African American
In reply to the discussion: Ta-Nehisi Coates, Bernie Sanders, and Reparations [View all]Uponthegears
(1,499 posts)Ta-Neshisi Coates has close to zero concern about what is practical. If you had read his prior writings, heck, if you had read all of his Atlantic Monthly article, if you had ever spoken with him, you would know that. Of, course, you haven't. In fact, I would almost guarantee that you had never even heard of Coates until the Atlantic Monthly article came out.
Your post is the mainstream spin on an article which is actually about a very real problem, a problem shared by most Hillary, and far too many Bernie, supporters.
Coates' issue isn't about whether Hillary or Bernie will be better for people of color. It's about whether those folks who dominate Democratic politics have the courage to confront racial justice issue that most people of color face every day of their lives. Of course you want it to be about "whether Bernie is pushing pie-in-the-sky policies." If it weren't, you might have to talk about why huge swaths of the DU community are so antagonistic to BLM and squawk about how BLM is "hurting black people," or why they are so pro "law and order," or why, when there are police shootings, they latch onto the mainstream meme about "bad cops" instead of facing up to the fact that the cop on the street is just a small cog in the gear called the criminal justice system which was intentionally designed in large part with the specific purpose of subjugating and killing people of color and perpetuating the same power structure that was formerly perpetuated by whips and chains. (I focus on the criminal justice system partially because it is my area of expertise and partially because it is the most acknowledged-by-the-power-structure aspect of systemic racism)
While they may not be pushing for a neo-Confederacy like the pond-scum in the Republican Party, they are either unaware, or unwilling to admit, the pernicious effect of the greatest human rights violation in the history of the world (the cultural and physical genocide that was the Atlantic slave trade and the institution of Southern slavery). They want to act like Jim Crow ended with Brown v. Board of Education and that the plight of people of color has been on a steady upward path ever since. They think the crack cocaine sentencing disparity was an aberration and pat themselves on the back for working to end it, yet can't even grasp the possibility that seatbelt laws, laws criminalizing school misbehavior, laws against loitering, etc. are perhaps even a more integral part of a pattern of subjugation that continues to this day.
In short, they, like Bernie, Like Hillary, like most folks, are pretty sure that incremental change is working even as Michael Brown was left lying dead on a Ferguson street, just as he was destined to do from the day he was born and we are approaching 200 years since the Emancipation Proclamation.
Does Bernie get it? I don't know. He at least shows signs of trying when he welcomes endorsements from folks like Shaun King. Does Hillary get it? She might as well. Will either of them start sounding like Coates (much less like Uponthegears)? Not going to happen.
One last point (one that is totally off the real subject, but it totally on the subject of your attempt at diversion). Hillary supporters yammer on about how Bernie won't get his ideas through a Ryan-controlled HOR. Setting aside the fact that this ASSUMES that control of the House cannot be wrested away from the Republicans . . . tell me which of Hillary's ideas will get through the HOR? Barrack Obama was a transformational figures with more public support than any president in decades pushing an incredibly modest agenda and even he got nothing through the post-2010 House. The fact is that BOTH candidates are running on principles alone. If she can't tell us which of her principles are better, then it is your candidate who has no reason to be running.
Truth and reconciliation begins with truth.