That's a much different effect on the conference than hecklers.

[geek tragedy]

19. Got a link to the time-stamped tweet? nt

[jeff47]

23. Was spammed in the at-the-time DU threads on the subject.

Busy at the moment, so don't have time to search.

[geek tragedy]

24. hmmmm nt

[jeff47]

25. Here ya go

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251456257

[geek tragedy]

27. that's not time-stamped, and those tweets appear to post-date the

event

not getting the conspiracy theory

[jeff47]

28. Hrm...if only there was some platform that actually showed the timestamps

Perhaps one that was used to actually transmit the messages that were quoted.....

[geek tragedy]

29. if there are tweets actually preceding the event thereby showing advanced

knowledge, they are readily available for those making the extremely serious accusation.

Thus far, the accusation against the NN organizers seems more like "flailing defensively" rather than "supported and documented"

[jeff47]

32. Well, no one claimed that OP was lying....

Which would be rather odd if they were actually lying. Especially with the unmitigated glee of some of the posters in the thread.

So, you arguing other posters were savvy enough to claim he was not affiliated with NN, but can't read a timestamp?

[geek tragedy]

33. he is definitely affiliated with NN. And he very clearly is more sympathetic

with BLM activists than he is with Sanders supporters.

But that doesn't prove a conspiracy.

Without, you know, actual evidence of prior knowledge, this remains unsubstantiated tinfoil.

the OP was probably not lying, but did not provide any facts to support the claim. I believe the OP's claims appear to be in error, based in angry defensiveness.

But, I am of an open mind, and if there's evidence this guy was in on the plan to heckle on his twitter feed, someone making the claim should have zero problem finding it.

[dsc]

21. nothing like that ever happens at CPAC

because CPAC is well run and Netroots isn't. No candidate in their right mind would go to that conference and speak after this.

[daredtowork]

8. That's sad

because I think both candidates could have and should have turned this to their advantage if they had done advanced research on the #BlackLivesMatter movements and their tactics. This is a common tactic and no one should have been caught by surprise.

My only outrage here is that the fact that Bernie and Martin O'Malley handled it so badly, Hillary looks good for "knowing better" than to attend grassroots events. That's disgusting.

But in my mind, it's Bernie and Martin O'Malley who need to repair the situation - for their poor advance preparations, not Netroots Nation. And they should find a way to make some lemonade out of it.

It would be a shame if Netroots Nation became "toast" over this.

[daredtowork]

7. Thank you

I had an OP earlier on how this was a historic opportunity for Bernie and Martin O'Malley - and still could be - and how at least they showed up while Hillary Clinton wasn't there at all - and some guess-whos alerted it.

I still think that Netroots Nation was the place to set a grassroots agenda - and that should feature a racial justice agenda. A great place, a great time - and both Bernie and Martin O'Malley have that moment to share the stage with the most important issue of the day.

I heard Bernie didn't take a meeting with the #BlackLivesMatter group later: I hope he rectified that.

As I said in my OP that got hijacked by the Hillary people, I want to hear more about what both Bernie and O'Malley did with the rest of the weekend to rethink the situation and seize the day.

[octoberlib]

11. I know that O'Malley appeared on This Week in Black after his appearance

and walked out into the audience and talked to some Black Lives Matter activists. According to Elon James White , Bernie left. This disappoints me.

[daredtowork]

13. This disappoints me, too - and I've been all in for Bernie

On DU I've been consistently defending Bernie's economic approach against people who want to split off "social Justice", insisting that there is no reason to set up a false dichotomy here. Bernie's approach can be "both/and".

Bernie's reaction makes me wonder.

It seems to me that it has to do with his media training: always leave when disruptions occur. But in this case that media training is wrong. That's why he needed to be educated on this specific issue. Unfortunately this was a very public venue to reveal he needs that education, and it would have been the ideal venue to show he was on top of the matter and that the economic/social split was totally bogus. I cringe at the missed opportunity.

While Martin O'Malley said "All Lives Matter" (I think that comes from an equally egregious media training mistake of messaging for different audiences), it looks like his after-game was a bit better. This might be because he had some experience with #BlackLivesMatter in Baltimore. But you would think because of that he would be familiar with the "disruption" tactic, and he would have shared the stage and handled the whole thing with more grace in the first place. He actually had an advantage over Bernie there.

[arcane1]

30. He didn't "leave when disruptions occur". He stayed.

It's all on video.

[jeff47]

17. Or you could try to hear what they already did on the subject.

Heck, Sanders talked about it the day before. Both Sanders and O'Malley already had it in their stump speech. Both Sanders and O'Malley already had released what their specific plans were.

But that doesn't fit the "only cares about white liberals" meme, so those things just vanish.

[daredtowork]

18. It's more than a meme

I'm uncomfortable voting for Bernie as a white male. I believe it's time for a female President at the very least. If Hillary's platform and past weren't so personally loathesome to me, she would have my vote. Sorry if that seems like too much "identity politics", but I think we're in an historical moment where we need a few rounds of National leaders who weren't white males.

However, for the most part Bernie is saying what I believe in, so he's had my - very uncomfortable - vote.

IMHO, others are uncomfortable with their votes, too, and that's why Bernie should care very, very much about the "white liberals meme" no matter how sick of it everyone - and how sick of it white people in particular - are. Bernie needs assume a careful position of listening and try his best to adapt to how this county is changing spiritually and psychologically as well as technologically.

There are reasons the #BlackLivesMatter movement feels they need to disrupt and get in faces *at a high level* and get media bandwidth and make their demands. This is the tactic they have chosen. There is a lot of hand-wringing about how this tactic is "wrong" and "ineffective" because it's not the one other people have been using and people don't like that it gets in their way. They want #BlackLivesMatter to use "insider knowledge" and "organize" and do things the traditional way that really doesn't seem all that effective from their perspective. They are going to try their tactics and see if it works on their terms.

IMHO, Bernie would have been smart to show he was hip with the times and collaborated with #BlackLivesMatter in some way.

[London Lover Man]

22. Yawn. Another "I like Bernie, but Hillary's the money candidate"

Ok. Whatever. See you later, when you come back to us after the Clinton meltdown at the debates.....

[KamaAina]

26. Well, at least he's Jewish

[arcane1]

31. "I'm uncomfortable voting for Bernie as a white male."?

Now I've heard everything

[pnwmom]

9. K & R

[OffWithTheirHeads]

12. I would have been much more impressed if they had done this at the Trump/Arpio

meetup in Phoenix. I would also have been much more impressed if thay had taken the time to sit down with O'Mally and Bernie before the netroots to discuss the issues rather than blindsiding the most progressive candidates we have running for President. Rather than blindsiding them and co-opting the entire event, I also would have been much more impressed if they had offered serious solutions. "Say my name" will fix nothing. I'm still waiting to hear BLM offer concrete solutions rather than meaningless platitudes. I will say, they got attention. I'm not so sure it was good attention.

[m-lekktor]

15. I get his facebook posts in my newsfeed! I like Tim Wise.

He puts up with lots of shit. there is guy who runs a facebook page that's sole purpose is to harass him. accusing him of being an opportunist white guy profiting off racial issues and other such stuff.

I almost always agree with everything he posts.

[romanic]

20. The guilt is strong with this one.

Talk talk talk from someone who doesn't even know half of what comes out of his mouth.