Can we stop pretending that gang violence...

[MirrorAshes]

Wasn't/isn't a real thing?

Hillary used some unfortunate language, but do people really believe she's a racist? C'mon now.

I lived in Chicago for 10 years. There are reasons why people don't go to large swaths of the city unless they were born there. Yes, systemic inequality and a corrupt/incompetent police force play a large role in this. Poverty and lack of opportunity breeds crime.

People are killed, constantly. It's been going on for decades. Hillary taking a "tough on crime" approach is not something to be shocked or offended by.

How many of you oh-so-PC folks watched The Wire and loved it? What would you call Marlo Stanfeld? Misunderstood? Or a danger to society? How about the cartels in Mexico? Yes, there are some scary-as-fuck actual predators out there, and to deny their existence is intellectually dishonest.

Again, yes, Hillary should have chosen her words better. But lets be real about this.

[arcane1]

1. Who is pretending gang violence isn't real?

Sounds like a strawman to me.

[HooptieWagon]

2. She has a long history of racist dog-whistles.

Remember 'hard-working WHITE people'?

[morningfog]

3. I don't think she's racist. It was a racist thing to say.

And she had a habit of using race as a wedge issue in campaigns.

[leftofcool]

4. Hillary did not phrase this well and I understand why offense was taken

Of course she isn't racist and Black communities know this. I am glad she has apologized for it and offered an explanation.

[Arazi]

18. She hasn't apologized

'In a written response to The Washington Post's Jonathan Capehart on the issue Thursday, Clinton said: “Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today."'

Do you see "I apologize" or "I'm sorry" in that statement?

[Ed Suspicious]

26. Do they? I'd question that if someone called my son a super-predator. The "blacks as brutes"

caricature is old as slavery in the U.S.. She played that note pretty hard. But I guess it was acceptable back then. After all, not too long ago Obama would have been carrying her luggage.

[Avalux]

5. Looking at statistics, the juvenile crime rate had not increased when she said those words.

Super predators was a right wing fabrication, a myth that isn't supported by facts.

http://www.eji.org/node/893

It was incredibly careless of her to use those words without a full understanding of the implication (and lack of evidence). Just like her Iraq war vote, she went along with what she thought would be popular at the time, even though she was wrong.

[loyalsister]

6. She may not directly participate in malicious bigotry

But being willing to exploit and enable white supremacy is participating indirectly and it is every bit as despicable.

[MoonRiver]

8. Exactly how is she "willing to exploit and enable white supremacy?"

[loyalsister]

11. I assume you've seen the video from the SC event

The one where she stands silent as smug white people applaud the physical expulsion of a young black woman they said was trespassing despite having paid the $500.

2008 race baiting tapped into the sense of superiority "hard working white people" want to have recognized.

The mass incarceration she promoted enslaves mostly black citizens was designed to court white voters by making them feel safe from those she identified as superpredators.

All of these things promote a sense of superiority by giving special attention and validation to white citizens at the expense of people of color.

[MoonRiver]

15. Your impression of that event is completely different from mine.

First, in 1996, Hillary was talking about how gang violence needs to be controlled. Second, she has apologized for using that terminology. She said over and over that she would not, 20 years later, use it now, and shouldn't have then. Third, your assertion that "smug white people applaud the physical expulsion of a young black woman they said was trespassing despite having paid the $500," is completely unverified. And of course it is completely your biased opinion.

Nobody, including Bernie Sanders, has worked harder for AAs than Bill and Hillary Clinton.

[NWCorona]

36. Did you not hear the hissing?

Also, Hillary said "Looking back, I shouldn’t have used those words, and I wouldn’t use them today,”

That's like saying I shouldn't have used colored or that other word but I wouldn't use them today. Not an apology.

[NWCorona]

35. And stood silently while the white women in the crowd hissed!

If you are black and from the south, you know what that's about. I remember my grandmother talking about it vividly.

[loyalsister]

37. And they watched as SS manhandled her

At that moment Hillary could have stepped in, stopped it, and arranged to meet later. Instead, she watched as they treated her like a criminal.

[NWCorona]

38. She pivoted away while she was grabbed hauled away

Then she said let's get back to the real issues! Please note the racial make up of the remaining audience.

[litlbilly]

7. Yes I believe she is, she is part of that white privelige crowd, its is ingrained in them.

[leftofcool]

10. ALL white people are part of the white privilege crowd

[TIME TO PANIC]

9. I don't think she's racist, I think she's opportunistic.

She knows how to use a dog whistle.

[Warren DeMontague]

12. Get real? Those policies filled our prisons with pot smokers.

The cartels are still there, but in the meantime we've sent SWAT teams in to drag grannies off in wheelchairs for growing medical marijuana.

The drug war is indefensible. Period.

[dr60omg]

13. Gang violence has always been a "thing"

What was West Side Story about?
What was "Blackboard Jungle" both the book and the movie
We can go back through history

The cartels are not gangs and had the drug war stayed in Colombia it would not be as close to us in Mexico as it is ... If, you want to compare the cartels to gangs you should use a comparison to the Mafia of the 1930's ...

There is a reality to what transpired in the 1990's and to say it has been going on for decades is to diminish the transformation of how we look at young people, at how we look at schools and the draconian policies instated in the 1990's which created the idea of the super-predator ... that tough on crime approach of the 1990's did many things including privatize our schools (as part of the neo-liberal transformation to charters and vouchers), and the militarization of the police, three strikes you're out and on and on and on

This was an entirely new sort of accusatory formation!

[MaggieD]

14. It's all Hillary hate all the time here

Makes me shake my head. Very sad for DU, IMO.

[trillion]

16. Actually, it's political facts that Hillary supporters seem to run from

I don't hate Hillary and I suspect a whole lot of Bernie supporters don't.

The problem with Hillary is her super pac and her foreign policy so far - Honduras, Columbia, Syria, Iraq, etc.

I won't blame her for Libya. I do have a problem with her helping the coup in Honduras that ousted the left wing president and how she helped keep him out. That country is still destabilized and has mass people dying from violence.

I also have a problem with how she fought the Syrian peace deal. (not the one from the last 3 days) The point of the peace deal was to stop Syria falling into chaos and blood shed and it was made clear to Hillary why they were trying to do a peace deal all through it. She didn't seem to care.

That is my main problem with Hillary. If you can answer to that and defend her, I'm willing to give you a listen.

[MaggieD]

20. LOL!

But no, I am through with the Bernie supporters campaign to smear her. I don't know if you think people are still listening to this nonsense. But I don't know any of her supporters that care one whit about what you all are saying and doing at this point. You were tuned out long ago.

I'm not sure if you guys actually thought this was a good campaign strategy, but I can assure you - it wasn't.

[trillion]

21. Wow. All it take is google to vet. It's a quick search.

But you aren't showing ANY substance or integrity.

I guess I didn't expect you to. But to sink to a laugh out loud, which is what Hillary does when asked about her misdeeds.
Wow.

And that's why I'm supporting Bernie.

[MaggieD]

24. I'm not showing any substance or integrity because...

I'm not buying into the ridiculous smears that never end up having any substance behind them? LOL! Listen, I've been watching the smear machine on the Clinton's since 1992. And none of it ever contains any substance.

She hasn't done any favors for GS, she isn't a liar, she did not call "black kids" super predators and on and on and on. The GOP has co-opted uniformed people into believing this crap. I'm actually informed and have been paying attention for decades. It simply doesn't work on me.

[trillion]

25. Really?

"I'm actually informed and have been paying attention for decades."

Then answer for her on Honduras and Syria.

And Monstanto and Fracking for that matter.

And how about that super pac!

Goggle-phobia?

[MaggieD]

29. You're not listening

I'm done with the bullshit smears. Go harangue someone who cares to play that game with you.

[trillion]

39. It's only a smear if it's not true.

Relax, you've earned my ignore.

[jeff47]

30. She thinks Google is a right-wing web site.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=885726

So you can't discount Google-phobia.

[NurseJackie]

17. I'm biding my time ...

... this will not continue indefinitely. Many Hillary supporters have been bullied away or taken a voluntary leave of absence (which just exacerbates the problem, but I don't blame them). In due time, many of those supporters will return, and the loudest anti Hillary voices will depart (or mute themselves, or will --- I hope --- work with us to defeat the GOP.)

There are brighter days ahead. I guarantee it!

[trillion]

22. Putting facts infront of you is not bulling.

Hillary supporters' integrity sure is on display.

[libtodeath]

19. I dont believe she is a racist but I do believe she made a political calculation to court them.

[Orsino]

23. The Clintons have often stood aside while African-Americans were screwed over.

Not always, but often enough that neither ought to get automatic credit for good intentions.

It's a larger issue than the use of the term superpredator.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

28. I don't think they stepped aside.

I think they used that screwing over to their own benefit, time and again. Where most white Americans don't even think about the racism of our societal institutions, I think the Clintons thought about it, and deliberately used it for their own political ambitions.

[HassleCat]

27. It's fine to face up to gang violence.

It's something else to whip up support for legislation by invoking fear of young black men.

[NaturalHigh]

31. Frankly, I thought the language she used was fine.

There are some really bad people out there, and they don't deserve the PC phrasing that some seem to want and/or demand.

[Zorra]

33. The gangs, and "superpredators" are the oligarchs, and their minions, who preserve the

status quo establishment at all cost. There would be little or none of the the type of gang violence you speak of if people had equal opportunity social and economic justice. Oppressed peoples have always banded together to protect themselves from the oppression of oligarchs and royalty.

Meet the Great American Superpredators:

?t=1456423277
The KKK: Celebrating 150 yrs of Gang Violence.




Stop these bloodsucking superpredator oligarchs. Please. Vote for Bernie

[Cheese Sandwich]

34. I think she is a racist.