Hillary Clinton: "Imagine if a third of all white men went to prison during their lifetime."

[joshcryer]

“Imagine what we would feel and what we would do if white drivers were three times as likely to be searched by police during a traffic stop as black drivers, instead of the other way around,” she said, “if white offenders received prison sentences 10 percent longer than black offenders for the same crimes, if a third of all white men—just look at this room and take one third—went to prison during their lifetime. Imagine that. That is the reality in the lives of so many of our fellow Americans and so many of the communities in which they live.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/08/hillary_clinton_on_ferguson_protests_and_michael_brown_s_killing_the_former.html

This is far more profound than the "inequities that persist in our justice system" comment, in my opinion, it's social commentary, not precisely commentary about the "justice system." This is a comment about racism and that the problem is racial in nature.

[Scootaloo]

1. Careful, Sec. Clinton...

Keep talking like that and you might lose some of those "hard working white Americans" you insisted were spurning Obama for you back in 2008.

[joshcryer]

3. I'd rather encourage this line of discussion.

Rather than try to shut it down over past rhetoric which was clearly wrong.

[Scootaloo]

4. Soon as she says she was wrong and apologizes, sure

I'll take commitment over sculpted rhetoric, thanks.

[joshcryer]

5. That she's saying this to a room of white people is enough for me.

Any allegations of pandering to some core group are clearly bullshit.

[BeyondGeography]

2. I guess she's not writing off the black vote after all

Yes, you could read comments like that here on this board before she made any pubic comments on Ferguson.

This is a powerful approach to use in a room full of white people, which is what conventions tend to look like. I applaud her for it.

[joshcryer]

6. Importantly, it was OpenSDx, lots of rich people.

Granted, they're tech related, so probably more liberal, on average. But it had to be uncomfortable for her to point out the room, wave her hand over a third of it, and tell them to imagine what it'd be like for a third to have gone to prison.

[wyldwolf]

7. She's on the mark

I’m sure there were black people in the audience in San Francisco, but this was Silicon Valley. Clinton was talking to white people. And she was asking them, as white people, to show empathy and concern for the conditions of their black fellow citizens. I wouldn’t say this is unprecedented, but it is rare. Especially since there’s no attempt to deflect or blame black Americans for their own problems. Clinton doesn’t mention “black-on-black crime” or give a brief respectability lecture. She simply says, Look at how we treat them, and imagine if it were you...

... In the same way that only a hardline anti-communist could go to China and only an arch-conservative could raise taxes, it might be that it takes a white person in the White House to have real candor with white people on race.

Of course, some of the 'where is Hillary... HILLLARY... she should be speaking up' folks at DU will now be telling her to shut up and that she's not sincere and blah blah.

[joshcryer]

8. First post in the thread.

She can only be believed if she apologizes for past campaign rhetoric.

[joshcryer]

9. Kick!