#BLM - what's the 2016 end game?
I understand that none of the Dem candidates are framing African American issues correctly ie: that racism is the problem which in many if not most cases is the basis upon which income inequality, social injustice, police brutality rest - not the other way around ie: income inequality, social injustice, police brutality are symptoms of the disease of racism and it's the racism that HAS to be addressed FIRST.
So, some sort of dialogue needs to happen to get Dem candidates to listen. Every day another African American is in the news having been brutalized or killed by some cop somewhere. Or they're being shot in churches and churches burnt down. It's devastating, hideous and unbelievable that we still have to fight this crap.
So grab their attention at rallies and events. Disrupt, erupt, etc. But if doing all this destroys the one candidate who has the best civil rights record than any of the rest (and yes I realize what he did 50 years ago is irrelevant now -- and I realize his supporters did their own damage on this issue), then we end up with someone else. Worst case, a Republican. Then what? How does that advance any changes? It won't. and whether I vote for Bernie or Hillary or Martin O, I want to see changes made as much as anyone. I don't like living in a country that looks like a war zone - that hasn't changed since the 1950s or 1960s either.
But as much as #BLM needs Sanders, Clinton and O'Malley to listen to them, maybe they could also consider some sound advice that has come out of all this:
. . . here is how you target a human being or an organization.
1. You post/send your list of demands to ALL of your targets. You have ALL of your membership send your list of demands to the media and your target.
2. You allow the targets to respond to those demands.
a. If the targets do not respond and depending how media profile that target gets (really - why waste time on Chafee), you blast the shit out of them in every public venue you can reach.
b. If the target does respond, you ask for a meeting and open up a dialog before taking any action.
3. If the result to that meeting was mostly satisfactory (No meeting is 100% satisfactory). All parties agree to a community liaison…
4. If communication breaks down between the liaison to the detriment of organizations goals… ACTION!
I truly feel that Black Lives Matter put the cart before the horse. Activism is a long game and has many failures before success. But we can only reach the long game if we put some things aside.
. . .
My point here is that no alliance is perfect but first you must SEEK OUT that alliance. It is foolish to assume that one does not exist BEFORE a dialogue.
So accuse me/us of "preaching" to you or "telling you what to do" when we don't have a clue....but know this:
speaking for myself, I want you get organized and to succeed in getting some REAL change made in this country - I'm sick of the brutality and injustice with which African Americans are treated here - it's sickening and heartbreaking. Call me a dumbass or whatever, but you know, just think about it. Eye on the prize?
Dumbass Whitey
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